Systemizing the Past

Papers in Near Eastern and Caucasian Archaeology Dedicated to Pavel S. Avetisyan on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday

Yervand Grekyan, Arsen Bobokhyan, Yervand Grekyan, Arsen Bobokhyan

• Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781803273938
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Systemizing the Past takes the reader to the fascinating world of Caucasian archaeology demonstrating the essential role of the region in shaping the prehistoric cultural landscape of the Ancient Near East. It is dedicated to Pavel Avetisyan, a leading modern Armenian archaeologist with wide international recognition, whose contributions are notable for their integration of present-day theoretical approaches, application of scientific methodology, and multidisciplinary research and stand out for their scientific value, raising Armenian archaeology to an international level.The volume touches on issues of special interest to Pavel Avetisyan, among them fieldwork reports, and various problems of prehistoric archaeology, from the early farming societies of the Neolithic/Chalcolithic periods to the complex societies of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Questions regarding the chronology and periodization of Armenian and Caucasian archaeological traditions; theoretical problems concerning the formation and development of complex societies in the Armenian Highland and the Caucasus, demonstrating the features typical to regional shifts within the common Near Eastern context; as well as various topics dealing with ceramic typology, burial rites, sacred landscapes, chronology and periodization, transformation of social environments and culture sequences, palaeodemography, 'World-System' theory and its main concepts (such as borderland, marginal zone, and frontier) are also considered in the volume. Various contributions dedicated to the fundamental archaeological problems of the region gradually shift the research perspective to meta-levels of understanding the past.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Contents Page
• Foreword
• ‘Axe-Bull’: An Iron-Age Iconic Anagram
• Armenian Standing Stones as an Object of Archaeological Study*
• Neolithization of Armenia: General Trends and Patterns of Development
• Groups of Three Deities in Middle and Neo-Assyrian Times
• Water Management in Ancient Armenia: Problems and Perspectives
• The Archaeological Site of Garni, Armenia. Pre-Arsacid Archaeological Evidence and an Urartian Inscription of Argišti on a Vishap
• The Kurtan Belt
• Achaemenid Habitats in Beniamin II (Shirak, Armenia) from the End of the 6th Century BC to the End of the 4th Century BC
• New Findings on Urartian Rock-Cut Tomb in Mazgirt/Kaleköy Fortress*
• Dalarik-1: A New Lower Paleolithic Cave Site in the Republic of Armenia
• The Tušpa Mound Columned Hall
• Climate Change and the Transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age in the Armenian Highland
• A Prehistoric Aggregated Cell Structure at 2850 m asl on Mount Aragats, Armenia
• Ceramic Technology at the Kura-Araxes I and II Site of Khizanaant Gora, Shida Kartli, Georgia
• Inscribed and Seal-Impressed Clay Finds from the Urartian Fortress of Çavuştepe
• Iron Age Pottery from Metsamor. New Observations Based on Assemblage Discovered in 2019 Season
• Urartian Priestesses, How Important They Were? Some Observations of the Iconographic Features
• Getahovit - 2 Cave in the Middle Ages
• Shaft Hole Axes of Stone and Metal from the Checon Settlement of the Maikop-Novosvobodnaya Community*
• Hatti and Išuwa: Anatolians in the Upper Euphrates Valley
• The Fortress of Aramus in the Early Iron Age
• Woven Traces: Notes from the 2017 and 2018 Excavation Seasons at Masis Blur
• New Evidence from the Necropolis of Karashamb: Excavations of the Tomb no. 444
• Who were the Caucasian Owners of the Mitannian Cylinder Seals?
• Archaeological Prospection in the Ararat Valley – Drilling into the History of Ancient Artaxata, Armenia
• A Middle and Late Bronze Age Settlement in Armenia: the Aggregated Cells of Arteni
• ‘Axe-Bull’ – Order of the Thunder God*
• Overlooking the River Hrazdan Valley: The Fortified Site of Tghit in the Tsaghkunyats Mountains, Kotayk Region, Armenia*
• From Landjik to Dvin: Armenian Evidence of Decapitation from Prehistory to the Mediaeval Era
• Reconstructing the Lifeways of the Kura-Araxes*
• Middle Bronze Age Ceramics in Macro and Micro Perspectives*
• Monitoring Heritage At Risk: Caucasus Heritage Watch and the Armenian Monuments of Nagorno-Karabakh
• Tigran the Great and Mithradates Eupator: Two Parallel Kings of Kings?
• Modelling of Bronze and Iron Age Monuments at the Northwestern Slopes of Mount Aragats based on a Case Study of Lernakert*
• The Early Medieval Complex of Agarak
• Women in Urartian Rituals