Negotiating Empires: Village Dynamics in Naxcivan, Azerbaijan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The South Caucasus Region: Crossroads of Societies & Polities. An Assessment of Research Perspectives in Post-Soviet Times" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological research on empires has focused on centers and periphery, with much less emphasis on the interstices of empires. During the first century of the common era, the polities of the Southern Caucasus were located between the competing empires of Arsacid Persia and the Roman Mediterranean. Recent fieldwork in Naxcivan, Azerbaijan considers how a small community negotiated this often fraught position. Excavations of high and low status domestic areas and burials highlight the roles of violence and migration along the edge of empire. The analysis of ritual pits and burials located near the remains of the Iron Age citadel and fortification walls illustrate how people engaged with the long term history of the city and crafted a specific local identity. Alternatively, petrographic and stylistic analysis of ceramics indicates how well-integrated this community was with both empires.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• The South Caucasus Region: Crossroads of Societies & Polities. An Assessment of Research Perspectives in Post-Soviet Times

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24035