Building Bronze Age Populations of the South Caucasus: Preliminary Bioarchaeological Results from the Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey

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.

Bioarchaeological analysis of human remains excavated by Project ArAGATS in the Tsaghkahovit Plain, Armenia has allowed for a unique view onto Bronze Age life and has offered a glimpse into the lived experience of populations constituting early complex polities. Analysis of comparative collections from Horom and other sites in Armenia have yielded important contextual information for population level trends. Most notably, there is high incidence of cranial trauma in Late Bronze Age and Iron I populations, suggesting practices of violence that affected a significant portion of the population. However, small sample sizes and the incomplete nature of the collections and excavated remains has limited the scope of analysis. Our knowledge of social experiences and relationships has thus remained narrow. The 2016-17 excavation of Bronze and Iron Age tombs in the neighboring Kasakh Valley has added new information on the social aspects and rituals of mortuary practices, while the analysis of human remains has offered insight into previously underrepresented portions of the population, namely women and children. Combined, the analysis of mortuary practices and bioarchaeology allow for new perspectives on lived experience in the Bronze Age South Caucasus.

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

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24904