communal meeting places,or even exclusive areas for the rich.Some researchers have suggested astronomical observatories (Kreisgrabenanlagen), which assisted farmers in working out their agrarian cycle of sowing and harvesting.Then we have a ritual interpretation, one of the more compelling arguments, whereby ditches would have been dug and, in some cases, backfilled as part of ritual activities.83 Whatever the model that is adopted, it must be founded on contextual evidence, especially on finds located within the ditch. Our information for the Caucasus is still too little to posit a plausible interpretation; suffice to say that evidence is growing. In Chapter 9, we shall see that ditches have now been discovered through remote sensing in later contexts in the northern Caucasus.84

Burial and Human Body Representations

Known Neolithic burials are scarce.85 Arukhlo has mostly inhumations, with the deceased laid to rest in a flexed position. One burial stands apart. It is a cremation grave of a 30to 40-year-old adult, too burnt to determine gender, discovered in Building Complex III. A ring-shaped mace-head, mentioned earlier, was also placed in the grave. Although cremation graves are known from the Near Eastern and European Neolithic, the Arukhlo example is unique in the southern Caucasus.The largest number of burials belongs to the Mil-Mugan group. At Kültepe, the inhabitants buried their dead beneath some of the houses and below the courtyard floors. Seventy-three burials were discovered flexed in a crouched position, or on their backs. Only twenty-five burials had grave goods – pottery containers, beads and obsidian artefacts. Another nine burials belong to Horizons 1–3 at Ilanly Tepe. They too were found both under the floors of buildings and between buildings.The deceased were placed on either their right or left sides (no differentiations with regard to sex were discerned) in a tightly flexed position, sprinkled with red ochre, and accompanied by a ceramic bowl. A child burial at Aknashen-Khatunarkh was that of a 5- to 7-year-old, whose hair was probably held in place with the copper or bronze ring found under the skull.

Concerning depictions of people, the most complete collection of human figurines comes from Khramis Didi Gora where more than sixty were found. Seventeen of the figurines were grouped around the hearth of one room. That the figurines are of unbaked clay and were found near lumps of raw clay suggests that they were being manufactured when the room was abandoned. Some of the statuettes are represented seated (Figure 3.8(7, 9)). Their sex is emphasised through prominent breasts; arms are poorly sculpted, if shown at

83Jeunesse 2011.

84Fassbinder et al. 2013.

85For a detail study, see Poulmarc’h 2014a.

Figure 3.8. Neolithic figurines from the southern Caucasus: (1–4, 6–7, 9) Khramis Didi Gora (after Kiguradze 1986); (5) Göytepe (courtesy Y. Nishiaki); (8) Shulaveri Gora (after Kiguradze 1986).

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