the northern edge of the mound a pottery container was placed on a circular clay platform (1.2m in diameter) that was itself buried beneath a small mound of earth.

The Sioni Tradition (ca. 4800/4600–3200 BC)

Sioni, the eponymous site, is situated on the northern outskirts of the village. The small river Khudistskali provided the ancient community with ample fresh water. Some fifty sites have reported finds said to belong to the Sioni tradition, but given the confusion over the term Sioni, it is difficult to quantify its extent at this stage. Tamaz Kiguradze and Medea Menabde investigated Sioni in the 1970s and uncovered an extensive assemblage of material, still largely unpublished.203 For the most part sites are characterised by fl at settlements with relatively thin occupational deposits rarely exceeding 50 cm in depth, fugitive architectural remains often disturbed by later activities, and a number of straight-sided or bell-shaped pits without any plaster coating. Architecture generally had a stone base, though the many postholes and wattle-and-daub fragments recovered from Delisi suggest variant building traditions were used.

The extent of Sioni influence can be roughly charted by the distribution of its pottery, which is distinguished by ornamented rims and slipped surfaces. These ceramics have been found in the central Caucasus, including Tsopi, Arukhlo VI, Javakhi and Nachivchavebi in Kvemo Kartli; Alazani I and II, Alazani III (Kviriastskali), Goranamosakhlari 3, and Damtsvari Gora in Kakheti; Abanoskhevi, Bodorna, and Khertvisi in Shida Kartli; and Aratashen in Armenia (Figure 4.2).204 Sioni presence has long been known in Azerbaijan, most notably at Alikemek Tepesi, Leilatepe, and Ilanli Tepe, but in recent years our evidence has been augmented considerably by discoveries made in western Azerbaijan, at Mentesh Tepe, and at Ovçular Tepe in Nakhichevan.205

203Menabde and Kiguradze 1981. Belinda Shapardon, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, is currently working on the Sioni material for her dissertation. I wish to thank her for sharing some of her findings. For the view that Sioni belongs to the Neolithic period, a view no longer tenable owing to the recent radiocarbon dates, see Nebieridze 2010: 155–63.

204Kushnareva and Chubinishvili 1970: 28–32; Nebieridze 2010 (Tsopi); Gogelia and Chelidze 1992: 59–62 (Javakhi); Chikovani et al. 2010 (Nachivchavebi);Varazashvili 1992 (the Kakheti sites); Chikovani 1999 (Shida Kartli); Palumbi et al. 2014 (Aratashen). Earlier discussions (Kiguradze 2000; Kiguradze and Sagona 2003) suggested that Berikldeebi had Sioni ceramics, but based on my recent first-hand familiarity with the Berikldeebi material this appears not to be the case.

205Lyonnet and Guliyev 2010; Marro et al. 2009, 2011.

Emerging evidence points to a possible new cultural phase in the fifth millennium BC, somewhere between the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture and Leilatepe. Decorative patterns on ceramic vessels connect Mentesh with Sioni (combed exteriors) and Alikemek Tepesi (applied patterns and painted designs executed in bitumen). Field surveys and excavations outside the Caucasus have extended the spatial boundaries of the Sioni horizon. Material has been reported in the Ağrı district of easternTurkey, especially at Hanago, Sarıgül, and Çetenli,and at Kohne PasgahTepesi,in the Koda AfarinValley of north-western Iran.206 Although the hallmark lip-decorated vessels were not found at Sos Höyük, orange Sioni-like material comprises the smallest ceramic category in PeriodVA (3500–3100 cal BC); the sherds were carefully laid to construct a floor fitted with a circular hearth.207

Settlements and Subsistence

The most distinctive development of the early phase of the Chalcolithic in the southern Caucasus is the move away from the alluvial plain into the foothills, where communities were able to exploit a different range of resources and pastures.208 Communities settled over a much wider area and in more diverse ecological zones than had the earliest farmers. Settlements began to spread upland to altitudes of 500 m asl in the southern Caucasus and much higher (1,500 m) in the northern Caucasus (Figure 4.2).Villagers raised sheep, goats, cattle, and even pigs, and began to utilise the thin podzolised soils of the foothills and mountains that are most suited to grazing.Whereas the presence of pigs argues against a nomadic lifestyle, it remains to be seen whether these communities incorporated transhumance into their subsistence economy. Certainly the range of altitudes suggests that human groups in this period occupied different environmental zones, but whether they copied the seasonal movements of the animals on which they relied for food will require more meaningful analyses of faunal remains than is currently available.

The Chalcolithic settlement at Sioni is pitted by seventy burials of the Middle and Late Bronze Age, and the medieval period. The thickest cultural deposit, situated near the river bank, measures no more than 1 m, and it gradually petered out towards the north, as the low-lying knoll on which the site was established gradually rose. Pits are the most characteristic feature of the settlement, with floors exposed only in fragmentary patches. A segment of a large circular stone structure (Building 1) was unexpected, and its purpose remains unclear (Figure 4.28(13)).209 The curvature of the wall indicates that the original structure was about 10–12 m in diameter.The wall measured

206For Ağrı, see Marro and Özfırat 2005; Marro 2008; Özfirat 2009b: fig. 13: 1, and for north-western Iran, see Maziar 2010, 2015.

207Sagona and Sagona 2000: 59–60.

208Kiguradze 2000.

209Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: fig. 1.

OxCal v4.2.2 Bronk Ramsey (2013);r:5 Atmospheric data from Reimer et al. (2009)

*R_Date Wk31483

*R_Date Wk31487

*R_Date Wk31485

*R_Date Wk31484

Figure 4.29. Sioni, radiocarbon dates.

about 1 m in width. It was faced with large field-stones and filled with rubble; no mortar was used. To enter the building, one had to step over a stone threshold down onto a beaten and lime-plastered floor, slightly lower than the ground surface outside.

Two floor phases were detected. In both cases the plan was the same. A burned patch in the centre of the structure indicated the position of the hearth.210 Immediately to its north was a circular pit, 2.3 m in depth and sealed with stones. Its deposition appears structured: at the base were pottery sherds superimposed by a bull’s skull, which in turn was sealed by a layer of stones.Another curved wall (Structure 2) was uncovered in another part of the site. Although it was badly disturbed by the later burials and modern farming activities, the massive and carefully placed stones that defined its edges were clearly discernable.At its eastern end, the structure had a partition wall, which formed a rectilinear room. Even so, it is not possible to determine the function of the building. Other smaller wall sections were encountered across the site, which might also have had a perimeter wall, though it was too fragmentary to be sure. Four animal bone samples have provided new and invaluable absolute dates for the settlement.They straddle the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth millennia (Figure 4.29).211

Although animal bones were collected from Sioni, they have yet to be studied. Indeed we know precious little about the subsistence of Sioni communities.Analysis of the Nachivchavebi faunal remains deposited in the pits indicate that 35–40 per cent belonged to wild animals – ox (Bos primigenius), wild horse (Equus caballus fossilis), Caucasian boar (Sus scrofa ottila), Caucasian pig (Alces

210Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: 10.

211I would like to thank Medea Menabde for providing me with these samples and the Waikato Radiocarbon Laboratory for the analysis.