The Talish Tradition

420 From Fortresses to Fragmentation

encountered – an earthen pit lined with stones of varying sizes. It is covered with a tumulus of earth about 3 to 4 m high that has a diameter measuring no more than 10 m. In general, a few individuals were interred in the chamber. The second type is a cromlech – a single row of stones – sometimes the stones did not abut each other – encircling a stone cist tomb sealed by a heap of stones. Rectangular, oval, and circular cist tombs were reported.Another group of chambers is distinguished by its plan: one end is squared-off and sealed by a large slab of stone that was stood on its edge, whereas the opposite end was intentionally shaped into an apse with smaller stones. Finally, there are the dolmens, built with megalithic stones and sometimes with a pitched roof capped with a large stone.These belong to a different cultural tradition to those discussed in Chapter 6, though they share similarities in terms of funerary customs. Usually found covered with a mound of small stones, these impressive structures are a distinguishing feature of the Talish region. Overall, the stones used for all four types were field rocks that required minimal shaping to fl atten one side, which generally faced the interior of the chamber.

Mortuary practices varied from tombs without a skeleton to others that housed multiple burials. Even graves without a skeleton always had some funerary items: Kraveladi Tomb 11, for instance, contained five clay vessels and a bronze pin; Tomb 40 had two vessels and a spearhead.69 Quite a different custom is seen in the oval cist tomb from Veri, where four individuals were interred. At one end of the tomb were a cluster of long bones and a skull. Another skull was positioned in approximately the centre of the tomb, and the two others were placed along the wall. Each skull was surrounded with small bronze items, mostly jewellery, and five swords (two crossed) were placed in one half of the tomb. On top of this deposit of metalwork were eleven clay vessels. Clusters of long bones, skulls and grave goods are found in another tomb atVeri, which contained two individuals.

Dolmens also do not appear to conform to any one burial custom. One structure at Hovil had an individual skeleton on its back, fl anked by pots and covered with bronze weapons – a sword was placed across the upper legs.70 Another dolmen atVanu Barra had two chambers. In the larger compartment, the skeleton was found on its left side, knees bent, and behind its back were ten pots; while in the smaller chamber, mourners had placed a solitary jar.Yet another variation was documented at Cönü, which contained six individuals whose long bones were roughly clustered around their skulls.

The cultural connections of the Lenkoran region of Azerbaijan extend along the southern Caspian Sea littoral into the Persian Talish region, where several sites – including Marlik, the burial place of a rich and powerful dynasty – are situated.As we have noted elsewhere, the artisans and local smiths – gold, silver,

69De Morgan 1896: figs 22 and 23.

70De Morgan 1896: fig. 34.

and bronze – of this highland region blended their own traditions with the tastes arriving from neighbouring territories. Connections are especially clear in jewellery and personal ornaments, weapons, and ceramics.71

There are swords and daggers of the types we have encountered, but with variant features. Some have a tanged triangular blade and sloping shoulder with three rivet holes to secure the handle. Others are cast in one piece with a raised ricasso at the hilt to accommodate bone or wood.These weapons are distinguished by a raised midrib running the full length of the blade and a circular motif placed just below the shoulder.The most eye-catching, however, is the broad-shouldered dagger with a wide crescent-shaped pommel. Beads of one shape or another, some bearing granulation, and round pendants with astral symbols hammered into relief from the back share similarities with items from the PersianTalish and also Armenian sites of the Lchashen tradition.72 But perhaps the most telling sign that the Lenkoran region is linked to northern Iran is seen in its ceramics, in particular the footed drinking cups with a pair of handles, and ryhta with extended spouts that recall the vessels with bridgeless spouts from Iran. Schaeffer’s early study placed the material from Mistan and Razgour within the period 1550–1450 BC, withVeri still later (1450–1350 BC).This attribution is about right, but can now be brought in line with the growing evidence from Iran.

CONCLUSION

Around the middle of the second millennium, the southern Caucasus witnessed the rise of a new social order and the transformation of the built environment. If the period before 1500 BC in the southern Caucasus might be dubbed the ‘Age of Elites’, the economic, social, and political changes that occurred after that date, before the advent of empires, might warrant the term the ‘Age of Sovereignty’.This takes a cue from work carried out in Armenia that has shown that with the emergence of fortresses we see the rise of political authorities.73 We do not know these sovereigns by name – literacy did not appear until the mid-first millennium BC – yet we are aware of the changes they initiated. Dramatic alterations to the physical landscape like digging irrigation channels and the asymmetrical distribution of materials across the territory point to some form of early polity.

Although the eight or so centuries we have just covered have attracted much attention amongst researchers, it is not possible to isolate events with any historical precision. Even so, we are able to note certain key developments that affected the southern Caucasus. A marked trend towards fortification is

71Piller 2012, especially n. 25.

72Piller 2012.

73Smith 2015: 154–85.

CHAPTER 9

SMITHS, WARRIORS, AND WOMENFOLK : THE KOBAN CULTURE OF THE NORTHERN CAUCASUS (140 0 – 6 0 0 BC)

When Ernest Chantre, deputy director of the museum of Lyon, began excavations in 1881 at the necropolis of Koban, south-west of Vladikavkaz, during his second mission to the Caucasus, little did he know that his findings would become a lynchpin in the archaeology of the region for many decades to come.1 Several cemeteries situated amid rocky crags and foothills have yielded a staggering amount of sophisticated bronze objects.A multitude of weapons, jewellery, horse gear, and much more besides, collectively known as the ‘Koban Culture’, attest to the skilfulness and creativity of the artisans – metalsmiths whose workshops are to this day barely understood.The tonnage of metalwork also speaks loudly for the appetite these mountain communities had for bronze objects, and the role that these items played in the social and ritual life of the highlanders.

Almost all our evidence for the Koban culture is derived from grave provisions and hoards, even though many settlements are known. Despite this lopsided view, there is a deeply embedded sense of place. At Koban, for instance, where more than 600 burials have been documented, there is a long and conservative ritual tradition inextricably coupled with the land.These burials and their furnishings also reflect a new social outlook. Communities now assumed a corporate structure whose members were identified as part of a group rather than as individuals.This horizontal organisation, in which gender was clearly defined, did not promote the rise of elites and vertical social ranking, instead it stimulated a series of clearly defined territorial networks through which material culture was exchanged and adapted. Hence, tomb assemblages across the northern Caucasus have a sameness in terms of artefact categories, yet are distinguishable in terms of locally specific designs.

1 Chantre 1881, 1883, 1886. See alsoVirchow 1883.

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