Veli B. Bakhshaliev
Nakhchivan branch of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Nakhchivan (velibahshaliyev@mail.ru)
Key words: the Neolithic Age, the Chalcolithic Age, Shorsu settlement, chaff-tempered pottery, obsidian tools, obsidian resources.
 
The research of the Neolithic sites of Nakhchivan began in 1950-s. However, until recently the settlement Kultepe I was the only site of this period in Nakhchivan. The materials of the bottom horizons of the settlement Kultepe I have been published badly. Therefore the questions, connected with the origin and the genesis of the Neolithic Age of this region, have been studied little. New materials of the Neolithic Age were found in 2013 in the sites of a vicinity of the settlement Kultepe I. During the research new Chalcolithic sites were also registered. In one of them, in the settlement Shorsu the excavation trench was 10×10 m. Four-cornered rooms, stone tools and ceramics were revealed. The majority of archaeological materials are presented by ceramics. It is made of clay with chaff and sand temper, hand molded, burned to different shades of red. The ceramics of the settlement Shorsu has something in common with similar materials of the sites from the Caucasian Late Neolithic Age, including Azerbaijan. Meaning that the majority of the ceramics of the settlement Shorsu is similar to the pottery sites of the Late Neolithic Age, it is possible to date the middle and the end of the 6th millennium BC. In 2010–2013 in a vicinity of the settlement Kultepe I the numerous sites dating back to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age were revealed. These sites are located on the bank of the Shorsu River and continued to the northern border of Nakhchivan. Apparently, a border position of Kultepe I allowed supplying with obsidian the other settlements of the Old World too. It is possible to assume that the Chalcolithic settlements located along the Shorsu river specify one of the ways of the ancient tribes’ movement to the natural resources of obsidian.