New archaeological site unearthed in Azerbaijan

By Azernews

By Vugar Khalilov

A new archaeological site has been found in Azerbaijan’s Dashkasan region, the AzerGold CJSC has reported on its website.

The company said that new fragments of ancient culture were discovered during the construction and installation works carried out in the fourth block of the Chovdar Integrated Regional Processing Area in Dashkasan region.

The work in the area was immediately stopped and the Institute of Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) was invited to organize an archaeological expedition to study the discovered archaeological monument, the report added.

Under the agreement signed between AzerGold CJSC and the Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology Institute on September 3, 2021, field research was carried out in the area.

During archaeological excavations, 58 stone box graves dating back to the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age (late 2nd-early 1st millennium BC) were identified in the site.

Along with human bones, daggers, spears and mace, bracelets, earrings, belts, beads, as well as other weapons and household items were found in the graves, which belong to Khojaly-Gadabay culture.

Among the items, numerous pottery jugs, cups, pots, bowls, as well as blue beads imported from Egypt and kauris, typical for the Indian Ocean were discovered.

All the graves found in the area were cleaned, photos and graphics of them were taken and relevant notes were made under the archaeological research principles. Samples of material culture were taken from the area, packed and presented to the archaeological fund of the institute for in-house research.

According to archaeologists, the new archaeological monument is part of the necropolis explored in 2019 in the area of the 3rd block of the Chovdar gold mine. During the excavations in the Chovdar necropolis, 156 graves and more than 6,000 exhibits were found and studied.

Currently, on the basis of the discovered samples, analyses are carried out in prestigious international laboratories in cooperation with local and foreign experts.

As a result of the analysis, genetic information will be obtained about the kinship of ancient tribes with other peoples of the region. Moreover, the history of ancient tribes’ settlement in the region, as well as gender, age, diseases, cause of death, the diet of the buried people will be studied.