POTTER’S MARKS ON LEILATEPE CULTURE POTTERY: EASTERN ANATOLIAN CHALCOLITHIC TRADITIONS IN THE CAUCASUS

Abstract

The paper deals with the spread of marked ceramics in the Eastern Anatolian tradition in the Caucasus at the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. Late Chalcolithic elements found on several ceramics of the Lei- latepe culture in the South Caucasian region are analyzed and compared to marks on ceramics from Arslan- tepe and the Maikop culture. Archaeological finds of the Leilatepe culture were first discovered in the mid- 1980s during excavations by Narimanov in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, where monuments of this culture have been revealed in the Caucasus. The lower layer of the Berikldeebi site in Eastern Georgia also belongs to the Leilatepe culture. Extensive excavations have continued at the Leilatepe, Berikldeebi, Beyuk Kesik I, and Poylu II sites as well as the Soyugbulag kurgans. This study looks at the Northern Caucasian Maikop archaeological culture was formed as a result of migration of the Leilatepe culture tribes to the North. Common peculiarities for both cultures are red-pink, round-based pots bearing marks and some spe- cific features of funeral customs. From this view point, the early Maikop sites are more typical Late Chalco- lithic Leilatepe type than the early Bronze. One of the distinctive features of Leilatepe culture pottery is the recurrent presence of incised signs or “potter‟s marks” on the shoulder and rarely near the attachment of the base. Such signs had been impressed on the category of pottery falling into the category of “high quality ce- ramics” made of untempered clay or with plant tempered clay before firing. They are geometric figures composed of straight lines, fingertips and straight lines that accompany them. In some cases fingertips are recalling an image of human face.