On the Edge of Empire: 2008 and 2009 Excavations at Oğlanqala, Azerbaijan

Abstract

The nature of political complexity in the Caucasus has emerged as a significant research question in Near Eastern archaeology. Until recently, archaeological developments in Azerbaijan have been left out of this discussion. Two seasons of survey and excavation undertaken by the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania at the Iron Age site of Oğlanqala in the Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan have begun to clarify the local origins of an Iron Age polity and its relationship to major Near Eastern empires, including Urartu, Achaemenid Persia, and Parthia. Situated in the northern half of the fertile Şərur Plain, Oğlanqala was in a position to control a pass through the Dərələyəz Mountains as well as the agricultural land of the plain. Indeed, in the Iron Age, the Şərur Plain was a complex landscape dominated by Oğlanqala but including at least six other fortresses and many cemeteries. The 2008 survey revealed that Oğlanqala was founded in the Early Iron Age and has extensive Middle and Late Iron Age material. Excavations in 2008 and 2009 in the citadel and domestic buildings uncovered architectural and ceramic differences from contemporaneous Urartian, Achaemenid, and classical sites, while also revealing evidence for interaction among them. Disciplines

2 | 2023

“…Ulteriori scarse evidenze si ritrovano lungo il corso dell'Arasse nei siti di Verachram e Čorbulaq, posizionati dal lato iraniano della valle (Kroll 2012). In Nakhchivan il sito principale è il grande insediamento fortificato di Oğlan Qala, il quale pare solo brevemente abbandonato dopo il VII secolo a.C. Il livello successivo di occupazione risale Armeniaca e-ISSN 2974-6051 2, 2023, 9-38 28 intorno alla fine del V secolo a.C., quando una grande sala colonnata viene costruita sopra il cortile precedente (Ristvet et al 2012).…”

The Archaeology of Imperial Landscapes

“…OǦLANQALA AND THE ȘəRUR PLAIN Surveys and excavations from 2008 to present in the Şərur Plain of Naxçɪvan have provided new information on Urartian frontier dynamics, which I will present in detail to shed light on Urartian frontiers and political strategies (Ristvet 2012;Ristvet et al 2012;2013;Ristvet 2014; cf. Dan 2014).…”

“…Situated on the 130 meter high Karatepe in the Şərur Plain, the largest fertile expanse in Naxçɪvan, Oğlanqala formed the administrative quarter of one of the largest cities in the first millennium BCE in the South Caucasus. The fortification walls of Oğlanqala enclosed an area of 12 hectares, a palace and temple district that towered over the rest of the city (Ristvet et al 2012) and another possible walled enclosure that encompassed nearly five square kilometers, 487 hectares, although it is unlikely that this is area was either simultaneously or densely inhabited during this period (Hammer 2014a).…”

“…The utter lack of standardized building practices is unusual: it almost seems as if several different individuals were in charge of building different parts of the wall, with no centralized authority to direct efforts (Morgan 2012). Although such construction would be typical of EIA fortresses, C14 dates taken from the foundations of the forti fication walls indicate an MIA date (Table 7.1; also Ristvet et al 2012).…”