Pictures from the southern Caucasus

With the co-financing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the mission of the Centro Studi CAMNES (Center for Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies), directed by Prof. Nicola Laneri, operates in Azerbaijan, where it studies the ancient societies of the Southern Caucasus through the analysis of the kurgan (burial mounds, ca. 3,600-1,200 BC) and the settlement of Tava Tepe (ca. 14th-10th century BC).

For the column Let’s talk about Archaeology, Prof. Nicola Laneri updates us on the activities and operational outcomes of the mission of the current year through a short video.

Excavations are considered as the most fascinating field activities within the archaeological fundamental framework. The proximity of the places inhabited by ancient communities is a unique way of relating to the past and understanding their relationship with the environment. The observation of the context and the careful analysis of the materials recovered from soil stratification, traces of daily life that have survived time and the destructive actions of man, are instead the scientific methods that, through the excavation, allow the archaeologists to reconstruct ancient societies. In this short video the Azerbaijani-Italian archaeological mission at Tava Tepe (Ağstafa, northwestern Azerbaijan), funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the University of Catania, and the Center for Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, collected some moments of the campaign carried out between June and July 2022, which brought to light the remains of housing structures associated with the nomadic communities that spent the harsh winter months here between the Late Bronze and the Early Iron Age (10th-8th century BC).