Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 49 (2) 2021   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2021.49.2.064-071

Annotation:  Late Pleistocene Paleoenvironments and Episodic Human Occupations in the Orkhon Valley of Central Mo Percussive-Abrasive Stone Tools from Chagyrskaya Cave: Results of Functional Analysis On the Date of the Great Shigir Idol An Early Bronze Age Hoard of Bronze Tools from Dvin, Central Armenia Vengerovo-2—a Krotovo Culture Site in the Baraba Forest-Steppe: An Archaeozoological Study The Emergence and Formation of a Proto-Urban Civilization in Azerbaijan: Certain Issues in the Trans Pottery from the Barsov Gorodok III/6 Early Iron Age Fortifi ed Settlement in the Surgut Stretch of The Study of Non-Ferrous Metal Artifacts of the Early Iron Age and Medieval Cultures in the Western Changes in Wooden Defensive Structures at Fort Umrevinsky (Based on Archaeological and Written Sourc The Festive Culture of Mining Plants in the Urals: The Dobryanka Case Happy Marriages Are Blessed in the Heavens, Unhappy Ones Cause Poverty: A View on Women in Usun-Debe Mythologizing History in Buryat Shamanic Rites The Tiger-Dog and its Semantics in the Nanai Shamanic Sculpture: Cultural and Cognitive Aspects Population Affinities of the Ancient Northern Okhotsk People: Cranial Evidence from a Collective Bur The First Settlers of Novosibirsk: The Demographic Structure of Krivoshchekovo, Western Siberia, in   

The Emergence and Formation
of a Proto-Urban Civilization in Azerbaijan:
Certain Issues in the Transition to Class Society

H.F. Jafarov

Azerbaijan State University of Economics, Istiglaliyyat 6, Baku, AZ1001, Azerbaijan

The objective of this article is to clarify certain important issues relating to early urban culture. The complexity of the task stems from the absence of early written sources. This is why the study draws on archaeological materials. It especially focuses on the incipient proto-urban sites—the sources of the proto-urban culture. Certain Bronze Age settlements in Azerbaijan meet the criteria of the early urban civilization. On the basis of the facts cited here, hypotheses about the factors underlying the emergence of proto-urban centers (the harbingers of the first class societies) are put forward. The main features of proto-urban settlements are surface area, structure, fortifications, population size, and population density. The evolution of crafts in such centers is reconstructed along with other aspects. It is argued for the first time that nearly all cultural values typical of the advanced ancient Near Eastern centers were borrowed by South Caucasians. Monumental Late Bronze Age burial mounds of Karabakh are viewed in the context of proto-urban evolution. The idea that elite burials were connected with early urban centers is based on the fact that only powerful chiefs of large tribal unions and early class societies could afford monumental burials on such a scale.

Keywords: Proto-town, Azerbaijan, Karabakh, Nakhchivan, Kultepe, Uzerliktepe, Garatepe