This obsidian multiplatform core is from the site of Uçan Ağıl, Nakhchivan (Azerbaijan). The core is made of obsidian from the Syunik source (Zangezor range, Armenia). Based on associated pottery, the core dates to the Chalcolithic period, ca. 4000-6500 BP.

 

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The site of Uçan Ağıl was excavated in 2015-2017, recovering ceramics from the Kura-Araxes period, named after the Kura and Araxes river valleys where artefacts from the period are concentrated.  Kura-Araxes pottery traditions are thought to have influenced the Early Bronze Age Khirbet Kerak phase in the Levant and Trialeti-Vanadzor phase of the South Caucasus and Armenian Highlands.  Uçan Ağıl was occupied by mobile pastoralists who moved goats and sheep into the rich summer grasslands in the southern Caucasus mountains.  Obsidian artefacts from a variety of sources are abundant at Uçan Ağıl, many of them reworked using the bipolar technique.  The obsidian core in this model is multiplatform and was reduced by hard-hammer percussion.

The geological provenance of the obsidian was determined by SCOPE project research conducted at the University of New England, Australia, by Dr M. Orange. The excavations at Uçan Ağıl were conducted by the Mission Archéologique du Bassin de l’Araxe (Director, Dr C. Marro, Archéorient) and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Nakhchivan Branch (Dr V. Bakhshaliyev).  Artefact number SCOPE-1520.