* Astronomy

Archaeological investigations at the salt mine of Duzdagi (Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan)
Dr Catherine Marro (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France), Dr Veli Bakhshaliyev (Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Naxçvan, Azerbaijan)

The mine of Duzdagi is a major salt dome located some 5 km to the Northwest of Nakhichevan city, along the former Silk Road linking Tabriz to Constantinople. The slopes of the mine, which is still being exploited today, are dotted with archaeological artifacts, among which stone tools are found in quantity. In the 1970s, the remains of four workers were found together with their tools by Soviet miners. These remains, which lay in an ancient tunnel that had fallen in, were dated from the stone tools to the beginning of the 2nd Millennium BC (Middle Bronze Age), as the tools show significant similarities with a series of hammers and maces that had been retrieved from stratified contexts at Kültepe I. However, research carried out at Duzdagi by a French-Azerbaijani team over the last two years has revealed that the systematic exploitation of this mine probably started much earlier: the frequent occurrence of Kuro-Araxes pottery suggests that the mine has been intensively exploited since at least the middle of the 4th Millennium BC. Moreover, aerial photographs taken from a kite have revealed the traces of ancient tunnels, all fallen in, indicating the existence of an elaborated mining system at an ancient date. After a brief description of the survey's aims and methods, this paper will present its first results in detail and discuss their significance within the Late Prehistoric regional exchange network.
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