The last few days on Gegharot’s West Citadel have brought a flurry of new information about the Early Bronze Age occupation of the site. The complex stratigraphy is still being worked out but a series of superimposed floors, all with distinct hearth or hearth/oven features are helping us to put together a clearer picture.
Armine Harutyunyan and the 3 EB hearths of T30.
The upper most hearth has the distinctive tri-lobed form of many Kura-Araxes hearths (mid-distance on the left and below).
The remains of a tri-lobed Kura-Araxes hearth from Gegharot Operation T31.
In the middle layer, a round undecorated hearth on one side of the room (pedestaled at back of trench) operated alongside a sub-rectangular oven (near corner of room in photo). In the adjacent operation, an even deeper layer (not visible) revealed another circular hearth.
But perhaps the most eye-catching remnant of Early Bronze Age Gegharot that we encountered today was the obsidian spear point pictured below. The point is quite massive and similar to one we uncovered several years ago in T17.
Project ArAGATS co-founder Dr. Ruben Badalyan and an Early Bronze Age obsidian spear head found in operation T30.
Coming up: updates on kurgan excavations and continuing work at Tsaghkahovit.