Neolithic residential patterns in the southern Caucasus: Radiocarbon analysis of rebuilding cycles of mudbrick architecture at Göytepe, west Azerbaijan

Neolithization took place in the southern Caucasus at the beginning of the sixth millennium BC, most likely as part of the expansion of the Neolithic socioeconomy from the Middle East, where the food-production economy had been established at least a few thousand years earlier. However, local adaptation and indigenous cultural development are also likely to have played important roles in this process, by which distinct Neolithic ways of life emerged in the southern Caucasus. This study investigated one possible local aspect of the residential system, referring to archaeological evidence from Göytepe, a major Neolithic settlement of the early sixth millennium BC in Azerbaijan. Using a Bayesian analysis of 45 radiocarbon dates from different occupation levels of this 11 m thick mound, we established a high-resolution chronology of this settlement. Moreover, the analysis of the main trench dates, spanning from ca. 5650 to 5460, revealed a uniquely short rebuilding cycle for mudbrick buildings, an estimated average of 11.4 years, which is far shorter than expected for mudbrick buildings in the Neolithic of the Middle East in general. This finding provides an important piece of evidence for considering a particular type of residential pattern in the Neolithic culture of the southern Caucasus. To test that view, we refer to ethnoarchaeological models and theories of site-formation processes.