Mobility and salt exploitation in Kura-Araxes communities: comparative archaeometric analyses of the pottery assemblages from Duzdagi, Sorsu, Ovçular Tepesi and Uçan Agil (Azerbaijan, Nakhchivan)

An essential nutrient for animals and humans alike, salt is a crucial resource in herding practices: domesticated animals must be given some salt on a daily basis if they cannot fulfil their salt needs naturally through eating halophyte plants or grazing around mineral springs. Rock-salt in particular has traditionally been used as salt-licks by mobile pastoralists to provide salt nutrients to their flocks as they move annually towards upland pastures. The exploitation of salt outcrops, together with the distribution patterns of artefacts along circulation networks, can thus be used as a proxy for the study of pastoral mobility in the past.This paper will draw on the geo-chemical and petrographic data obtained from four series of Kura-Araxes ceramic potsherds collected over the salt dome of Duzdagi, the mobile camps of Sorsu and Uçan Agil, and the village of Ovçular Tepesi, to trace back the circulation of the rock-salt from Duzdagi in Kura-Araxes communities. From the distribution patterns of different ceramic types (defined by shape and composition criteria) between the sites under study, we will examine the conclusions that may be reached on the organisation of salt exploitation by Kura-Araxes communities, as well as on the relationship between mobile camp-sites and salt-exploitation.