Shomu Tepe
Şomu Təpə · Shomu-tepe · Shomu Töpe · Shomutepe
Neolithic (late 7th–6th millennium BCE); Shomu–Shulaveri–Aratashen horizon·Shomu–Aratashen (Caucasian Early Neolithic; Shulaveri parallel)·🇦🇿 Gazakh District, Akstafa River valley, western Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan
About
About Shomu Tepe
Name-site for South Caucasian Neolithic (Shomu–Aratashen–Kara Tepe culture, c.6300–5000 BCE) in Akstafa valley: excavated 1961–65 Ideal Narimanov (Azerbaijan Academy) revealing earliest South Caucasian farming village with round mudbrick (tholos-like) houses, impressed and incised straw-tempered pottery, obsidian from Zangezur, domestic goat/sheep, and the Caucasian “Shomu round house” plan (5 m diam) with central hearth. 7 building horizons. Type-site Shomu culture that underlies Leyla-Tepe and Kura-Araxes expansions. Buried under 3 m colluvium with mobiliary bone tools.
Why it mattersName-site Shomu Neolithic — only type-site for South Caucasus first farming with round-house plan that seeded Shulaveri and Kura-Araxes.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why round plan persists here when north goes rectilinear by Shomuite late?
- 02Shomu–Hassuna link via Samarra sherds — trade or migration?
Theories
- 01Narimanov Shomu autochthonous Caucasian Neolithic vs Halaf stimulus
- 02Chataigner Shomu–Aratashen as eastern Taurus foothill expansion model
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.6300 BCE earliest round houses (Horizon VII); main Shomu houses 6000–5500 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic (late 7th–6th millennium BCE); Shomu–Shulaveri–Aratashen horizon
- Culture
- Shomu–Aratashen (Caucasian Early Neolithic; Shulaveri parallel)
- Builders
- Shomu–Aratashen (Caucasian Early Neolithic; Shulaveri parallel) builders
- Purpose
- Akstafa Valley early farming village with obsidian exchange at Caucasus–Iran corridor
- Abandoned
- c.5000 BCE Shomu collapse before Leyla-Tepe Chalcolithic infiltration
- Rediscovered
- Excavated 1961–65 Ideal Narimanov (Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences) & 2000s Lyon–Baku Mission
- Excavation
- Excavated
2000
Initial work at Shomu Tepe
2015
Stratigraphy and geophysics synthesis for Shomu Tepe
On the ground
Structures & features
41.1170° N · 45.3450° E · 340 m · 3 mapped features
Horizon III round houses
settlementBest preserved Shomu houses
41.1172° N · 45.3452° EHorizon VII basal
settlementEarliest Shomu village floor
41.1168° N · 45.3448° EObsidian workshop
industrialCore and blade scatter
41.1170° N · 45.3450° E