Kültəpə

Kultepe I (Kultepe-Nakhchivan) is a multi-period tell settlement on the left bank of the Nakhchivan River in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, with 22 meters of accumulated cultural layers spanning from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The earliest 9 meters belong to the Neolithic period, dating to approximately 6200-5000 cal. BC, making it the oldest ceramic Neolithic site in the South Caucasus. Excavations begun by O. Abibullayev in 1951 uncovered 85 burials within the Neolithic-Chalcolithic layers. The site yielded the earliest copper-arsenic alloy items in the South Caucasus, dating to the 4th millennium BC.