New Evidence from Neolithic to Achaemenid Periods in North-Western Iran: Excavations at Kul Tepe (Hadishahr), Second Preliminary Report (2013)

The site of Kul Tepe is located near the city of Hadishahr, in Eastern Azerbaijan Province. It is an ancient multiperiod mound, having an extension of about 6 hectares and rising 19 meters above the surrounding land. The second season of archeological excavations at the site, carried out in 2013, aimed at clarifying its chronology and its settlement organization. In the meantime it aimed at elucidating fundamental questions concerning the transition process from Late Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age, at identifying different cultural horizons (including Proto- Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I periods) and also at outlining cultural conditions of the region during prehistoric and historic periods. The present paper exposes briefly the main stratigraphic, architectural and material data from the site. On the basis of the results from the first and the second seasons of excavation, it is argued that Kul Tepe possessed cultural material pertaining to Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic (Dalma), Late Chalcolithic (Pisdeli=LC1; LC2 and LC3=Chaff-faced Ware), Proto-Kura-Araxes and Kura-Araxes I, Early, Middle, Late Bronze Age, Iron III, Urartian and Achaemenid periods.