Early Kura-Araxes ceramic technology in the fourth millennium BCE site of Tsaghkasar, Armenia

The Kura-Araxes phenomenon, represented by its trademark pottery, is one of the most intriguing examples of cultural expansion in the Bronze Age world. Technological analysis of pottery assemblages, providing insight into relations between producers, users, pots and the environment, can be a key to understand how the culture was maintained over time and space. We focus on Tsaghkasar, an early Kura-Araxes village in the Armenian highlands, which should provide a clear view of the technological choices that characterize the Kura-Araxes tradition from its inception, as well as a benchmark against which to measure other expressions of the tradition. Using visual observations, microscopic method and experimental work, we demonstrate that the tradition was based on the use of ready-to-hand soils that underwent considerable manipulation, and on added tempers including volcanic ash that may have been perceived as a guarantee of technical success.