A bioarchaeological investigation of three late Chalcolithic pits at Ovçular Tepesi (Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan) Rémi Berthon 1 , Alexia Decaix 1,2 , Zsófia Eszter Kovács 3 , Wim Van Neer 4,5 , Margareta Tengberg 1 , George Willcox 6 , Thomas Cucchi 1,7 1 UMR 7209 “Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements” CNRS/Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, 2 Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France, 3 Hungarian National Museum, National Heritage Protection Centre, Budapest, Hungary, 4 Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussel, Belgium, 5 Laboratory of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Genomics, University of Leuven, Belgium, 6 UMR 5133 “Archéorient – Environnements et sociétés de l’Orient ancien” CNRS/Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée – Jean Pouilloux, Lyon, France, 7 Archaeology Department, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK Socio-economic organisation, subsistence strategies and environmental exploitation still remain largely open questions for the Late Chalcolithic period (ca. 4500–3500 BC) in southern Caucasus even though they are of prime importance for understanding the development of post-Neolithic societies in these semi-arid and mountainous areas. Interdisciplinary bioarchaeological research can, however, provide valuable new insights into these issues. In the Late Chalcolithic occupation layers at Ovçular Tepesi (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan), the fills of pits, composed mainly of domestic refuse, proved to contain the richest and most diverse assemblages of biological remains at the site. These remains, retrieved by the use of flotation and sieving techniques, therefore constitute ideal assemblages for understanding subsistence strategies and the exploitation of natural resources. It is shown here that the agricultural economy at Late Chalcolithic Ovçular Tepesi was based mainly on the cultivation of cereals and pulses and the herding of sheep and goat. The river and its surroundings provided wood fuel and fish. The results of the bioarchaeological study further suggest that the Late Chalcolithic village was occupied permanently as shown by the development of commensal populations of small mammals. Keywords: Transcaucasia, Late Chalcolithic, Domestic rubbish, Pastoralism, Cultivation, Riparian forest exploitation, Commensalism, Fishing Introduction The period between the mid-5th and the mid-4th mil- lennium BC (roughly 4500–3500 BC) is, from a Mesopotamian-centred perspective, often called the “Post-Ubaid” period, but is also referred to as the Late Chalcolithic (Rothman 2001). During this time span, major social and economic changes occurred in a vast territory comprising Mesopotamia and adja- cent regions (Marro 2012a). Settlements became organised in a hierarchic way and were connected to each other through complex networks. Within settle- ments social differences appear more distinct than in previous periods. The production system was also reorganised with the emergence of new crafts, such as mining and extractive metallurgy (Marro 2012b). During the Late Chalcolithic the Caucasus region seems to undergo social and economic changes similar to those of neighbouring Mesopotamia and Anatolia. However, they are less well known in this region due to the limited number of sites that have so far been excavated. In southern Caucasus (the Arax river basin), occupation layers dating to the Late Chalcolithic have been intensively studied at the site of Ovçular Tepesi (Marro et al. 2009, 2011). A contemporary settlement has also been discovered in the cave site of Areni (Areshian et al. 2012; Wilkinson et al. 2012). Unfortunately, the Chalcolithic layers are too badly preserved at the site of Aratashen to provide any significant information (Badalyan et al. 2007). In central Caucasus (the Kura river basin), the settlements of Boyuk Kesik and Mentesh Tepe belong Correspondence to: Rémi Berthon, UMR 7209 “Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: sociétés, pratiques et environnements” CNRS/Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris, France. Email: rberthon@mnhn.fr © Association for Environmental Archaeology 2013 DOI 10.1179/1749631413Y.0000000005 Journal of Environmental Archaeology 2013 VOL. 18 NO. 3 191