Azernews.Az

By Victoria Moiseyeva

Ancient settlement of the South Caucasus, from Neolithic period was discovered in Tovuz region of Azerbaijan. Tovuz is located in the western part of Azerbaijan on the border with Georgia and Armenia, 426 kilometers from Baku.

The excavations are being conducted by Azerbaijani and Japanese archaeologists.

The settlement, discovered during excavations in the Haji Alemkhanli village, dates from the end of the seventh millennium BC.

The radiocarbon analysis of the found samples of the material culture of the Neolithic period show that the oldest settlement in the region was in this area. The first sedentary tribes lived here, the head of department at the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute of the National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) Farhad Guliyev said.

"Together with Azerbaijani colleagues, we wanted to examine the Neolithic monuments in the South Caucasus," Tokyo University professor Yoshio Nishi said. "As you see, we have achieved success."

Archaeological research started here in 2012 As archeologists said, global scientific community will be informed about the settlement of Neolithic epoch discovered in Azerbaijan. Moreover, experts intend to appeal to UNESCO for the inclusion of the discovered finds into the World Heritage List in the future.

Interestingly enough, Haji Alemkhanli village is located about just a kilometer away in west direction from Goytepe settlement.

Goytepe settlement dating back to the seventh millennium BC is considered as one of the most ancient Neolithic monuments in the Caucasus. The settlement is located on the area of two hectares eight meters tall.

It should be noted that excavations in Goytepe were independently started by Azerbaijani expedition back in August 2008.

Later, archeologists from France, Japan and Germany joined the expedition and were quite interested in this archeological object.

Each archeological excavation makes international community more familiar with Azerbaijan and its centuries-old history.