Neolithic water management and flooding in the Lesser Caucasus (Georgia)

Vincent Ollivier (1) , Michel Fontugne (2) , Caroline Hamon (3) , Alexia Decaix (4) , Christine Hatté (2, 5) , Mindia Jalabadze (6)

1 LAMPEA - Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 Trajectoires - UMR 8215
4 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
5 GEOTRAC - Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie
6 The National Museum of Georgia

River management is generally thought to have started at 5500 cal. BC within the development of eastern Neolithic societies. In the Lesser Caucasus, evidence of early river management has been discovered around the famous Neolithic sites of Shulaveri, Gadachrili Gora, and Imiris Gora in Georgia. Here we report a preliminary data set indicating that river management was set up at 5900 cal. BC leading to the flooding, destruction, and local abandonment of the hydraulic infrastructures of the Gadachrili village between 5750 and 5430 cal. BC. The hydraulic infrastructures were developed during a more humid period encompassing the 8200 cal. BP (6200 cal. BC) climatic event, probably to optimize agricultural yield. It potentially led to the first prehistoric engineering accident for which there is evidence, which may have been followed by the reorganisation of the occupation and/or to architectural modifications.

Mots clés: Plant macrofossils; Holocene; Stable isotopes; Palaeoclimatology; Radiogenic isotopes; Early water management; Geomorphology; Flood; Lesser Caucasus; Neolithic; Panoply

Domaines: Archéologie et Préhistoire

Vincent Ollivier, Michel Fontugne, Caroline Hamon, Alexia Decaix, Christine Hatté, et al.. Neolithic water management and flooding in the Lesser Caucasus (Georgia). Quaternary Science Reviews, 2018, 197, pp.267 - 287. ⟨10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.08.016⟩. ⟨hal-01961913⟩