Exploring Beyond the River and Inside the Valleys: Settlement Development and Cultural Landscape of the Araxes River Basin Through Time

ABSTRACT Geographical landmarks, especially rivers, have always played an important role in forming or hampering interplay between societies. In some cases, they act as a “communication route” and in some others as “obstacles”. In north-western Iran, it is possible that the Araxes River played such a decisive role by sculpting its surroundings. While our studies are not yet sufficiently adequate to understand the exact role of this river in different time spans, we can begin in some way to conceptualise its role in different periods. The Araxes Valley Archaeological Project (AVAP) was developed with the general aim of investigating settlement development from the fifth to the third millennium BC. Furthermore, studying the possible and probable routes of interaction, both inter- and intra-regional, between the Jolfa and Khoda Afarin plains and the southern Caucasus and north-western Iran, networks of contacts and exchange, and gaining a better understanding of the geographical characteristics of this area and its landscape were among our aims. In this article, the general history of occupation along this river is given to provide a preliminary database to understand the geographical and socio-political potential of this part in order to pursue more comprehensive studies in the future.