Fortresses of solitude? investigating iron age defensive networks in southwestern Caucasia

The archaeology of southwestern Caucasia has for centuries been overshadowed by the classical Ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This paper consists of an archaeologically-driven surface survey of the Sharur Plain, in Naxgivan, Azerbaijan. This survey was undertaken to investigate local Iron-Age civilizations separately from their Near Eastern counterparts in the effort to contribute data towards a discussion of emergent social complexity in this region. Several Iron Age fortresses were located as a result of this survey. Their data have been compiled and examined through a socio-economic approach and through the lens of landscape archaeology.