Bulovqaya

Bülövqaya (also published as Bülövkaya) is a Chalcolithic archaeological settlement near the village of Göynük in the Babek District of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan. The site lies on the left bank of the Sarısu River at an elevation of about 1,430 to 1,452 m (4,692 to 4,764 ft) and covers approximately 1.14 ha (2.8 acres).

Radiocarbon dates place the principal occupation of the site in the early to mid-fifth millennium BC. Its ceramic assemblage has been discussed in relation to the Ubaid tradition of Mesopotamia, the Dalma culture of the Lake Urmia region, and local Chalcolithic developments in the South Caucasus. Excavated material includes plain and painted pottery, obsidian and flint tools, bone artefacts, architectural remains, hearths, storage pits and pottery kilns.

Location

Bülövqaya is situated near Göynük in mountainous terrain on the left bank of the Sarısu River. Published topographic data give the site an area of about 1.14 hectares and an elevation of approximately 1,430–1,452 metres above sea level. The surrounding landscape provides access to water, pasture and regional obsidian sources.

Research history

Surface material collected during archaeological surveys between 2017 and 2019 formed the basis of an early study of the site. A separate study of Bülövqaya pottery was published in 2021.

Test excavations using 2 × 2 m and 2 × 3 m trenches were carried out in 2023. In 2024–2025, an expedition directed by Veli Bakhshaliyev excavated seven 10 × 10 m areas. Excavation identified two construction levels distinguished by soil colour and structure. Architectural remains included light rectangular buildings, postholes, hearths, storage pits, large storage vessels and pottery kilns.

A 2021 study by Elmar Bakhshaliyev related the Bülövqaya pottery to Ubaid-type painted wares associated with the Dalma tradition. Studies published in 2024 and 2025 emphasised the absence of Dalma-type impressed and red-slipped pottery at Bülövqaya and discussed the assemblage in terms of Ubaid-related, local and eastern Anatolian features.

Excavation continued in 2026 under Bakhshaliyev's direction.

Chronology

Radiocarbon measurements on charcoal samples place the principal Chalcolithic occupation of Bülövqaya in the early to mid-fifth millennium BC. Published calibrated intervals include 5007–4782, 4953–4723 and 4508–4353 cal BC.

Pottery

Pottery forms the largest part of the excavated assemblage. Excavations in 2024–2025 recorded 10,507 ceramic fragments; the forms of 1,939 specimens could be identified. Of these, 69.6% were plain pink-coloured pottery, 27.4% painted pottery, 2% brown pottery and about 1% black pottery.

Much of the plain pottery consists of vessels made from straw-tempered and, less frequently, sand-tempered clay in yellowish, red and orange tones. Bowls predominate, although jars, cooking pots and fragments of large storage vessels were also recovered.

Some painted vessels have black and brown geometric decoration on light yellow or orange surfaces. Researchers have identified parallels with ceramic traditions of the Ubaid period, while also noting that the Bülövqaya assemblage does not simply reproduce Ubaid pottery and retains local features. Other vessels bear applied reliefs, incisions and finger impressions; these decorative techniques have been compared with traditions in the South Caucasus and eastern Anatolia.

Stone and bone tools

The site produced cutting and harvesting implements made from obsidian and flint, as well as stone axes, grinding tools, querns and bone implements. An analysis of 74 obsidian specimens found that material from the Zangezur Mountains predominated, with a smaller component attributed to Meydan Dağ in eastern Anatolia.

Settlement and economy

The architectural remains indicate groups of light rectangular structures arranged around working areas. Storage pits, hearths, stone and bone tools, large storage vessels and pottery kilns were found in these spaces.

Bakhshaliyev and Bakhshaliyev state that the community appears to have practised mobile pastoralism and small-scale mining.

Regional connections

The ceramic assemblage shows parallels with Ubaid traditions in northern Mesopotamia, ceramic traditions of the Lake Urmia basin and eastern Anatolian material.

Bahshaliyev and co-authors, writing in Amisos in 2025, interpreted the site's plain and painted pottery as a local variant of the Ubaid cultural tradition. In a separate 2025 study in Tempus Pontem, Veli and Elmar Bakhshaliyev described Bülövqaya as a complex combining local cultural development with interaction with more distant regions.

Connections with the Urmia basin have been discussed on the basis of vessel form and technology, while eastern Anatolian parallels are visible in some relief and impressed decoration and in the movement of obsidian raw material.

Researchers have distinguished Bülövqaya from the Dalma cultural sphere in part because Dalma-type impressed and red-slipped wares have not been identified at the site.

The 2025 annual report of the Nakhchivan Branch of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences proposed the term "Bülövqaya culture" for the local material complex identified at the site. A 2026 study by V. B. Bakhshaliyev and E. Bakhshaliyev likewise argued for a local cultural tradition in Nakhchivan distinct from the Dalma culture but influenced by the Ubaid tradition.