PRELIMINARY FINDINGS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY OF A CAUCASIAN ALBANIAN CHURCH AT TULU VILLAGE

Abstract

The present scientific article features preliminary findings of archaeological and anthropological surveys that were conducted on the site of a medieval church at Tulu, a village in the Balakan rural district in the north-western part of Azerbaijan, in 2017-2018. Field archaeologists studied the eastern side of the bell tower which remained well preserved in its entirety. Consequently, the excavations, covering an area of 250-300 sq. m, helped identify major remains of an aiseless (single-nave) church belonging to the period of existence of Caucasian Albania. The building, whose architectural design was re-established to 90 per cent, is 19.5 meters long, including the western doorway, while its width varies between 6.7 and 12.7 meters, including the northern doorway. The archaeological digs of the site in 2018 uncovered two in-ground and one stone-cist burials, located form the east towards the west, under the floor of the northern doorway. Subsequently, samples of the human skeletal systems of six people, buried in accordance with Christian traditions, were subjected to study. Four skeletons were identified as male systems, one was attributed to a middle age woman and the remaining one was a child. The average age of the studied population was 32 years, and their average height was 166.4 centimetres. According to craniometric data analysis, two of the three crania were mesocranic, and one was asymmetric, brachycranic. Paleopathological analysis detected vertebral, dental and joint issues pertaining to the inhabitants of Tulu. Two studied skeletons had congenital backbone anomaly, while the cranium of the woman had indications of physical injury. The studies have not been finalized, and follow-up archaeological digs have been planned in future.