Neolithic Chipped Stone Industry of Mentesh Tepe (Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan) Technological Markers and Relations to North-Eastern Anatolia

International audienceNeolithic phases at Mentesh Tepe (Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan) date to the first half of the 6 th millennium BCE. This occupation with its peculiar architecture, pottery, lithic industry and other archaeological features is related to the Shomutepe-Shulaveri Culture (hereafter SSC). In this paper, we describe the Neolithic lithic industry of Mentesh, paying attention to the origins of raw materials, technology and typology. Obsidian procurement, least cost path analysis, technology and typology are combined to better understand the process of exploitation of the rocks. Employing these methodologies, we identify technical markers that are compared to other assemblages. Obsidian came from eight distinct sources (in NorthEastern Anatolia, Armenia and Georgia), sometimes very distant from one another. We wish to emphasize the relation between the SSC sites of the Middle Kura Valley and NorthEastern Anatolia. Moreover, whatever the source of the raw material, a great homogeneity in both technology and typology is noticed