Talish-Mugan culture

The Mughan culture or the Talish-Mugan culture is an archeological culture of the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age epoch (end of the 2nd – beginning of the 1st millenniums B.C.) in the Mugan plain and the Talysh Mountains in northwest Iran and Southeast Azerbaijan.^[1]

Characteristics

The characteristics of the Mughan culture are:

1. Graves in stone boxes and in the graves.
2. Graves can be single, clustered, joint – men and women buried together, with a rich and poor inventory.^[2]
3. Cattle-breeding, agriculture and maybe fishing were the main occupations.^[3]
4. Implements and weapons were made of bronze and iron.
5. Weapons were bronze and iron swords with a bronze two-faucet hilt and bronze poniards with “framed handle” (of Western Asia type).^[4]
6. Pottery was made by hand. A basket-shaped “censer” and dishes in shape of teapots were distinguished.

Grave inventories reflect a decomposition process of ancestral relations and property differentiation among tribes of the given culture.

References

Literature

• Пассек Т. и Латынин Б., Очерк до-истории Северного Азербайджана, "Известия Общества обследования и изучения Азербайджана", Баку, 1926, No 3;
• Morgan J., Mission scientifique en Perse, t. 1, P., 1894.