An archaeologists team from the CNRS investigates since 2008 the oldest galleries of the Duzdagi salt deposits, in azerbaidjan. The period of the beginnigs of the exploitation (which is still active) was unknown but suspected to be very old. The feam found numerous remainings, pricipally stone artifacts and ceramics, the older ones dated from 3 500 to 4 500 BC. Their frequency in the deposit as well as the number of galleries suggest that at this time (pre-chalcolithic) the Duzadgi salt deposit was already intensively exploited. According to those findings, the extracted salt was not destinated to the local communities, but was exported. But what was its destination ?

So the prospection continues in the old galleries, with the hope of more findings which could help to understand how did the local communities live in those very old times. Furthermore, the evolution of the mining techniques and and its consequences on the beginning of the Chalcolithic era could be better known thanks to some hypothetic new findings.

Source :

CNRS : Archaeological investigations on the salt mine of Duzdagi (Nakhchivan, Azerbaïdjan). C. Marro, V. Bakhshaliyev and S. Sanz