The objective of the ongoing programme launched by Olivier Lecomte in 2001 in southern Turkmenistan is to establish a firmer chrono-stratigraphy for the Kopet Dagh piedmont between Namazga Depe and Altyn Depe. For the fieldwork, the large mound of Ulug Depe was selected; it is located exactly between these two well-known sites. (see map p. 468, fig. 1 [O. Lecomte’s contribution]). Viktor Sarianidi and others excavated several trial trenches at Ulug Depe in the late sixties and early seventies, which produced Namazga III to V-VI levels, corresponding to the Late Chalcolithic and Bronze Age, and Yaz I to III levels, corresponding to the Iron Age which in that area is now dated from the 2nd half of the 2nd mill. BC down to and including the Achaemenid period. Based on certain surface sherds, earlier periods may be present in the lower part of this 30 m-high depe; however, the Iron Age is definitely the latest period of occupation at Ulug Depe1. For the first three seasons, the French-Turkmen expedition reworked