Source: TW
Thread with excerpts from “The Archaeology of the Caucasus: From Earliest Settlements to the Iron Age” by Antonio Sagona.
Mountain passes in the Caucasus were glaciated in the last ice age - preventing anyone from crossing. Swidden (slash & burn) agriculture was common in Georgia & Armenia 4000-3000 BC, reducing tree cover & leaving much charcoal. In 3000 BC the fires abruptly ceased, the forests regrew, & plants associated with the steppe & pastoralism spread in the region.
Neolithic
Armenia had mesolithic hunter-gatherers from 10000s to 4000s BC who coexisted with later neolithic farmers & had apparent contacts in Mesopotamia. W Georgia had same pattern - hunter-gatherers living in region long after introduction of farming into the 4000s BC.
Neolithic arrived in Caucasus 3500 years after Anatolia. They were mostly derived from N Mesopotamia & Zagros. Three distinct cultural divisions - Armenia, Ossetia & N Caucasus, & W Georgia. Dense neolithic settlements with round buildings in eastern Georgia 6700-6500 BC. S Azerbaijan had neolithic settlements originally like those of E Georgia & Armenia with circular buildings, but by 5600-5400 BC they were replaced by neolithic settlements with rectangular buildings with close links to N Iran & S Caspian. Concentric ditches around neolithic settlements, in both Caucasus & elsewhere. Possibly animal enclosures, possibly fortifications, possibly a market. Given these sites are on hills & have half-meter thick walls, I guess fortifications.
Caucasus copper working spread from southeast to northwest in late sixth & early fifth millennia. Luxury trade across or around Caspian to C Asia began in this period, as evidenced by turquoise & carnelian finds. Winemaking was invented in S Caucasus in 6th millennium BC, & spread from there. Wild wine grapes still grow in S Caucasian forests.
The pre-Maykop peoples of N Caucasus traded with the Cucuteni-Trypillians to the west, buying copper luxuries from them. This might have stopped in 4300 BC, causing the pre-Maykop N Caucasians to make their own copper.
Copper Age Caucasus
Maykop in N Caucasus 3800-3000 BC succeeded by Novosvobodnaya 3300-2800 BC, Chaff Faced Ware (aka Amuq F) in N Syria-Mesopotamia to Armenia 4000-3500 BC, & Sioni Horizon in E Anatolia/Armenia 5000-3500 BC. N Caucasus had Copper Age sites that still relied heavily on stone & bone tools 4500-3600 BC, some overlapping in time with Maykop sites. Some of these sites were forts with 4 m thick stone walks. One site had a sterile (artifact-less) layer followed by a Maykop layer.
Maykop was in the N Caucasus & Kuban regions. Chechnya & Ingushetia were borderlands with S Caucasus Kura-Araxes Culture & Terek River was the border with Pit Grave (Yamnaya in Russian) people - the Indo-Europeans. The borderlands with both Kura-Araxes & Yamnaya show mixed cultures.
Wagons & carts originated somewhere in Mesopotamia, Europe, or Caucasus at some point 3500-3000 BC. Knowledge of wagons & carts rapidly spread after initial discovery.
Trade connected N Caucasus to C Asia either directly or indirectly, as evidenced by lapis lazuli, carnelian, & turquoise finds in Maykop sites. Shared religious customs between Maykop & Mesopotamia identified in seals & buying objects beneath floors. Novosvobodnaya built megaliths like Globular Amphora & Funnelbeakers did in C & N Europe. Also signs of technology sharing between Novosvobodnaya & Funnelbeakers.
Maykop culture began before the Late Uruk Expansion, so any art affinities between Maykop & Mesopotamia would have been results of cultural spread from N Caucasus to Mesopotamia. Author’s discussion of the similarities of the Copper Age Caucasians with contemporary Mesopotamians as either a pre-Uruk expansion or a legacy of a trade network driven by metal trade.
Maykop & Kura-Araxes copper were chemically similar, possibly mined from same deposits or prepared similarly. Copper may have been from local Caucasus deposits.
Copper Age Chaff Faced Ware Culture of S Caucasus existed ~4500-3500 BC in highlands between Kura & Euphrates rivers. It was a fragmented culture with no centralisation. Most parts were influenced by Mesopotamia’s Ubaid culture. Chaff Faced Ware site of Berikldeebi in C Georgia was burned between 4000-3600 BC & replaced by a walled Mesopotamian settlement with a temple.
Sioni Tradition was a Copper Age set of groups from 4600-3200 BC in south central Caucasus. They lived off of a mix of hunting, farming, & herding. They built stone towers with 1 m thick walls.
Kura-Araxes
Kura-Araxes Culture was a multiethnic collection of peoples in E 🇹🇷, 🇱🇧, 🇮🇱, 🇦🇲, W 🇮🇷, Dagestan, & E 🇬🇪 from mid-3000s to mid-2000s BC. They were characterised by homes with hearths & benches, distinctive pottery, ceramic animals, & certain metal items. Kura-Araxes rapidly spread from their Caucasus homeland to W Iran & E Turkey. They mostly settled in river valleys & foothills with 400-600mm of rainfall/yr for agriculture, though some were semi-nomadic herders. Huge Kura-Araxes fortresses with 2.5-4m thick walls made from basalt or mud-brick & enclosing up to 150,000 m^2.
Importance of salt trade - ruminant animals don’t get enough salt from grazing in most parts of the world, so herders need to give them salt licks in order to keep them healthy. Theories for Kura-Araxes expansion: herder expansion, refugees fleeing N Caucasian invasion, filling of power vacuum after Uruk collapse, & search for metals.
Kura-Araxes villages in S Caucasus disappeared in transition between early & mid Bronze Age 2600-2500 BC. New settlements for next 1000 years were more transient & based off of herding. Economic inequality rose, & states formed again in neighbouring upper Euphrates.
W Georgia
Western Georgia never fell to the Kura-Araxes - it maintained its own distinctive proto-Colchian culture. Climate there was subtropical unlike the Kura-Araxes lands, & the soil was fertile enough to keep the proto-Colchians numerous. W Georgia had unique & discrete cultures from rest of Caucasus for over 2500 years - from end of 4th millennium BC to 700 BC & the arrival of the Greeks. They were the proto-Colchians (2700-1600 BC) & the ancient Colchians (1600-700 BC).
Colchis used an extensive canal system with rivers for transport rather than roads, necessary due to marshy terrain. Settlements were made of wood, & built in coastal sand dunes (fishing villages?), swamps, & steep bluffs. W Georgia is rich in copper. Some signs there may be unknown tin mines in the region too - explaining the Colchians wealth in bronze as from mining rather than trade.
Iron is more widespread than copper & tin, but more labor & fuel are needed to work it. Ironworking was considered alchemical & mystic by many societies. Well developed metalworking sites in Colchis may have led to ironworking centuries before the surrounding regions - one site has signs of ironworking from 1800 BC. Bronze & iron use coexisted for centuries in Colchis & Koban cultures.
Other cultures
Dolmen Culture of the NW Caucasus (3250 BC-1200 BC?) would bury their dead in dolmens - chambers walled & roofed by stone slabs. They were often built with paths, cairns, or courtyards as part of more complex structures. Dolmen Culture isn’t well understood. Theories argue that Funnelbeaker or Globular Amphora sailors from west influenced their megalith architecture or that mesolithic hunter-gatherer fishermen resisted invading farmers & interactions created a hybrid culture with innovations.
S Caucasian soldiers from Trialeti Culture in mid-Bronze Age mostly wielded spears & daggers with shields, but wealthiest used meter-long swords. These swords appear to be the earliest, & their design spread to Aegean & Anatolia by Late Bronze Age. Trialeti Culture of S Caucasus began around 2000 BC & fragmented from 1700-1450 BC. 3 types of Trialeti barrows: on earth, in grave pit, & in stone chamber. Bodies were burned & ashes were left in wood containers, & cattle were sacrificed & eaten for important burials. Stone paved roads led to the barrows. Fragmented successors of the Trialeti 1700-1450 BC: Sevan-Uzerlik, Kamirberd, & Kizylvank
S Caucasus had reforestation 2500-2000 BC & new burial traditions like barrows (kurgans, tumuli) spread from the steppe in the north as Bedeni & Martkopi cultures. Pottery remained similar to Kura-Araxes though. Bedeni holy site from around 2130 BC carved into a slope along Aragvi River. At the top there was some sort of clay sculpture with spiral eyes, characteristic of Kura-Araxes art.
Late bronze age
Late Bronze Age cultures of the Caucasus: Koban, Colchis, Talish, & Lchashen-Tsitelgori. Lchashen-Tsitelgori culture in Armenia & E Georgia show abrupt political centralization ~1500 BC. Stone fortresses were built, & burials were much more common. Burials sometimes included animal heads & limbs. Lchashen-Tsitelgori graves were variable, some as cromlech megaliths, others as catacombs, others simple earth. Mitanni influence on grave cylinder seals 1450-1250 BC. Some hints to Lchashen-Tsitelgori religion: incense, cattle knuckles, colored stones, human figurines, & mass animal sacrifice. Historically recorded Kingdom of Urartu as culmination of the S Caucasus trend of political centralization that had started in 1500 BC.
Bronzeworking in Caucasus had improved by late Bronze Age, with higher quality metal produced. Tin was imported from unknown location. Spears, swords, daggers, arrows, maces, & axes were used as weapons.
No rupture in Caucasian traditions during Bronze Age Collapse of 1200-1100 BC. Instead major changes were in 1500 BC - increase in metal production & sophistication, irrigation for agriculture, population growth, & stone fortress building.
Late Bronze Age Talish culture of GIlan, Mazandaran, & SE Azerbaijan. Burials of stone cist under earthen mound, dolmen megalith over a stone cist tomb, or cromlech megalith. Late Bronze Age S Caucasus political centralization led to increased trade & technology spread while developing irrigation & animal enclosures.
Koban
Koban culture appears to have been a clan society that migrated from high in NW Caucasus to settle the N Caucasus from Chechnya in the east to Black Sea in the west between 1700 & 1400 BC. They declined after contact with the Scythians, fading away or evolving by 400 BC. Late Koban (500s-400s BC) fashion, funerary practices, & warfare were heavily influenced by Scythians.