Kura-Araxes culture
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The Kura-Araxes culture sometimes known also as the Early Transcaucasian culture was an important Chalcolithic (copper-stone age) and bronze age culture that flourished in the Caucasus, eastern Anatolia and northwestern Iran from about 4000 B.C. to 2200 B.C. after which they were presumably overrun and absorbed by the Hurrians, who according to some swept down from the north Caucasus around 2200 BC. This is all quite unknown from any classical historic records, their name (given by modern archaeologists) comes from the Kura and Araxes river valleys where they developed. The territory they inhabited is located in modern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Iran.
In its earliest phase, metal was scant, but it would later display "a precocious metallurgical development which strongly influenced surrounding regions" JP Mallory, EIEC, pp. 341-42.
They built mud-brick houses, originally round, but later developing into a square design. The economy was based on farming and livestock-raising. They grew grain and various orchard crops, and are known to have used implements to make flour. They raised cattle, sheep, goats, dogs, and in its later phases, horses.
Their pottery was distinctive. It was painted black and red, using geometric designs for ornamentation. Examples have been found as far south as Syria and Palestine, and as far north as Dagestan and Chechnya. The spread of this pottery, along with archaeological evidence of invasions, suggests that the Kura-Araxes people may have spread outward from their original homes, and most certainly, had extensive trade contacts.
Their metal goods were widely distributed, recorded in the Volga, Dnieper and Don-Donets systems in the north, into Syria and Palestine in the south, and west into Anatolia. The culture is closely linked to the approximately contemporaneous Maykop culture of Transcaucasia. They are also remarkable for the production of wheeled vehicles (wagons and carts).
Inhumation practices are mixed. Flat graves are found, but so are substantial kurgan burials, the latter of which may be surrounded by cromlechs. This points to a heterogenous ethno-linguistic population. Hurrian and Urartian elements are quite probable. One can also argue for at least an outpost of an early Semitic language, and certainly the presence of an early representative of the Kartvelian languages is not unreasonable. An influence of Indo-European languages was also likely present.
In certain theories for locating the Urheimat (homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language, this culture (and perhaps that of the Maykop culture) is identified with the speakers of the Anatolian languages, and even as an earlier Urheimat. Scholars Tamaz Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov attempt to place this Urheimat in Armenia. Lord Renfrew's hypothesis of an Anatolian homeland has less support, but the idea of locating the Anatolian-speakers in the Caucasus, with the remainder of the Indo-European stock having descended into the Ponto-Caspian steppe to a secondary Urheimat sometime before 4000 BC is not without supporters.
See also
External links
- [The Chronology of the Caucasus During the Early Metal Age: Observations from Central Transcaucasus] - Giorgi L. Kavtaradze
- [The Beginnings of Metallurgy] - includes extensive discussion of Kura-Araxes metalworking
Sources
- James P. Mallory, "Kuro-Araxes Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
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