Kura Araxes Culture

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The Kura-Araxes culture , also early Trans-Caucasus culture or Mtkvari-Araxes culture , is a late Copper- Early Bronze Age culture in the South Caucasus , which is named after the two rivers Kura and Araxes that flow into the Caspian Sea .

Research history

It was defined in 1944 by the Russian archaeologist Boris A. Kuftin . He dated them to the Eneolithic .

distribution

The Kura Araxes culture is found in the central and north-eastern Caucasus, in Transcaucasia with the exception of the Colchis coast , eastern Anatolia and northwestern Iran. The earliest finds are in the Ararat plain, from where it spread to eastern Georgia (around 3000), the area around Erzurum and Cilicia . Lordkipanidze, on the other hand, sees its origin in the Kuratal in southern Georgia.

The northernmost sites are in Dagestan (Kayakent, Velikent) and Azerbaijan , whereby Velikent also shows clear steppe influences. While early researchers emphasized cultural uniformity, several local groups are distinguished today. Some researchers see the Kura Araxes culture as a cultural complex made up of several closely related local cultures. These include the Schengavit culture and the Velikent culture (also known as the Dagestani variant or northern variant of the Kura Araxes culture) in the Chachmas - Kuban zone.

The Khirbet Kerak culture (2800–2600) in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine is closely related.

Important sites:

  • Amiranis Gora ( Achalziche ), South West Group
  • Arslantepe VI B ( Malatya )
  • Chizanaant Gora (important stratigraphy for the early section), northwest group
  • Grmachewistawi (early)
  • Kvatzchelebi / Kwazchela (near Kareli ), northwest group, destroyed by fire
  • Pulur (Sakyol), Layer XI
  • Samschwilde
  • Tetrizkaro
  • Treli (early)
  • Tsichia Gora (near Kaspi )
  • Yanik Tepe I (Iran)

chronology

The chronology of the Kura Arax culture is not yet sufficiently certain. The oldest approach with 3600–1900 BC Chr. Gives Kohl (2001). From 3500 to 2500 BC G. Palumbini (2016) begins. It is about the same time as the Uruk culture of Mesopotamia and the Maikop culture north of the Caucasus.

Beginning

The Kura-Araxes culture follows the Eeolithic Schulaweri-Schomutepe culture . However, a clear cultural break can be observed.

Material culture

Ceramics

The ceramics of the early phase are handmade, fired in a reducing process and have a light surface. It's organic, leaned with sand or crushed obsidian. The surface is usually polished to a gloss. Typical are cups with one or two eyelets at the edge, bowls and small cups with a slightly detached short neck and biconical pots with two eyelets on the fold. Plastic ornamentation is common.

Typical of the ceramics of the late phase are the gray-black color or black-red color of the polished fine ceramics and scratched and plastic spiral decorations and concentric circles. It is sometimes decorated with images of animals (deer, ibex), especially birds (cranes?). Ceramic vessel stands often have a horseshoe shape, but round specimens are also known. In Daghestan a polished ware was made, which is decorated with crest impressions. Here, three-dimensional decorations made from applied ribbons are typical. The Transcaucasian goods are mostly undecorated.

Figurines

Female figures made of clay are usually strongly stylized, on the face only the nose is highlighted. Figures of sheep are also common.

Flint

Flint sickles are known from Chisanaant-Gora. In addition to flint, obsidian was also used .

Rock

Polished stone axes with a curved longitudinal profile are in use, but they are rarely found in Transcaucasia. Grooved mallets (Kültepe, Aruchlo ) were used in mining.

metal

In the first phase of the Kura Araxes culture, metal is still rare. Among the bronze objects, shaft hole axes, socket chisels, ball-headed needles with a pierced shaft, loop-headed needles, needles with sickle-shaped and T-shaped heads and pierced swollen shafts, as well as bracelets with thickened ends and anchor-shaped pendants are typical. Bronze sickles and spearheads are also documented. Triangular flat daggers with and without a midrib are common. Later daggers with a molded metal handle also appear. Copper plates with stylized images of animals (deer and birds) come from Kwazchela. Gold, silver and lead were also processed.

Settlements

The settlements are mostly in sheltered areas along the rivers, often at a relatively close distance. The majority of the sites are found in the lowlands. They are mostly unpaved.

Round houses are typical, either made of stone (in the mountains), of wickerwork smeared with clay (also proven by smelter clay finds) or of rammed earth . The flat roof is made of rammed earth and was supported by a central post. In the center of the houses there is a round or horseshoe-shaped hearth. In Transcaucasia, the hearths often have built-in clay. There are clay benches along the walls. The rammed earth floor is sometimes decorated with ocher. The hearth was also sometimes highlighted by a strip with incised decorations.

Pit houses are also known. The houses are often arranged in rows. In the lowlands, the sites often have a thick layer of culture that can be 4–6 m thick (for example Velikent I-II, Kabaz-Kutan and Torpach Kale in Daghestan). Kültepe II in Nakhchivan has 14 cultural layers, Yanik Tepe eleven. From phase II onwards, rectangular houses were also built, which first appeared in the west. Sub-rectangular houses, some with a short porch, are known from Kwazchela, for example. They are 30–50 m 2 in size. They too have benches, either only on the back wall or on the side walls.

Bell-shaped storage pits can be found in the settlements. Clay storage vessels were also used to store grain.

In what would later become Georgia, the houses had a center post that supported the flat roof. There the rectangular houses consisted of a living room and a room for commercial purposes, individual houses had oval apses, which are assigned a cultic meaning.

Burials

Body burials are typical, either as flat graves on the side or under burial mounds (Kurganen). In the hills, the buried mostly lie on their backs. But there are also side stools occupied. Catacomb tombs are also known from Georgia. Settlement burials are also known in the early phase.

The funeral customs are very diverse. Collective graves are common, here the bones of the older burials were often pushed aside to make way for new dead. Most of the graves were dug inside or next to the settlements. Individual graves are rare; in the early stages, burials in pairs were common. Burial of the body without a head as well as the head without a body have been proven.

Grave goods consist of ceramics and meat, copper and bronze objects are only gradually becoming more common. Men were given weapons and women were given jewelry. The grave goods suggest an egalitarian society.

Important burial grounds:

  • Dzhemikent II
  • Kayak VI
  • Karabundakent
  • Ltchaschen on Lake Sevan (Phase III)
  • Kurgane of Satschchere
  • Shah Nazich Tepe
  • Torpach Kale

Economy

In agriculture, simpler tools made of wood, bones and stones were also used. Naked wheat, barley and millet were grown, perhaps also oats (Badaani) and rye (Gudabertka).

Grape seeds are known from Kwazchela and Chisanaant-Gora. Flaxseed has not yet been detected, but textile prints on ceramics indicate that canvas was made. Sheep and cows are recorded as domestic animals, sieve vessels are interpreted as an indication of dairy farming. Cattle were used as draft cattle. The proportion of small horned cattle increased, herds of sheep and goats were driven far into the mountains, opening up new areas.

Metal processing

While it was previously assumed that knowledge of metalworking had reached the Caucasus from Mesopotamia, it is now assumed that it was an autochthonous development. The bronze weapons preceded those of Anatolia and the Kuban area.

Copper deposits are known from the area of ​​the lower Kartli ( Bolnissi , Marneuli ). The oxide copper was easy to process. Usually, however, the characteristic arsenic-containing Caucasian copper or arsenic bronze is processed (up to 4% arsenic), which can also be found in a hoard from Arslantepe VI A (room A 113 of house III). Further admixtures / impurities are gold, antimony, zinc and lead. In Georgia, for lack of tin, bronze was made with arsenic or antimony. 10–22 percent arsenic made the bronze harder and gave it a white sheen. In larger or forged objects, the arsenic content was one to seven percent.

Melting furnaces are known from Baba-Dervish II, Azerbaijan and Amiranis Gora, where bellow nozzles made of clay and molds for ingots were found. Other examples come from Chisanaant Gora . Slag finds come from Baba-Dervisch II, Chizanaant Gora, Kül Tepe II and Garni in Armenia. Molds for axes are known from Garni, Schengavit, Kül Tepe, Kvatschelebi C1 and Baba-Dervisch II, molds for bars from Iğdir and Gudabertka (near Gori), and from Kvazchela a mold for a flat ax.

Exports

Remains of Kura Araxes ceramics (Karaz ware) are known from some late Uruk-era settlements, for example from Tepecik 3 east of Elâzığ, Kurban Höyük on the Euphrates (Karababa Basin) northwest of Urfa, Period VI, Samsat, Jebel Aruda and Hassek Höyük 5 at Urfa.

The End

In the middle Caucasian Bronze Age (2000–1200 BC) the Kura Araxes culture breaks up into a multitude of local groups, such as the Ginchi culture in southeastern Chechnya and the Prisulakskaya culture in eastern Dagestan. In eastern Dagestan, the Kura Araxes culture continued into the Middle Bronze Age. The Colchis culture (1700-600 BC) and the Trialeti culture are found in Georgia .

The graves of the Middle Bronze Age (so-called Königskurgane) such as Martkopi and Dedabrishvili show clear differences in the richness of the furnishings and thus point to the emergence of a hierarchical society.

Historical interpretation

The spread of the Kura Araxes culture is usually associated with a movement of people (migration). Kavtaradze thinks it is possible that the Uruk-era trading colonies in Anatolia and their wealth attracted the invaders and writes them the destruction of Arslantepe VI A (Malatya), Hassek Höyük 5, Habuba Kabira / Tell Qanas, Jebel Aruda Tepecik 3 and Godin Tepe V to. Gamkrelidze / Ivanov connect the Kura-Araxes culture with the spread of the (Indo-European) proto- Armenian language , others see it as the roots of the Hurrians . Japaridze claims that the culture has had South Caucasian (Cartelian) roots since the 3rd millennium. OM Japaridze sees in the bearers a mixture of Hurrian , Urartean , Cartelian and Nacho-Daghestan tribes. The linguist GA Matschawariani assumes a mixture of Indo-European and Cartelian tribes.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Heinz Fähnrich: History of Georgia from the beginnings to Mongol rule. Shaker, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-86111-683-9 , p. 21 ff.
  2. ↑ Karim Alizadeh, Jason A. Ur: Formation and destruction of pastoral and irrigation landscapes on the Mughan Steppe, north-western Iran. In: Antiquity. Vol. 81, No. 311, 2007, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 148-160, online .
  3. ^ A b c John AC Greppin, IM Diakonoff : Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and their Languages ​​upon the Earliest Armenians. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 111, No. 4, 1991, ISSN  0003-0279 , pp. 720-730.
  4. ↑ a b c Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 43.
  5. ^ A b Philip L. Kohl: Migrations and Cultural diffusions in the later Prehistory of the Caucasus. In: Ricardo Eichmann, Hermann Parzinger (Hrsg.): Migration und Kulturtransfer. The change in Near Eastern and Central Asian cultures in the upheaval from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC (= colloquia on prehistory and early history. Vol. 6). Files of the international colloquium, Berlin, November 23-26, 1999. Habelt, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7749-3068-6 , pp. 313–327, here p. 314.
  6. ↑ Areschian 1982 256
  7. ↑ Philip L. Kohl: Migrations and Cultural diffusions in the later Prehistory of the Caucasus. In: Ricardo Eichmann, Hermann Parzinger (Hrsg.): Migration und Kulturtransfer. The change in Near Eastern and Central Asian cultures in the upheaval from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC (= colloquia on prehistory and early history. Vol. 6). Files from the international colloquium, Berlin, November 23-26, 1999. Habelt, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7749-3068-6 , pp. 313–327, here p. 320
  8. ↑ Giulio Palumbi: The Chalcolithic of Eastern Anatolia. Chapter 90 in Chapman & McMahon: The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Anatolia.
  9. ↑ a b c Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 51.
  10. ↑ a b c d Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 47.
  11. Jump up ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze, Nasledie Drevnei Griazii (Tbilisi 1989, Metsniereba), 104; Tariel N. Chubinishvili 1971, K Drevnei istorii juzhnogo Kavkaza (Tbilisi: Metsniereba), 30
  12. ^ A b Giorgi L. Kavtaradze: The chronology of the Caucasus during the early metal age. In: Antonio Sagona (Ed.): A View from the Highlands. 2004, pp. 539-556, here p. 543.
  13. ↑ a b Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 44.
  14. ↑ Philip L. Kohl: Migrations and Cultural diffusions in the later Prehistory of the Caucasus. In: Ricardo Eichmann, Hermann Parzinger (Hrsg.): Migration und Kulturtransfer. The change in Near Eastern and Central Asian cultures in the upheaval from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC (= colloquia on prehistory and early history. Volume 6). Files of the international colloquium, Berlin, November 23-26, 1999. Habelt, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7749-3068-6 , pp. 313–327, here p. 323.
  15. ^ John AC Greppin, IM Diakonoff: Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and their Languages ​​upon the Earliest Armenians. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 111, No. 4, 1991, pp. 720-730.
  16. ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 45.
  17. ↑ a b Otar Lordkipanidze, Archeology in Georgia, p. 46
  18. ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 53.
  19. ↑ a b c Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 50.
  20. ^ Giorgi L. Kavtaradze: The importance of metallurgical data for the formation of a Central Transcaucasian chronology. In: Andreas Hauptmann et al. (Ed.): The Beginnings of Metallurgy. 1999, pp. 67-101.
  21. ↑ Giorgi L. Kavtaradze: The chronology of the Caucasus during the early metal age. In: Antonio Sagona (Ed.): A View from the Highlands. 2004, pp. 539-556, here p. 545.
  22. ^ John AC Greppin, IM Diakonoff: Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and their Languages ​​upon the Earliest Armenians. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 111, No. 4, 1991, pp. 720-730, here p. 721.
  23. ↑ Philip L. Kohl: Migrations and Cultural diffusions in the later Prehistory of the Caucasus. In: Ricardo Eichmann, Hermann Parzinger (Hrsg.): Migration und Kulturtransfer. The change in Near Eastern and Central Asian cultures in the upheaval from the 2nd to the 1st millennium BC (= colloquia on prehistory and early history. Vol. 6). Files of the international colloquium, Berlin, November 23-26, 1999. Habelt, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-7749-3068-6 , pp. 313–327, here p. 322.
  24. ↑ Thomas V. Gamkrelidze, Vjačeslav V. Ivanov: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans (= Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. Vol. 80). Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1985, ISBN 3-11-009646-3 .
  25. ^ Charles Burney, David M. Lang: Bergvölker Vorderasiens. Armenia and the Caucasus from prehistoric times to the Mongol storm. Kindler, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-463-13690-2 , pp. 44, 48-51.
  26. ↑ Otar Dshaparidze: About the ethnic affiliation of the bearers of the Kura-Arax culture. In: Georgica. Vol. 1, 1978, ISSN  0232-4490 , pp. 15-17.
  27. ↑ Otar Lordkipanidze: Archeology in Georgia. 1991, p. 54.

literature

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