The End of the Kura-Araxes Phenomenon

This thematic volume focuses on the demise of the Kura-Araxes culture and the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, a period between about 2600 and 2000 cal BC that saw the gradual disappearance of millennia-long traditions in the region. Specialists reassess the chrono-cultural attribution of several complexes in the region, together with the absolute chronology of the whole sequence. Through this approach, the volume offers a nuanced insight into the changes and continuities of a crucial period between the Early and Middle Bronze Age. The chapters gathered together here also explore the abandonment of long-established settlements, the production of lavishly endowed funerary complexes, testament to the emergence of growing inequalities in society, and the adoption of a far more mobile way of life as revealed by archaeology.

List of Illustrations

1. For a Reassessment of the EB/MB Transition in the Kura-Araxes oikumene: The Chrono- Cultural Aspect
RUBEN BADALYAN & BÉRENGÈRE PERELLO

2. Understanding the End of the Kura-Araxes Phenomenon: The Radiocarbon Perspective
ANNA PAOLA PASSERINI

3. Archaeology at the Frontiers : Investigations at Rabati, Southern Caucasus and Evidence of Cultural Memory
GIORGI BEDIANASHVILI, ANDREW JAMIESON & CLAUDIA SAGONA

4. The Post-Kura-Araxes Period in the Southern Caucasus : Reflections on Definitions and Terminology, and a View from Shida Kartli
ELENA ROVA

5. The Final Stage of the Kura-Araxes Culture from Kvemo Kartli
NINO SHANSHASHVILI & GODERDZI NARIMANISHVILI

6. The Eastern Shores of Lake Sevan during the Early Bronze Age : Preliminary Reflections 
MARIAM AMIRYAN, RENÉ KUNZE, ARSHAVIR HOVHANNISYAN, HAYK MELIKADAMYAN, ROMAN HOVSEPYAN & ARSEN BOBOKHYAN

7. Late Kura-Araxes Sub-Complexes of Armenia : Synchronization Problems in the Light of New Data
RUBEN BADALYAN, PAVEL AVETISYAN, BÉRENGÈRE PERELLO, ANNAPAOLA PASSERINI, ARMINE HARUTYUNYAN, ARSEN BOBOKHYAN & LEVON AGHIKYAN

8. The Chronology of the Archaeological Complexes of Armenia of the Last Quarter of the Third and the First Half of the Second Millennium bce in the Context of Transformation and Fragmentation of the Archaeocultural Environment
PAVEL AVETISYAN & RUBEN BADALYAN

9. Shengavit from Kura-Araxes to Early Kurgan Periods
HAKOB SIMONYAN & MITCHELL S. ROTHMAN

10. Preliminary Results of the Excavations at Qaraçinar (Azerbaijan) and New Data on the ‘Kura- Araxes–Early Kurgans’ Transition on the Eastern Piedmont of the Lesser Caucasus
GIULIO PALUMBI, BAKHTIYAR JALILOV, MUZAFFAR HUSEYNOV, ALEXIA DECAIX, MODWENE POULMARC’H & ANDREA RICCI

11. Metamorphism of the End : A Close Look at the Final Phases of the Kura-Araxes Cultural Tradition
 SEPIDEH MAZIAR

12. The Later Phases of the Early Trans-Caucasian: A View from Yanik Tepe in North-West Iran
GEOFFREY D. SUMMERS

13. Notes on the End of the Kura-Araxes (‘Khirbet Kerak’) Presence in the Southern Levant
RAPHAEL GREENBERG

Index