IRON
AGE CAUCASIA
The Iron Age
(defined broadly as
an archaeological
period from c. 1200
to 300 B.C.) in
Caucasia witnessed a
series of remarkable
transformations in
the social,
cultural, and
political traditions
of the region that
have left indelible
marks upon the
region's cultural
landscape and
contemporary
geopolitics. During
this era, small,
hierarchical,
centralized polities
emerged as the
dominant features of
the region's social
order. In some
areas, particularly
southern Caucasia,
these archaic
sociopolitical
formations
subsequently fused
into large empires;
in other regions,
traditions of local
control persisted
even as contacts
with an expanding
ecumene—driven by
both Greek
colonialism and
Achaemenid
imperialism—brought
new social forces
and cultural
influences into the
region. This brief
overview provides an
orientation to the
region's primary
sociopolitical
transformations.
Because the
beginning of the
Iron Age closely
followed traditions
established in the
Bronze Age, this
account begins in
the early second
millennium B.C. and
concludes with a
brief historical
discussion of
post–Iron Age
Caucasia from the
conquests of
Alexander the Great
through the Roman
defeat of both the
Pontic kingdom (66
B.C.) and Tigran
II's Armenian empire
(65 B.C.).
GEOGRAPHIC
ORIENTATION
The Caucasus range
traverses more than
1,100 kilometers,
from the Black Sea
to the Caspian Sea
along the northern
end of the isthmus
that separates the
Eurasian steppes
from Southwest Asia.
Caucasia continues
to be shaped by the
tectonic action of
the Arabian and
Eurasian plates, a
collision that has
thrown up the
Caucasus Mountains,
folding the
underlying bedrock
and erecting high
volcanic peaks. The
volcanic activity
that raised peaks,
such as Mount
Elbrus, Mount
Ararat, and Mount
Aragats, to name
only a few, covered
the region with a
sea of lava, leaving
behind vast deposits
of basalt, tuff, and
obsidian. Caucasia
is an ecologically
diverse region with
provinces ranging
from the subtropical
Colchian depression
in the west, to the
well-watered high
mountains in the
south, to the arid
steppes in the east.
Climate is similarly
variable, with
average annual
rainfall varying
from about 2,500
millimeters on the
Black Sea coast near
the modern Georgian
city of Batumi to
less than 200
millimeters on the
Apsheron Peninsula
of eastern
Azerbaijan.
Throughout much of
Caucasia, the period
of heaviest
precipitation is
between March and
mid-May, but whereas
summers are dry,
heavy snows can fall
in the highlands
during the winter.
Distinct geographic
provinces within
Caucasia are most
readily defined in
reference to
elevation and the
Kura and Araxes
River drainages.
Southern Caucasia is
most readily defined
as the highland
middle Araxes River
and its drainages: a
region of rugged
upland mountains and
high plateaus.
Average elevation is
between 1,200 and
1,800 meters above
sea level, dipping
below 1,000 meters
only in the fertile
Ararat Plain. The
highlands of
northern Caucasia
are defined by the
upper and middle
Kura River and its
drainages. North
Caucasia should not
be confused with the
North Caucasus
region, which
encompasses the
northern slopes of
the Great Caucasus.
Western Caucasia
(the Colchian
depression, drained
by the
westward-flowing
Rioni and Inguri
Rivers) and eastern
Caucasia (the
steppes of
Azerbaijan, crossed
by the lower Araxes
and Kura as they
sprint to the
Caspian) are both
low-lying areas
characterized by
broad open terrain.
FROM THE MIDDLE
BRONZE AGE TO THE
EARLY IRON AGE
The end of the Early
and beginning of the
Middle Bronze Age,
across most of
Caucasia, was marked
by the disappearance
of the Kura-Araxes
archaeological
horizon (defined
most readily by
distinctive black
burnished ceramic
complexes) and the
large-scale
abandonment of
settled village
communities. Except
for the
late-third-millennium
B.C. layers from the
Bedeni sites in
southern Georgia,
there is little
evidence for
continuity in Early
and Middle Bronze
Age occupations, and
indeed comparatively
few Middle Bronze
Age settlements have
been documented in
Caucasia. As a
result, the vast
majority of the
archaeological
record for the
Middle Bronze Age
comes from mortuary
sites. The tombs and
kurgans of Shengavit,
Trialeti (old group,
a distinctive group
of burials within
the Trialeti
complex), and
Martkopi indicate
profound social,
cultural, and
political
transformations were
under way during the
third quarter of the
third millennium
B.C.
This shift in
settlement patterns
across Caucasia
during the Early to
Middle Bronze
transition is
traditionally
interpreted as
evidence of the
advent of
increasingly nomadic
social groups
predicated upon
pastoral subsistence
production. The
appearance of ox and
horse sacrifices in
numerous Middle
Bronze I and II
burials attests to
the increased
prominence of
pastoral production
and equestrian
mobility within
these communities.
The shifting
subsistence economy
was also accompanied
by fundamental
transformations in
the social milieu,
changes that
centered on emerging
radical inequality
between a martial
elite and the
remainder of the
social body. The
rich inventories of
Middle Bronze Age
kurgans signify a
profound departure
in social relations
from those indicated
by the burials of
the Kura-Araxes
phase. Even more
dramatic expressions
of this inequality
are visible in the
following Middle
Bronze II period,
when a great part of
highland Caucasia
was enveloped in the
Trialeti-Vanadzor
horizon, which was
most prominently
marked by large
burial complexes of
unprecedented
wealth. The
monumental
construction and
rich mortuary goods
of tombs from
Trialeti, Vanadzor,
Karashamb, and Lori
Berd as well as the
iconography of elite
privilege portrayed
on the metal vessels
from Karashamb (fig.
1) and Korukh Tash
testify to profound
changes in the
social orders of
Caucasia and provide
the initial
indications of
emergent
sociopolitical
inequality in the
region.
During the Middle
Bronze III period,
Caucasia appears to
have fragmented into
several distinct
material culture
horizons. If the
earlier
Trialeti-Vanadzor
sites present a
relatively
homogeneous horizon
style for the Middle
Bronze II phase,
transformations in
burial construction
and the forms and
styles of painted
and black ornamented
pottery during the
succeeding period
indicate the
differentiation of
the region into at
least three
contemporary,
overlapping ceramic
horizons:
Karmir-Berd,
Sevan-Uzerlik, and
Karmir-Vank.
Karmir-Berd
materials largely
prevail in the
highlands of
central-southern and
northern Caucasia.
The Sevan-Uzerlik
horizon tends to
predominate in the
western steppe of
Azerbaijan, the
Nagorno-Karabakh
highlands, and the
Sevan and Syunik
regions of Armenia.
The Karmir-Vank
horizon is best
known from the
Nakhichevan region
of Azerbaijan and
the site of Haftavan
Tepe in northwestern
Iran. These general
regional divisions
cannot be taken as
rigid geographic
mosaics. Sevan basin
sites have also
yielded evidence of
Karmir-Vank and
Karmir-Berd painted
pottery; Ararat
Plain sites have
included both
Karmir-Berd and
Sevan-Uzerlik
materials; and Sevan
sites contain both
Karmir-Berd and
Sevan-Uzerlik
ceramics. In
Georgia, the
Trialeti-Vanadzor
horizon persists
into the Middle
Bronze III phase at
sites such as Treli,
Tsavgli, Natakhtari,
and Pevrebi;
however, it is also
possible to detect
the influence of
Sevan-Uzerlik
complexes as well,
represented by black
pottery with dotted
lines.
During the Middle
Bronze III phase,
the wealth of the
burial inventories
seen in the
preceding phase
begins to diminish
such that, in the
complexes
represented by
Karmir-Berd or
Karmir-Berd/Sevan
Uzerlik pottery,
relatively few
bronze artifacts
have been recorded.
Furthermore, in the
complexes that
signify the end of
Middle Bronze Age,
the distinctive
painted pottery
becomes increasingly
rare, yielding to
the incised gray and
blackware ceramics
that came to
predominate under
the
Lchashen-Metsamor
horizon of the Late
Bronze Age.
The first clear
evidence for
sociopolitical
complexity in
southern Caucasia
appears in the Late
Bronze Age. The Late
Bronze Age is marked
most conspicuously
by the reappearance
of numerous
permanent
settlements in the
form of variably
sized stone-masonry
fortresses built
atop hills and
outcrops. These
fortified
settlements are
often associated
with large
cemeteries, such as
Treligorebi located
on the outskirts of
modern Tbilisi,
Georgia. The
transition between
the Middle and Late
Bronze Age is also
marked by the
gradual introduction
of new ceramic forms
and decorative
styles—most notably
the disappearance of
painted pottery and
punctate designs in
favor of suites of
black, gray, and
buff wares with
incised
decorations—as well
as new approaches to
metallurgical
production.
Examinations of Late
Bronze and Early
Iron Age sites in
Caucasia began in
the late nineteenth
century and early
twentieth century,
when archaeologists
and architectural
historians embarked
on a series of
nonsystematic
surveys to document
the settlement
history of the
region. To date only
a handful of Late
Bronze or Early Iron
Age settlements,
including Metsamor
in the Ararat Plain
and Tsakahovit on
the northern slope
of Mount Aragats,
have hosted
intensive
archaeological
investigations.
Evidence of
unfortified
settlements remains
scarce, even in
regions, such as the
Tsakahovit Plain,
that have hosted
intensive systematic
archaeological
surveys.
Archaeological
investigations have
focused more
resolutely on
late-second- to
early-first-millennia
B.C. cemeteries.
Large mortuary
complexes at
Lchashen (on the
northwestern coast
of Lake Sevan),
Lori-Berd (in the
Lori-Pambakh region
of northern
Armenia), and Artik
and Horom (both on
the lower western
slope of Mount
Aragats) have
provided the most
extensive
orientation to the
material culture of
the era as well as
the primary bases
for periodization.
With the dawn of the
Late Bronze Age, the
social inequalities
visible in the
kurgans of the early
second millennium
appear to have been
formalized into a
tightly integrated
sociopolitical
apparatus where
critical controls
over
resources—economic,
social, sacred—were
concentrated within
the cyclopean stone
masonry walls of
powerful new
centers. These
political centers
projected authority
well into the
hinterlands.
Large-scale
irrigation
facilities first
appear in the region
in association with
Late Bronze Age
fortress complexes,
suggesting
significant
centralized control
over the
agricultural
productivity of the
region. In addition,
vast cemeteries
appear coincident
with the emergence
of Late Bronze Age
polities.
In the Tsakahovit
region, an
archaeological
survey conducted in
1998 and 2000
recorded a very high
density of Late
Bronze Age
cemeteries (4.6 per
square kilometer) in
the mountain
highlands
immediately
surrounding a series
of adjacent
fortresses. Given
the lack of
nonfortified
settlements in the
region, it is quite
likely that
non-elite
populations may have
continued the highly
mobile ways of life
that arose in the
Middle Bronze Age,
even as elites
settled within
fortified complexes.
It is possible that
the explosion in
tombs and cemeteries
in the Late Bronze
Age was part of an
effort by emergent
sociopolitical
authorities to
increase the
commitments of their
subjects to a
specific place
(through ties
between ancestral
and descendant
families and groups)
and thus make them a
more stable
foundation for the
demands of the
extractive political
economy.
Many of the material
culture forms and
styles developed in
the Late Bronze Age
continued into and
through the Early
Iron Age. Pottery
from Early Iron Age
levels is
typologically
distinct from Late
Bronze III wares but
is quite clearly
continuous with Late
Bronze Age formal
and decorative
traditions. The same
holds true for
fortress
architecture, which,
while distinct in
several
morphological
features, remains
within the building
traditions
established in the
Late Bronze Age.
Thus the Early Iron
Age is marked
archaeologically by
the emergence and
expansion of iron
implements but
appears to have been
socioculturally
continuous with the
preceding era.
Examinations of
materials recovered
from mortuary
contexts suggest
that the Early Iron
Age can be divided
into two distinct
phases: a
transitional Early
Iron I, dated
conventionally to
the late twelfth
century and eleventh
century B.C., and an
Early Iron II phase
during the tenth and
ninth centuries B.C.
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