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New Light on the Caucasus in the System of Old Civilizations

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New Light on the Caucasus in the System of Old Civilizations saqarTvelos mecnierebaTa erovnuli akademiis moambe, t. 13, #1, 2019 BULLETIN OF THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, vol. 13, no. 1, 2019 Archaeology New Light on the Caucasus in the System of Old Civilizations Konstantine Pitskhelauri Academy Member; Georgian National Academy of Sciences;Ilia State University,Tbilisi, Georgia ABSTRACT.Conducting archaeological studies with the use of modern digital technologies and analyzing the obtained material on the basis of the natural sciences will create an important innovative base that is designed to conduct the research process in the right direction and will reclaim the Caucasus its rightful place in the system of Middle East civilizations. © 2019 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci. Keywords: South Caucasus, tribal alliances, political system, civilization The Caucasus, a narrow strip of land lying between significant since it had a certain impact on it. two seas the Black Sea (west) and the Caspian Sea However, at the same time, it is also important (east), is the major artery linking two great worlds – that it never changed the cardinal line of its the northern steppe cultures and southern progressive advance. civilizations, where the deposition of their material Over the millenia, at any stage of the culture drastically different from each other development, from economic and cultural occurred. This obviously attaches particular viewpoints the community living around the importance to the antiquities of the Caucasus, as it Greater and Lesser Caucasus mountain area was provides an opportunity for joint study of the formed as a single phenomenon on the basis of activities of the ancient societies in the north and successful, mutual use of local natural south. However, while studying this issue, naturally conditionsexceptionally rich in the outside world. the main thing is to determine the level of In the early stages of the past, one of the main development of the Caucasus past and establish its stimulators in the development of the Caucasian rightful place in the surrounding world. community seems to have been favorable A number of dogmatic views on these issues, conditions for irrigation farming. However, which require significant correction and new according to all data, a main lever in the interpretation has been established in Caucasian development of the Caucasian community must studies . have been the wealth of natural resource of copper The participation of the outside world in the and iron necessary for metallurgical production - development of Caucasian culture was quite that put the Caucasus in the sphere of interests of © 2019 Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci. New Light on the Caucasus in the System of Old Civilizations 189 the outside world. Another solid basis for the numerous items from the Bronze Age, he did not successful economic advancement of the find any ceramic artifacts and in rich tombs he did Caucasian community was created by the not note traces of human sacrifice [4; 5]. existence of mountain and meadow pastures, the Naturally, these facts are not sufficient for the necessary conditions for cattle-breeding – the in-depth understanding of such an important issue. earliest agricultural activity of mankind. Particularly, in Trialeti of that time, in connection Based on this, it was quite natural to assume with construction work the accelerated that in the early stages of the Bronze Age the archaeological excavations and, moreover, only in highest level of socio-economic and political burial grounds, could not provide the necessary systems must have already been formed in the material for obtaining such conclusions. Obviously, Caucasus, but the reality currently established in the possibility of carrying out interdisciplinary the scholarly literature is quite different. research at that time was entirely excluded. Particularly, according to the Assyrian and Despite this, because of the great scientific Urartian written sources, the kingdom of Qolha authority of the author of this idea, the scholarly (Colchis) is recognized as the oldest state in the communityaccepted this view as indisputable truth South Caucasus, which is supposed to exist since without any analysis and extended it to the entire the late 2nd millennium BC and in eastern Georgia Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age of the the state of Kartli – Iberia is implied only from the Caucasus, which is still firmly grounded and 4th century BC [1, 2]. Until recently, there has repeated in all scholarlystudies. never been any otherevidencepointing to the Now let us consider how this point of view existence of an ancient state system on the correlates with the archaeological findings territory of the Caucasus. Until today, it is obtained in the central part of the South generally believed that throughout this territory in Caucasus for today and the results of the 4th-2nd millennia BC the society of the Early, interdisciplinary studies conducted on the Middle and Late Bronze Age from the social point monuments of that time. of view did not go beyond the level of association At the end of the 5th and the first half of the of tribes and the livestock breeding is recognized 4th millennium BC, the penetration of large as themain direction of their economic activity masses of people, the bearers of Mesopotamian with agriculture staying at an early stage. the so-called Uruk culture in the Caucasus begins. This viewpoint was first expressed by This process has a significant impact on the Professor B. Kuftin. When identifying the Kura- rhythm of local culture development, mainly from Araxes culture, he mentioned its inhabitants as the viewpoint of its rapid “explosive” progress, in indigenous cattle-breeder farmers [3] but after which metallurgical bronze manufacturingacquires discovering the Trialeti culture, he made a leading function [6]. conclusion that this culture coined as “barbaric As a result of this, from the 4th millennium BC splendor” truly made a certain contribution to the the main direction of agricultural activity in the creation of the advanced cultures of the ancient Caucasus compared with the previous period East, but from social point of view it still remained radically changes, the Caucasus is transformed at the level of unification of pre-class tribes with into metallurgical country, that later became the no exploiting classes, slaves whose main kind of dominant force of its economic life for millennia economic activity supposedly was nomadic and defined socio-economic face of the herding. He based his supposition on the fact that community. This marks a new time period in the in one small-sized tomb under study among Caucasus: the Early Bronze Age. Bull. Georg. Natl. Acad. Sci., vol. 13, no. 1, 2019 190 Konstantine Pitskhelauri Initially, as can be seen, the large masses of extreme western part of Asia Minor and on many Uruk migrants penetrate the Caucasus in search contemporary monuments of Eastern Europe. It is for the raw materials necessary for the bronze believed that this culture has played a very metallurgical manufacturing. They came to the important role not only in the history of the Caucasus both along the upper and lower reaches Caucasus, but also in the whole history of Anterior of the Mtkvari River, and then settled permanently Asia. in all areas of the Caucasus. In the southern or Although especially extensive research has so northern part of the Caucasus there is not a single far been carried out to study this culture, finally, site in the mountains or the lowland, where their still remained unanswered the most important traces do not appear. Due to their metallurgical questions - on the basis of what economic data the interests, they first of all get acquainted with the Kura-Araxes culture of the Early Bronze Age was ridge of the Greater Caucasus, where the main formed, what was the basis of its power, and deposits of copper ore are located. The trace of specifically at what stage of development this their intensive activity is found in almost every society stood in the period of cultural upswing. valley, on the southern or northern slope of the Previously, there was an attempt to re- ridge. construct the main economic activity of the Kura- The joint activity of the Uruk and Caucasian Araxes society according to archaeological data. metallurgists seems to have been so successful Such was considered agriculture that does not that since that time a rapid growth of the bronze need irrigation, which, at the zenith of metallurgical manufacturing began throughout the development, in the main territory of its Caucasus, which until the end of the 2nd distribution in the lowland of Mtkvari, leads to a millennium BC remains the main direction of catastrophic change in natural conditions and a local manufacturing activity. crisis of their main agricultural activity, as a result It is not unreasonable to assume that the of which the majority of the population moves to metallurgical production of bronze developed in the mountains, completely changes the economic the Caucasus mainly due to these contacts laid the activity and becomes a cattle-breeder [8]. This foundation for the formation of the magnificent fully corresponds to B. Kuptin’s assumption that Maikop culture in the North Caucasus [7] and the the tribal culture of the Middle Bronze Age of the powerful Kura-Araxes culture of the Early Bronze post-Mubarak era is nomadic herdsmen. Actually, Age in the South Caucasus with a well-developed this is in full compliance with professor B. socio-economic system. There exist real data
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