Caucasian and Anatolian Bronze Age Cultures
Giorgi Leon Kavtaradze
The
Caucasus and Anatolia, the eastern and southern parts of the common Circumpontic zone, i.e. territories around the
Black Sea, were and are important as «bridges» connecting the Near East and Europe. This has determinated the common nature of the distinguishing
features of the development of both above regions. Their historical, cultural, social and economical development is characterized by their
intermediate position in Near Eastern and European evolutional models. In Anatolia and the Caucasus we have confirmations of the existence of
«symbiotic cultures» which are based not only on the the Near Eastern, but also on European traditions. E.g. the Kurgan cultures of
the Caucasus and the culture of the «Royal tombs» of Anatolia.
The Caucasus and Anatolia have much in common with regard to the regional diversity of their topographic, climatic peculiarities and special richness in metal ore deposits. The detached character of separate parts of both regions created good conditions for the coexistence of the populations of quite different nature.
The Caucasus, like Anatolia, was characterized by the same «Anatolian model» of the formation of a class society with the slow rate of its
development and low productivity in agriculture; the economical differentiation and development of the crafts were stimulated in both areas by the
neighbouring, SyroMesopotamian, civilizations. At the same time, a number of distinctive features have caused the emergence of a class society and
the formation of statehood in Anatolia much earlier than in the Caucasus i.e. in the late 3rd early 2nd millennia B.C.
This
qualitative leap required many variables to combine and interact, but in Central Anatolia warlike conditions were the major means of achieving a state
level of social organization for competing chiefdoms. It was pointed out that the preHittite communities in Central Anatolia was composed of a
variety of ethnic groups which existed together in a «symbiotic» relationship.
Those warlike conditions had been ultimately the consequence of the infiltration of several streams of the new population into Anatolia in the Early Bronze Age, particularly into its central part. Their origin or subsequent development was connected with the Caucasus or with the regions adjacent to it.
Read it online: