Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ARCHCAUCASUS (Technical and Social Innovations in the Caucasus: between the Eurasian Steppe and the Earliest Cities in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-07-01 bis 2023-12-31
Svend Hansen’s European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant, "Technical and social innovations in the Caucasus: between Eurasian steppe and the earliest cities in the 4th and 3rd millennia BC" focuses on the Caucasus’ role as a center of innovation in the 4th century BC. Based on four key innovations, the wheel and the wagon, the breeding of the wool sheep, the copper alloy and silver, this will be examined by way of example on a broad data basis. Additionally, other innovations, such as the domestication of horses, the development of dairy farming and the mobile steppe economy, are of central importance but, however, can thus far only be investigated based on a meagre amount of source material. In continuing initial paleogenetic investigations, further skeletons will be included in the study, that will commence primary investigations on the question of kinship in multi-period burial mounds. Finally, excavations in both the Russian North Caucasus and the Georgian South Caucasus will provide new data for a chronology of the Early Bronze Age based on C14 dating.
The importance of the Caucasus as a bridging region between the North Mesopotamian Early Bronze Age centers, the Eastern European steppe region and, subsequently, the Carpathians and Central Europe can be investigated today with the help of modern archaeometric and bioarchaeological methods. These methods in particular shed new light on the Bronze Age of the 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE, a period during which the development of key technologies fundamentally changed economic, social and cultural conditions. For a long time, the "advanced civilizations of the Ancient Near East" were regarded as the centers from which all technical innovations emerged and spread to the peripheries. However, since recent research has shown that it is precisely in these peripheries to which many innovations can be traced much earlier, the development and spread of new technologies must be understood within a more complex interplay of a connective world.
The importance of the Caucasus as a bridging region between the North Mesopotamian Early Bronze Age centers, the Eastern European steppe region and, subsequently, the Carpathians and Central Europe can be investigated today with the help of modern archaeometric and bioarchaeological methods. These methods in particular shed new light on the Bronze Age of the 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE, a period during which the development of key technologies fundamentally changed economic, social and cultural conditions. For a long time, the "advanced civilizations of the Ancient Near East" were regarded as the centers from which all technical innovations emerged and spread to the peripheries. However, since recent research has shown that it is precisely in these peripheries to which many innovations can be traced much earlier, the development and spread of new technologies must be understood within a more complex interplay of a connective world.
Excavations: Compared to the numerous explored burial mounds of the Maikop Culture of the 4th millennium B.C. excavations in settlements still represent a research desideratum, so that, for example, reliable statements about the economic basics of the Maikop culture can hardly be made yet. The Maikop settlement site Komsomolec 1, located about 7 km northwest of the city of Novopavlovsk (Stavropol region), was therefore selected for archaeological excavations.
The archaeological site of Orchosani, about 2ha in size, is located 20 km southwest of the city of Akhaltsikhe, the capital of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia.
Samshvilde is located in the Kvemo Kartli region of the Tetritskaro district in southeastern Georgia. In the first excavation campaign at Samshvilde, the aim was to identify the exact location of the settlement, to establish a fixed-point system, and to gain insight into the soil and terracing.
C14 data: The excavations in these settlements serve primarily to improve our knowledge of the residential architecture and economy of the Early Bronze Age. The construction of a C14-supported chronology of the 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE in the Caucasus is the main focus.
Wheel and Wagon: Almost 300 wagons or parts of wagons of the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE from graves of the Maikop, Yamnaya, Novotitarovskaya as well as the North Caucasian Culture and the Catacomb Grave Culture are known today. Although the good preservation of individual wheels and wheeled vehicles in the tombs of the northern Caucasus foothills is unique, there are none completely preserved, so the components of the wagons have to be reconstructed from sources of varying quality.
Metallurgy: In the last quarter of the 5th millennium BCE a significant metallurgical innovation had already taken place. The progression from metallurgy of soft copper to metallurgy of hard bronze was made by alloying copper with another substance, changing the properties of the copper. What needs to be explained, however, is whether the objects were manufactured in the North Caucasus or imported. Ultimately, only material studies can help in this regard, which is why our project focuses on the chemical analysis of the arsenic bronzes.
Sheep husbandry: wool and dairy farming: Remarkable support for the use of sheep in dairy farming came from the study of tartar on 45 individuals from the Caucasus. The clear evidence of dairy products/cheese in our Caucasian samples opens a new perspective on the beginning of the pastoral way of life in the East European steppe.
Wool sheep: A high number of samples from sheep, including presumed wild sheep, and goats, including wild goats, dating from the Mesolithic to the 4th millennium BC, allow us to address the question of the wool gene and whether it could possibly come from the Caucasian wild sheep.
Horse domestication: The horse was domesticated only due to its use as a riding, draft and pack animal. Thus, domestication and breeding were controlled in a social sphere that had the appropriate resources, interests, and uses.
People and Pathogens: Although individual mobility was not very pronounced, paleogenetics provides insight into complex population movements since the 5th millennium BCE. The study of pathogens has become established over the course of ancient DNA analysis and has opened a completely new perspective on the importance of infectious diseases in the Bronze Age.
The archaeological site of Orchosani, about 2ha in size, is located 20 km southwest of the city of Akhaltsikhe, the capital of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia.
Samshvilde is located in the Kvemo Kartli region of the Tetritskaro district in southeastern Georgia. In the first excavation campaign at Samshvilde, the aim was to identify the exact location of the settlement, to establish a fixed-point system, and to gain insight into the soil and terracing.
C14 data: The excavations in these settlements serve primarily to improve our knowledge of the residential architecture and economy of the Early Bronze Age. The construction of a C14-supported chronology of the 4th and early 3rd millennia BCE in the Caucasus is the main focus.
Wheel and Wagon: Almost 300 wagons or parts of wagons of the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE from graves of the Maikop, Yamnaya, Novotitarovskaya as well as the North Caucasian Culture and the Catacomb Grave Culture are known today. Although the good preservation of individual wheels and wheeled vehicles in the tombs of the northern Caucasus foothills is unique, there are none completely preserved, so the components of the wagons have to be reconstructed from sources of varying quality.
Metallurgy: In the last quarter of the 5th millennium BCE a significant metallurgical innovation had already taken place. The progression from metallurgy of soft copper to metallurgy of hard bronze was made by alloying copper with another substance, changing the properties of the copper. What needs to be explained, however, is whether the objects were manufactured in the North Caucasus or imported. Ultimately, only material studies can help in this regard, which is why our project focuses on the chemical analysis of the arsenic bronzes.
Sheep husbandry: wool and dairy farming: Remarkable support for the use of sheep in dairy farming came from the study of tartar on 45 individuals from the Caucasus. The clear evidence of dairy products/cheese in our Caucasian samples opens a new perspective on the beginning of the pastoral way of life in the East European steppe.
Wool sheep: A high number of samples from sheep, including presumed wild sheep, and goats, including wild goats, dating from the Mesolithic to the 4th millennium BC, allow us to address the question of the wool gene and whether it could possibly come from the Caucasian wild sheep.
Horse domestication: The horse was domesticated only due to its use as a riding, draft and pack animal. Thus, domestication and breeding were controlled in a social sphere that had the appropriate resources, interests, and uses.
People and Pathogens: Although individual mobility was not very pronounced, paleogenetics provides insight into complex population movements since the 5th millennium BCE. The study of pathogens has become established over the course of ancient DNA analysis and has opened a completely new perspective on the importance of infectious diseases in the Bronze Age.
It became apparent through the genetic studies carried out in preparation for the ERC project that the Maikop Culture was not, as often assumed, the result of a migration from northern Mesopotamia. Rather, it was shown that the inhabitants of the mountains and the steppe were genetically different, though they still used the same material elements. For example, the wagon in the steppe area is repeatedly evidenced by wooden wheels in graves, while in the foothills it is evidenced in graves by cattle skulls and metal gags as symbols of the oxen team. With regard to dairy farming, no differences between the population groups can be detected. The economic use of sheep herds for the production of cheese as the new food product was not only of interest in the North Caucasian steppe region, but could also be a model for other regions by moving sheep farming to the steppe regions that were unfavorable for agriculture. The extension of food resources played an important role in the 4th millennium BCE, not only in northern Caucasia. In spite of the limited archaeological sources, it could be shown on the basis of a horse bone that the domestication of the horse had already played a role in the 4th millennium BCE in the Caucasus. Finally, it is clear from both archaeological and chemical analyses that the North Caucasus was an innovative center of metallurgy, where proprietary recipes for the production of arsenic bronze were used and new forms of weapons were developed.
Many of these innovations were rapidly disseminated throughout western Eurasia through regional networks. This form of early "globalization" was demonstrably accompanied by the spread of new diseases.
This brings us to the present: despite the pandemic and the significant constraints associated with it, we have already been able to present new results for a number of important fields of innovation.
Many of these innovations were rapidly disseminated throughout western Eurasia through regional networks. This form of early "globalization" was demonstrably accompanied by the spread of new diseases.
This brings us to the present: despite the pandemic and the significant constraints associated with it, we have already been able to present new results for a number of important fields of innovation.