For the Problem of Cultural Interconnections of the North-West Iran and Transcaucasia in the First Half of the 2nd Millennium BC

• Marine Puturidze ^[1]
  1. [1] Tbilisi State University

     Tbilisi State University

     Georgia

     
• Localización: Actas del X congreso de la Sociedad Española de Iranología (SEI): celebrado en Tbilisi los días 20 y 21 de octubre de 2022 / Tea Vardosanidze (ed. lit.), Gerardo Matallana Medina (ed. lit.), 2024, ISBN 978-9941-36-204-0, págs. 133-151
• Idioma: español
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Libro (pdf)
• Resumen

  • The paper is devoted to a special study of a certain type of ceramic assemblage which appears to be a distinguishable, alien style production for Transcaucasia. The territory where the ceramics of such non-traditional style is widely represented includes eastern and southern Georgia, Armenia, partly Azerbaijan and eastern Turkey. Intensive concentration of these items is recorded in the southern part of Transcaucasia and they are not attested anymore to the north of the border of Lower (Kvemo) and Inner (Shida) Kartli. Such specific radiation of the samples of black and red so-called „water-scheme motif” of painted ceramics, considering the fact that such patterns are characteristic of the clay production of north-western Iran, gives us a real cause to assume that they may have been distributed from the Urmia Basin in the northern direction. Geo-cultural interactions between Transcaucasia and north-west Iran have, approximately, more than a six-millennia history, and their roots go back to as early as the developed stage of the Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes Culture. This culture of the mid 4th-mid 3rd millennia BC obviously covered a wider part of the Caucasus, different areas of the Near East and, among them, North-west Iran. These cultural connections with the ancient territory of Iran lasted until 2400 BC, i.e., when the new, Bedeni Culture appeared in the South Caucasus. Not a single artifact of the Bedeni Culture archaeological context has been recorded on the territory of ancient Iran so far. Consequently, during around a 300-year time-interval, scholars have no arguments in favor of the continuity of interrelations between the above-mentioned regions.The extremely interesting period, which is particularly noteworthy to us, starts after the Bedeni Culture, and we may assume that this passage of the developed prehistoric epoch – the first half of the 2nd millennium BC – is the period when the existence of certain interconnections between the southern regions of Transcaucasia and North west Iran is definitely and vividly revealed, which coincides with the Trialeti Culture of Brilliant Kurgans.The Trialeti Culture appears to be most famous for the specific pottery decorated with the so-called „water-scheme motif”, which evidences in favor of Transcaucasia-North-west Iran cultural relationships. These ceramic items with a similar style, shape and decoration are closely related with those known from the Van-Urmia Basin.The presented paper is an attempt to clarify the origin of the emergence of the mentioned painted pottery in Transcaucasia and discuss its roots in detail.