Red-black pottery: Eastern Anatolian and Transcaucasian relationships around the mid-fourth Millennium BC.

Abstract

The history of relationships around the mid-fourth millennium BC between eastern Anatolia and Transcaucasia is still poorly understood, especially in its earlier stages. The latest results of the excavations at Arslantepeand Sos Hoyuk are of invaluable importance in clarifying the subject. A set of ceramic analyses recently carried out on selected contexts from the Late Chalcolithic Phase VII at Arslantepe and from the Late Chalcolithic Phase VA at Sos Hoyuk, have thrown new light on these eastern Anatolian cultural dynamics. Assisting our interpretation are radiocarbon readings from certain Georgian and Armenian settlements that provide a new and different perspective on the Kuro-Araks culture and on its relationships with the nearby regions. The result is a framework within which the Upper Euphrates valley, north-eastern Anatolia and Transcaucasus were involved in reciprocal interaction from the middle of the fourth millennium BC.