Cultural Transfers between the Caucasus area, the Ancient Near East and the Eurasian Steppes, from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (6th -3 rd mill. BC)

Abstract

The Caucasus area has long been considered as an isolated area and it has also long been forgotten by many scholars due to the political situation of previous USSR. The short presentation given here shows, on the contrary, that it was a crossroad of many different intercultural relations during a long period in the protohistoric times. Its wealth in raw materials and its opening on the wide Eurasian steppe to the north has certainly created the basis for most of these relations. Exchange and trade in different materials can be proposed for many of the visible connections, but this also led to cultural “transfers” both inwards and outwards and contributed to an intense development. There are still many obscure points in the proto-History/ Archaeology of the Caucasus area. A major problem is the total absence of writing, and our ignorance of the languages that were spoken at that time. A lot of research is now being investigated for these early periods in the environment, the paleo-fauna and flora, metallurgy, a DNA, etc. and we hope Cultural Transfers between the Caucasus area, the Ancient Near East and the Eurasian Steppes, from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (6th -3 rd mill. BC)