The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia

Illustrations and Maps		page xiii
Abbreviations		xvii
Preface		xix
1.	Archaeological Theory and Archaeological Evidence	1
	Anglo-American Theoretical Archaeology from ca. 1960 to the Present – A Brief Overview	2
	Back to the Future – Or Towards an Interpretative and Explanatory Culture History	8
	The Devolution of Urban Society – Moving Beyond Neo-evolutionary Accounts	10
	Steppe Archaeology and the Identification (and Proliferation) of Archaeological Cultures	15
	Chronological Conundrums – The Application of Calibrated C14 Determinations for the Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes	19
	Inherent Limitations of the Present Study	21
2.	The Chalcolithic Prelude – From Social Hierarchies and Giant Settlements to the Emergence of Mobile Economies, ca. 4500–3500 BC	23
	The Production and Exchange of Copper from the Balkans to the Volga in the Fifth and Fourth Millennia BC – The Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province (CBMP)	28
	The Form and Economy of the Gigantic Tripol’ye Settlements – Nucleation of Population and the Development of Extensive Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Particularly the Herding of Cattle	39
	An Overview of the Social Archaeology of the Chalcolithic from the Northern Balkans to the Volga and beyond from the Fifth to the Second Half of the Fourth Millennium BC	46
	The Collapse of the Southeastern European Copper Age – Single- and Multicausal Explanations from Invading Nomads and Environmental Crises to Shifts in Interregional Relations	50
	Biographical Sketch – E. N. Chernykh	54
3.	The Caucasus – Donor and Recipient of Materials, Technologies, and Peoples to and from the Ancient Near East	57
	The Caucasus – Physical and Environmental Features and a Consideration of Earlier Chalcolithic Developments	62
	The Maikop Culture of the Northern Caucasus – A Review of Its Kurgans, Settlements, and Metals; Accounting for Its Origins and Wealth and a Consideration of Its Subsistence Economy	72
	The Kura-Araxes Cultural-Historical Community (Obshchnost’) of Transcaucasia – The History of Its Research and the Distribution of Its Settlements Documenting the Initial Dense Occupation of Different Altitudinal Zones throughout the Southern Caucasus and Adjacent Regions; the Nature of These Settlements and Evidence for Social Differentiation; the Spread of Kura-Araxes Peoples into the Near East in the Late Fourth to Middle Third Millennium BC	86
	The Caspian Coastal Plain of Southeastern Daghestan and Northeastern Azerbaijan – The Velikent Early and Middle Bronze “Component” of the Kura-Araxes “Cultural-Historical Community”; the Sequence from Velikent and Related Bronze Age Sites, ca. 3600–1900 BC	102
	The Early Kurgan Cultures of Transcaucasia – The Arrivals of New Peoples, Changes in Subsistence Economic Practices, and the Emergence of Social Complexity	113
	Conclusion – Some Later Developments in Caucasian Prehistory and Shifts in the Production and Exchange of Metals	121
	Biographical Sketch – R. M. Munchaev	122
	Biographical Sketch – M. G. Gadzhiev	124
4.	Taming the Steppe – The Development of Mobile Economies: From Cattle Herders with Wagons to Horseback Riders Tending Mixed Herds; the Continued Eastward Expansion of Large-Scale Metallurgical Production and Exchange	126
	Archaeology on the Western Eurasian Steppes – A Short Sketch of the Recognition of Cultural Diversity and Its Relative Periodization	128
	New Perspectives on Pre–Pit Grave Interconnections on the Western Eurasian Steppes	132
	Horse Domestication and the Emergence of Eurasian Mounted Pastoral Nomadism	137
	Bronze Age Life on the Steppes: Pit Graves to Timber Graves – Major Patterns of Development and Changes in Ways of Life	144
	Bronze Age Herding vs. Eurasian Mounted Pastoral Nomadism	158
	The Transformation and Eastward Expansion of Metallurgy during the Late Bronze Age; Accounting for Its Social Organization – The Contrastive Highly Centralized “Gulag” or Flexible/Opportunistic “Gold Rush” Models	166
	Biographical Sketch – N. Ya. Merpert	180
5.	Entering a Sown World of Irrigation Agriculture – From the Steppes to Central Asia and Beyond: Processes of Movement, Assimilation, and Transformation into the “Civilized” World East of Sumer	182
	Archaeological Explorations in Western Central Asia from the Excavations at Anau to the Discovery of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (or “Oxus Civilization”) – The Evolutionary Heritage of Soviet and Western Archaeology in Central Asia	184
	Physical Features of the Land – Deserts, Mountains, and Sources of Water; Environmental Changes and Adaptations to Arid Environments; Irrigation Agriculture and Extensive Herding and Seasonal Transhumance	187
	The Two Worlds of Western Central Asia: “Civilized” and “Barbarian”; Archaeological Transformations – Mobile Cattle Herders Become Irrigation Agriculturalists; the Multiple Origins, Florescence, and Collapse of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex	192
	Secondary States East of Sumer ca. 2600–1900 BC – Cycles of Integration and Collapse; Shifts in Patterns of Exchange and Interregional Relations from the Late Chalcolithic through the Middle Bronze Age	214
	Jiroft/Halil Rud: A Newly Discovered Regional Polity or Secondary State East of Sumer in Southeastern Iran	225
	Archaeology, Language, and the Ethnic Identification of Material Culture Remains – Pitfalls and Lessons	233
	Biographical Sketch – V. I. Sarianidi	241
6.	The Circulation of Peoples and Materials – Evolution, Devolution, and Recurrent Social Formations on the Eurasian Steppes and in West Asia: Patterns and Processes of Interconnection during Later Prehistory	244
	Modeling the “World(s)” of Bronze Age Eurasia	245
	The Functional Use of Metals, Rising Militarism, and the Advent of Iron	252
	Evolution and Devolution in Bronze Age Eurasia – Culture History in Archaeology as the Search for Macrohistorical Patterns and Processes rather than the Compilation of Data; Social Evolution as “World” History	256
Appendix		261
References		269
Index		291

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Series: Cambridge World Archaeology

Philip L. Kohl

Wellesley College, Massachusetts

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