Kura Araxes culture - pannous/hieros GitHub Wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kura%E2%80%93Araxes_culture

Metallurgy

In the earliest phase of the Kura–Araxes culture and Sioni group, metal was scarce. In comparison, the preceding Leilatepe culture's metalwork tradition was far more sophisticated.[21] very early metal objects have been discovered in layers of the Neolithic Shulaveri-Shomutepe-culture

The Kura–Araxes culture would later display "a precocious metallurgical development, which strongly influenced surrounding regions".[22] They worked copper, arsenic, silver, gold,[3] tin, and bronze.[17]

Their metal goods were widely distributed, from the Volga, Dnieper and Don-Donets river systems in the north to Syria and Palestine in the south and Anatolia in the west.

Earlier: 6000BC The relationship of Hassuna pottery to that of Jericho(!) suggests that village culture was becoming widespread. Rapid development from earliest pottery 7000BC (in Khabur, and northern Iraq) to metallurgy!

After a first invention phase in the 6th(!?) and the 5th millennium with a comparatively limited
use of metals and ores (Kawtaradze 2001) their use slightly increased in the 1st half of the 4th
millennium, in east Georgia but also in Azerbaijan Kura valley we find first metallurgical
inventions that became so common later during this millennium (in general: Courcier 2014:
623-636; Gambashidze et all. 2010). First heavy metal tools also occurred (e.g. a Mesopotamian
shaft-hole axe from Orchosani) and first arsenical bronzes and Nickel rich bronzes as well as
first precious metals such as gold and silver (Courcier 2014; Gambashidze et all. 2010). It is
certainly not by mere chance that these metallurgical innovations were in line with others (chaff
tempered, brownish wares, and “wheel turned” pottery of Uruk/Leilatepe style: in general
recently summarizing: Helwing 2012). They produced a larger amount of copper and arsenical-copper
artefacts and especially also metallurgical implements like crucibles and moulds. These finds
are parallel to 4 th millennium technical ceramic that is well known in a large area between the
Upper Euphrates, Northern Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau (recently Helwing 2012). Best
examples for this metallurgical tradition were recently discovered by T. Akhundov at the site
of Alkhantepe: Several moulds, crucibles and interestingly also litharge strongly remind on
parallels from Tappeh Ghabrestan (Majidzadeh 1979; recently the finds: Stöllner et all. 2004)
or Arisman (Helwing 2010) 2 . As recently Helwing (2012) and Ivanova (2012) have underlined,
there might have been direct connections that especially contributed to the rising metallurgical
tradition at the beginning of the 4 th millennium in the Lesser Caucasian regions. And as the
graves of Seh Girdan in North-Iran indicated even a long time ago: these contacts had several
facets and were vice-verse (Muscarella 1969; 1972). It is therefore rather likely to hypothesize
the introduction of technical knowledge by specialists alongside the large river streams of Kura
and Araxes to the Lesser Caucasian highlands.
In contrast it is astonishing that metal from second half of the 4 th millennium is not as abundant
as one might expect especially in the archaeological record; one is surprised how little the
amount of metals in the archaeological record is.

The difference between metal-rich Maykop and the metal-poor Transcaucasian Kura-Araxes in the later 4 th millennium does certainly not mirror their actual metallurgical activities but rather their ritual practice with
metals (Chernykh 1992: 73; in a similar sense in regard of gold: Japaridze 2013, 13).
From the time around 3000 BC and the first half of the 3 rd millennium BC we earn more than
ten times as many metal objects as in the 2 nd half of the 4 th millennium, coinciding with the appearance of kurgans.

Interpretation: Southern Caucasus was either a backwash island missing out on new innovations, a nation focused on wine production, or a raw-material producing provincial colony for the elites of Maykop and the South-East.

It is interesting that the next wave of
precious metals (gold, silver and tin-bronze as well) appeared at the end of the 4 th mill. BC: most
of the time these were spiral-rings “Locken-/Schläfenringe”, a type that interconnects many
societies especially in the 3 rd millennium as a symbol (Primas 1995); spiral-rings of this shape
are not known from the Near East but there is a considerable concentration in Transcaucasia
(Fig. 7-8, see also catalogue), in the North Caucasus and furthermore in Eurasia and East Europe
(Primas 1995).

These golden items stood obviously at the beginning(!) of a longer lasting tradition
that had its climax with the Kurgan graves of the Martkopi-Bedeni stage in later Early Bronze
Age and at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age: it is interesting to see that – although many
more expressions of social and ritual significance were added to the graves (adornment plates,
discs, needles) later on – the spiral rings were still in use during that period.

It is rather striking that most of metal that were found in graves had more a symbolic
than a functional use.

In Racha-region Antimony was won for the first time.