As for the culture of the inhabitants of mountainous Iran and Central Asia at the end of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. e., then it remained Eneolithic, but changes in it, of course, occurred. The settlements were fortified with stone walls. Funeral implements became richer and more varied, and items made of bronze began to appear. Cattle breeding is clearly becoming semi-nomadic, and the horse gives the pastoralist tribes more and more mobility. Thus, probably, the Kassite tribes from the mountains of Iran and penetrated into Mesopotamia. But a number of settlements are still engaged in sedentary agriculture. It is obvious that close cooperation is developing between pastoralists and farmers. Sedentary tribes accumulate material wealth faster, which leads to stratification within the community.
Detail of a horse harness depicting a chariot. The Luristan Bronze Collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
About metalworking skills of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e, when all this happens, can be judged by the bronze items from Luristan (Iran) - the so-called "Luristan bronzes", which include details of horse harness, decorated with original images of various mythical monsters and animals. Pottery is now made on a potter's wheel.
Halberd. The Luristan Bronze Collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Ax of the XIX-XVIII centuries. BC. The Luristan Bronze Collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Dagger. The Luristan Bronze Collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Many cultures located in areas near the Caspian Sea are making a dramatic step forward at this time. Thus, the Eneolithic culture of typical fishermen and hunters in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya is being replaced by the culture of pastoralists and farmers who have mastered hoe farming. And again, the changes that took place in this area by the end of the II millennium BC. e., were caused by the migration from the north of the tribes of the Andronovo culture. But in the old agricultural settlements on the territory of southern Turkmenistan, as well as several centuries earlier in the cities belonging to the culture of Harappa and lying in the Indus Valley, life stops. And what is the reason, we can only guess.
On the other hand, a new agricultural culture appears here, which already has the ability to smelt iron, and it begins to gradually master the river lowlands of Central Asia in the second quarter of the 1st millennium BC. NS. However, here, as in Transcaucasia, the influence of the centers of the slaveholding civilizations of Western Asia, which appeared here as early as the early Eneolithic, was still great. Obsidian is exported from the Ararat region to the south, which was used for making arrowheads and sickles in Mesopotamia and Elam. Accordingly, samples of technologies and products of these ancient Eastern states, and more advanced samples of tools and weapons, came to Transcaucasia. Daggers known from finds in Mesopotamia, ancient Assyrian bronze swords, axes of unusual shapes and special types of axes, as well as many other things, came to Transcaucasia from here. But all these products have spread very widely. For example, the types of axes, characteristic, for example, of the tribes of the Srubnaya and Andronov cultures, as well as in the Transcaucasus, were also known in the west. Their analogs were made by the bronze castors of the tribes that lived in the II millennium BC. NS. on the lands of present-day Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. It was the same with the dishes. So, popular in the II millennium BC. in Transcaucasia, painted dishes of the Elar type (from the settlement of Elar, near Yerevan) again turned out to be similar to the dishes of Mesopotamia and Elam. Jewelry, as well as the fine arts characteristic of the Transcaucasus of that era, again indicate links with the ancient Mesopotamia, and also with the culture of the Hittite state in Asia Minor.
Bronze ax from the town of Luzhitsa. (Natural History Museum, Vienna)
Interesting finds made in the Transcaucasus and dating back to the Bronze Age were found in Central Georgia (in the Trialeti region), as well as in a number of regions of Armenia and Azerbaijan. At that time, there were settlements here, which were surrounded by walls made of large stones "cyclopean masonry". Moreover, if at first all the houses of these settlements were about the same size, then later internal fortifications and large houses of elders and tribal leaders appeared here. As in the countries of the ancient East, the nobility began to fence themselves off from the rest of the people by walls. And all these changes took place in Transcaucasia precisely in the Bronze Age, which clearly testifies to the processes of decomposition of the former primitive communal relations that previously existed here.
Gold Cup from Trialeti, Georgia. II millennium BC
So, burial mounds in Trialeti, in the valley of the Tsalka River, in the first half and by the middle of the II millennium BC. NS. are rather modest graves, the burial inventory of which is very scarce. But very close to these mounds there are already huge mounds, in which real burial halls were discovered, or deep underground tombs made of stone, and with silver daggers, silver and gold dishes, fine jewelry and silver necklaces buried in them along with the deceased. and gold with precious stones. Some items adorn truly exquisite ornaments, for example, such as those that cover the famous golden goblet, the surface of which was covered with graceful spirals coiled from bundles of gold wire, and with inserts of nests inlaid with semiprecious stones (we will tell you about this unique goblet we'll tell you more in the very near future!), or a silver goblet, on which the image of a procession of people dressed in animal masks and clothes with tails and walking to the altar and some sacred tree is minted. Golden statuettes of animals found in the same burial mound also speak of close cultural ties between the masters of the Transcaucasus and the jewelers of Mesopotamia, or at least that they mastered their technique. Indicative, for example, is the figurine of a ram with eyes made of mother-of-pearl and colored stones, fixed in the eye sockets with the help of mountain resin - a technique typical of ancient Sumer. In addition, in the rich mounds of Trialeti, samples of typical Elar-type dishes were found, very similar to ceramics from Western Asia.
Casting shape. (Archaeological Museum of Brandenburg. Bronze Age Gallery)
In Armenia, during excavations in the city of Kirovakan, a similar burial was found with a large number of painted vessels, and bronze items, for example, weapons, were completely similar to the Trialeti ones. There they found a massive gold bowl decorated with figures of lions. Silver vessels were similar to those of Trialeti. And there are many such finds on the territory of Georgia, Armenia and Western Azerbaijan. This indicates the presence of a highly developed metallurgical culture of bronze there in the past.
Copper dagger from Brandenburg, c. 2500-2200 biennium BC. (Museum of Prehistoric and Early History, Berlin)
And of course, the development of metal processing technologies caused the development of the same agriculture. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the second half of the II millennium BC. NS.in the Transcaucasus, irrigation of fields began to be used, horticulture and viticulture developed, and the herds were very numerous. Horse breeding spread, with the horse being used both for riding and harnessed to chariots. This is evidenced by the bronze bits found in the burial grounds of Transcaucasia, designed to control semi-wild horses. Undoubtedly, military clashes over land, water and pastures were also frequent. Therefore, it is not surprising that there was a transition from the traditional short dagger to the long bronze sword, that is, the technology for the production of weapons has also improved.
Military clashes led to the capture of prisoners of war who were turned into slaves. And there were so many of them that they began to put them in the graves of the nobility, so that they would serve them in the afterlife. The burial of the chief was found, where the skeletons of 13 slaves were found near the lavishly decorated funerary chariot of the tribal chief, and near the bulls harnessed to this chariot, there was also a driver who was killed during the burial. However, this shows not only the presence of slaves at this time, but also that their production value was not yet too great. However, over time, the development of slave relations especially intensified, and above all at a time when a number of regions of South Transcaucasia in the IX-VIII centuries. BC NS. became part of such a famous slave state as Urartu.
Bronze dagger imitating early riveted hilt designs. (National Museum of Archeology, Parma)
At the end of the II - the beginning of the I millennium BC. NS. in the North Caucasus, many tribes already had a developed bronze casting industry and gradually began to work on iron processing. First of all, this is North Ossetia, where at that time there was a center of Koban culture. "Kobanians" produced very beautiful axes, swords and daggers, as well as bronze battle belts with chased and engraved images of animals and warriors, testifying to the extraordinary skill of their creators. The fact that many bronze bits were found among the Koban antiquities proves that they used the horse as a riding animal.
Daggers of "Koban culture". (State Historical Museum, Moscow)
The most interesting thing, however, is that the forms of weapons of the "Kobanians" allow us to say that the peoples of the North Caucasian region already at that time were familiar not only with the ancient Eastern bronze items close to them, but also with the works of South European masters, that is, there is evidence of the existence of extensive cultural ties between distant territories. Moreover, a very similar culture of bronze at that time also existed on the eastern and southeastern shores of the Black Sea in the region of the legendary Colchis.
"Koban culture". Decoration from burial No. 9 (19th century BC)
