Location Eastern Anatolia & South-West Georgia
Years 2023-24
Director
Dr Catherine Longford
University of Sheffield
Funding BIAA / University of Sheffield / Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia
The Eastern Anatolia and Southern Caucasus regions were cultural centres during the third millennium BCE, experiencing significant shifts between the Kura-Araxes (3500–2500 BCE) and Early Kurgan (2500–2000 BCE) periods. Recent excavations at Rabati in southwestern Georgia are shedding light on these transitions, particularly in food production and agricultural practices.
The Kura-Araxes cultural complex, known for its iconic red-black pottery, spanned a vast area from the Caucasus to the Levant and Iran. These communities thrived in stable agro-pastoral villages, primarily cultivating bread wheat and hulled barley. By 2500 BCE, the Kura-Araxes culture gave way to Early Kurgan societies, marked by monumental burials and rich grave goods. These groups have traditionally been viewed as highly mobile pastoralists due to the scarcity of settlement evidence.
Research at Rabati, however, is challenging this interpretation. Archaeobotanical and isotopic analyses of soil samples from both cultural phases indicate continuity in agricultural practices, with crops likely cultivated near the site. While the Kura-Araxes assemblage focused on bread wheat and barley, the Early Kurgan layers reveal greater diversity, including emmer, einkorn, lentils, peas, and bitter vetch. These findings suggest that some Bedeni communities were settled year-round to manage agriculture, offering a more complex picture of their subsistence strategies.
This work highlights Rabati’s significance in understanding the transitions between these ancient cultures, offering new perspectives on the interplay between mobility, settlement, and agriculture during the Early Bronze Age.
