Whereas Bertram’s study focuses on the historical development of grave types, showing the remarkable diversity over this millennium and a half, other scholars have emphasised the assemblages, using them to develop elaborate chronologies, albeit in the absence of reliable radiocarbon dates.18

The following regional overview combines both approaches and examines the main archaeological traditions. It begins with the late Early Bronze Age (the second half of the third millennium BC) and then discusses the Middle Bronze Age developments of the second millennium BC. Geographically, it moves from the better known facies of the southern Caucasus to the north Caucasian foothills.

THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS

EARLY BRONZE AGE IV/MIDDLE BRONZE

AGE I (2500–2000BC)

New results on the environment of the plateaus of the southern Caucasus during the third millennium BC show that, contrary to our earlier understanding, the region had a forest cover promoted by good precipitation and warm temperatures (Chapter 1).19 The degree to which environmental factors influenced change or choice is difficult to say. What is clear is the dramatic shift in human behaviour and material culture that appears to stem from eastern Georgia.The early Barrow period is sometimes referred to as Early Kurgan I and Early Kurgan II on the basis of grave goods, especially changes in pottery and metalwork, though radiocarbon readings now suggest the two stages overlap.20 In any case, a slightly earlier group includes a few barrows at Trialeti, on the Tsalka Plateau, and others at Martkopi, in Kvemo Kartli, and Samgori. In Armenia, where the pulse is not so strong but is nonetheless evident, Martkopi is represented in the northern region, at sites like Berkaber, and also in the tombs at Shengavit in the Ararat plain.21 At present the western outlier is Sos Höyük, near Erzurum.22

The second, better-represented, and slightly later group comprises the Bedeni barrows in the Alazani Valley and Shida Kartli. Bedeni is also represented in Armenia at several sites, in western Azerbaijan (Mingechaur) and in Dagestan (Velikent).23 Again Sos Höyük appears to be on the western border, yielding just a few Bedeni imports.To these barrows should be added the few

18Since Kuftin’s (1941) report on the Trialeti barrows, there have been many studies on the chronology of the Trialeti culture, including Schaeffer 1943; Piggott 1969; Gogadze 1972; Rubinson 1977; Dzhaparidze 1994.

19Connor and Kvavadze 2014; Kvavadze et al. 2004: 267.

20Dzhaparidze 1983, 1993, 1998; Edens 1995; Bertram 2010.

21Smith et al. 2009: 52–5.

22Sagona 2000.

23Dedabrishvili 1979; Gobedzhishvili 1980; Smith et al. 2009: 52; Gadzhiev et al. 1997; Smith et al. 2009: 52.

settlements and sanctuaries we have for the Bedeni period, such as Berikldeebi and Zhinvali. According to Zurab Makharadze, the Bedeni tradition is totally foreign to the southern Caucasus and its arrival from the north facilitated the decline of the Kura-Araxes complex.24 The ‘invisibility’ of settlements may reflect research strategies that have targeted the conspicuous barrows; nonetheless, there is truth in the view that villages were more transient during this period.25

Sachkhere: A Bridging Site

Before we look at Martkopi proper, we need to highlight a transitional site that straddled the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Sachkhere is located at the northern edge of the Imereti Province in Western Georgia and has yielded more metal objects than at any other site of this period. These objects foreshadowed, in a striking way, the trend in access to resources and the emergence of inequality. Sachkhere comprises three locations: Nacherkezevi and Tsartsis Gora which are located in the township of Sachkhere, and Pasieti in the nearby village of Koreti.26 G. Takaishvili conducted the initial small-scale investigations at Sachkhere in 1910, which were followed by Kuftin’s intermittent excavations before and after World War II and Dzhaparidze’s 1955 expedition.27

Typically, the Sachkhere mounds were built of stone – large ones around the base and smaller stones sealing the top.The graves consisted of earthen pits in which the deceased was placed in a flexed position, usually on the right side. None of the skeletal material is well preserved. In addition to the copious quantities of metalwork, provisions included handmade ceramics with a black polished exterior and pink smoothed inner surface, decorated with incised and relief patterns.

Amongst the bronze jewellery we have bronze lunate hair-rings, coiled bracelets, temporal rings, anchor pendants, and three types of pins: double spiral-headed,T-shaped, and loop-headed with a twisted upper shank, roughly in that chronological order, with latter two particularly well represented (Figure 7.3(1–6)).28

Notable weapons are the bronze daggers with cast handles decorated in relief and perforated at the end of the hilt found at Tsartsisgora and Koreti (Figure 7.4(8)). But it is the axe that began a significant transformation that

24Makharadze et al. 2016: 16.

25Sagona 2004.

26Dzhaparidze 1992.

27Takaishvili 1913. Kuftin opened ten barrows at Nacherkezevi in 1939 and sixteen more in 1951. Dzhaparizde renewed investigations there in 1955. Both also excavated at Tsartis Gora and Koreti (Kuftin in 1945–6, and Dzhaparidze in 1955). None of these sites is fully published.

28Gambashidze et al. 2010; Carminati 2014.