CHAPTER 1

THE LAND AND ITS LANGUAGES

Human cultures are inseparably linked to their natural environments, and the mutual interaction between the two is fundamental to any archaeological study.Aspects of geology and ecology such as landscape and hydrology, vegetation and mineral resources form the backdrop of human activities. Climate and arable land, too, should be taken into account; though, like other ecological matters, they should not be used simply as deterministic factors. Instead, all these environmental components should be seen as valuable devices for evaluating spatial and temporal patterns of human behaviour. On one level, they frame the choices available to human communities. On another level, they inform us about the influence humans had on the landscape as they adapted to, and functioned in, their environment.

GEOGRAPHY AND RESOURCES

Detailed aspects of the Caucasian landscape will be dealt with in the pages that follow when they are needed to better explain cultural development. Here, a brief overview of the land and its attributes will suffice.

Physical Geography

Intense compression, the result of the collision between the European and Arabian tectonic plates, created the folded territory of the Caucasus.1 This event is relatively recent in terms of geological eras, occurring between the Late Eocene and the Quaternary periods.2 The thrust also created the

1 Courcier 2010 for further reading.

2 For a clear yet detailed geologic time scale, see Ogg et al. 2008.

19

Anatolian peninsula to the west and pushed the Iranian Plate in the other direction. Characterised by a series of dramatic uplifts and basins, the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus differ substantially in their physical geography, comprising no less than eleven physical zones.3 At its widest point, in the region of Mt Elbrus, the Greater Caucasus chain measures 180 km. Its lofty peaks are amongst the highest in Europe and the Middle East, with a dozen or more exceeding 5,000 m. High-mountain topography is everywhere in the Caucasus, but the most impressive lies between the looming summits of Elbrus (5,642 m) and Kazbegi (5,033 m), formed as Pliocene-Pleistocene volcanoes. The pair demarcates the central Caucasus, where massive peaks are capped with extensive glaciers.

The Greater Caucasus mountain range is a cuesta region – it has a gentle slope, or back slope, on one side (the north), and a steep slope (front slope) on the other (the south), which run parallel to its spine, the Glavny Ridge.4 Rainfall and the environment are very much affected by this sharp divide. The northern slopes receive abundant precipitation where a temperate climate prevails. Limestone and other calcareous rocks in the foreland have created a karst landscape of caves, depressions, and sunken streams. By contrast, the southern regions have a climate that ranges from sub-tropical to semidesert.The mountains can also be subdivided into three distinct zones along their west–east axis. Briefly, the western sector has a mild and humid climate conducive to mountain forests and meadows. In the central zone, where the highest peaks and greatest number of glaciers are located, the climate is cool and humid promoting meadow environments.The most dramatic interception of rainfall is at the eastern end, in Dagestan, where moist foothills lie in proximity to semi-deserts, which are home to corresponding xerophilous landscapes.

The most significant pass through the mountain chain is the Georgian Military Highway. It runs from Tbilisi to Vladikavkaz, passing through the towering Dariel Gorge, distinguished by sheer rock rising up to 1,800 m in some places. This corridor so inspired the Russian writer, Mikhail Lermontov, that he used it as the opening scene in his novel A Hero of Our Time (1840):

What a glorious spot thisValley is! All around it tower awesome mountains, reddish crags draped with hanging ivy and crowned with clusters of plane trees, yellow cliffs grooved by torrents, with a gilded fringe of snow high above, while down below the Aragvi River embraces a nameless stream that noisily bursts forth from a black gloom filled gorge and then stretches in a silvery ribbon into the distance, its surface shimmering like the scaly back of a snake.

Fringing the southern foothills are two drainage basins split by the Surami massif: one is a small wedge of land tucked into the eastern side of the Black Sea (the Colchis lowlands),whereas the larger Kura (Mtkvari) and Araxes interfluve discharges into the Caspian Sea.These basins are deep and filled by enormous deposits of Tertiary sediments (several kilometres thick in parts). Such is the physical structure that the region continues to experience intense tectonic shifts, which are accompanied by powerful seismic movements. A number of sizeable rivers water the southern Caucasus, amongst them the River Kura, one of the most significant corridors through the Caucasus.Arising in Turkey and emptying into the Caspian Sea, it flows through the centre ofTbilisi.There are more than ten cities, amongst which Tbilisi is currently the biggest, in the vicinity of this river, whose banks are known to have supported human settlement for 8,000 years.6 The western Caucasus is covered with an abundant web of rivers, which are characterised by a slow flow in the downstream. In modern geo-political terms, the southern Caucasus comprises the modern republics of Georgia,Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and the enclave of Nakhichevan. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, three areas in the south Caucasus remain heavily disputed: Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The combination of high mountains, deep basins, and two fl anking seas place the Caucasus on the border between temperate and sub-tropical environments. Freezing winds blowing off the Russian steppes drop the average January temperature in the Kuban Plain to -5˚ C, though it can plummet to an absolute minimum of -35˚ C. Southern Caucasia is more sheltered and corresponding January temperatures are 9˚ C for sub-tropical Colchis and 6˚ C for the drier eastern region. Precipitation is also quite different across the isthmus and arrives from the west, in a system that is replenished by the waters of the Black Sea. On either side of the highest peaks, precipitation ranges from 1,500–2,000 mm in verdant Colchis through 400–800 mm for the Kuban depression and the central Kura-Araxes basin to 250–200 mm for the semiarid lowlands of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. The cycle of precipitation differs too. In the western Caucasus, where highlands run steeply to sea level, rain is heaviest in winter, whereas the central and eastern regions have their wettest periods in June and July.

Mineral Resources

The Caucasus is renowned for and well endowed with metal resources. It is one of the most important ore-bearing regions in the world. A recent global imaging survey conducted by the Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the French Geological Survey has identified more than 1,800 outcrops and deposits, ranging from native metals, such as gold,

6 Lyonnet et al. 2012.