Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (1) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.1.039-047

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On the Cultural Geography
of the Eastern Caucasus and Southern Caspian
in the Mesolithic

H.A. Amirkhanov

Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292, Russia

This study focuses on the geography of the Mesolithic cultures of the eastern Caucasus and the current approaches to this topic. In the 1970s, the Caucasian Mesolithic was considered an amalgam of several archaeological cultures evolving in parallel. In the eastern part of that region, two archaeological cultures were described: Chokh and Trialeti. While no one questioned their marked specificity vis-a-vis the cultures of western Caucasus, the similarities and differences between them have not been specifically addressed. In the 1990s, S.K. Kozlowski proposed merging Chokh and Trialeti with other Mesolithic cultures of the northern Zagros, Anatolia, the western Caucasus, the Crimea, the southern and eastern Caspian, and possibly the Central Iranian Plateau, into a single industry, which he termed “Trialetien”. This idea was based on approaches different from those used in establishing archaeological cultures. Therefore, the notion of the Trialetien was likewise novel. I believe that the former typological criteria underlying the typology of the southern part of the circum-Caspian area (Chokh, Trialeti, Balakhan) are still valid. Likewise plausible is the idea that in addition to the cultures mentioned above, the Southern Caspian archaeological culture must be established. All those local units, including Trialeti (in the traditional sense), are a group of related cultures, which I previously included in the “Southern Caspian Mesolithic area”.

Keywords: Mesolithic, eastern Caucasus, Chokh culture, Trialeti culture, Southern Caspian cultural area, “Trialetien”