Paradise Lost: The Phenomenon of the Kura-Araxes Tradition along the Fertile Crescent

This special issue of ARAMAZD presents a collection of papers dedicated to Ruben S. Badalyan, a leading specialist in prehistoric archaeology of the Caucasus region.

This special issue of ARAMAZD presents a collection of papers dedicated to Ruben S. Badalyan, a leading specialist in prehistoric archaeology of the Cuacasus region. Born September 23, 1957 in Yerevan, he obtained his Master of Arts in History from Yerevan State University in 1979. Upon completion of his studies, he began working at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography (IAE) of the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR and in 2007 he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Early Archaeology of the IAE NAS RA, a role he continues to perform to date.

Foreword Seal and sealing in the Kura-Araxes culture: New findings from northwestern Iran - Akbar Abedi The Kura-Araxes tombs in Shirak region, Armenia - Levon Aghikyan Homo mobilis: Some observations on the characteristics of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex - Pavel Avetisyan Feminine figurine of Shengavit and its parallels - Anna Azizyan The spatial Matryoshka doll: New perspectives on the settlement dynamic of the Kura-Araxes - Stephen Batiuk Vertical use of space in Ancient Armenia and the case of Kura-Araxes tradition - Arsen Bobokhyan The settlement of Norabats - Seda Devejyan and Ruben Davtyan Materials from excavations of Fioletovo - Aram Gevorgyan and Anna Azizyan Twenty years of Kura-Araxes research at Tel Bet Yerah: What we have learned - Raphael Greenberg, Mark Iserlis and Sarit Paz The Kura-Araxes 'expansion': A climate change-related phenomenon? - Yervand Grekyan The story of Karaz: A brief history of the research, and an understanding of the process of the Kura-Araxes culture in the Erzurum Highlands - Mehmet Isikli On the Kura-Araxes expansion - Aram Kosyan Transformations in the Caucasus: Cultural interactions and movements of people from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age - Bertille Lyonnet Evaluation of the Kura-Araxes migration: From a mono-factorial phantasm to a multi-dimensional phenomenon - Sepideh Maziar Encountering the Kura-Araxes. Changes in the Malatya plain at the end of the 4th millennium - Giulio Palumbi and Marcella Frangipane Thirty years in the making: A critical overview of the Kura-Araxes periodization from a radiocarbon perspective - Annapaola Passerini Recent investigations on the Early Bronze Age sites in the Marmarik River Valley as part of the Kotayk Survey Project - Artur Petrosyan, Roberto Dan and Boris Gasparyan Why deer? Figural imagery and faunal remains in the Bronze Age South Caucasus - Karen S. Rubinson Zoomorphic clay figurines from the Early Bronze Age settlement of Harich - Mariam Saribekyan Early Bronze Age settlement from ancient city Samshvilde - Nino Shanshashvili and Goderdzi Narimanishvili New data on the construction and meaning of the Shengavit settlement wall - Hakob Simonyan and Mitchell S Rothman Early Bronze Age obsidian networks: A view from Project ArAGATS - Adam T. Smith On motifs and patterns on Early Trans-Caucasian IIA pottery from Yanik Tepe in northwestern Iran - Geoffrey D. Summers Preliminary results of excavations of the Early Bronze Age settlement in Lernakert (Armenia) - Benik Vardanyan, Mariam Saribekyan, Ruben Davtyan, Levon Mkrtchyan and Sona Manukyan Bronze Age tomb from the cemetery of Sasunik - Nora Yengibaryan Clay figurines from Agarak - Nora Yengibaryan Armenian Summaries, Foreword ;

Seal and sealing in the Kura-Araxes culture: New findings from northwestern Iran – Akbar Abedi The Kura-Araxes tombs in Shirak region, Armenia – Levon Aghikyan Homo mobilis: Some observations on the characteristics of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex – Pavel Avetisyan Feminine figurine of Shengavit and its parallels – Anna Azizyan The spatial Matryoshka doll: New perspectives on the settlement dynamic of the Kura-Araxes – Stephen Batiuk Vertical use of space in Ancient Armenia and the case of Kura-Araxes tradition – Arsen Bobokhyan The settlement of Norabats – Seda Devejyan and Ruben Davtyan Materials from excavations of Fioletovo – Aram Gevorgyan and Anna Azizyan Twenty years of Kura-Araxes research at Tel Bet Yerah: What we have learned – Raphael Greenberg, Mark Iserlis and Sarit Paz The Kura-Araxes ‘expansion’: A climate change-related phenomenon? – Yervand Grekyan The story of Karaz: A brief history of the research, and an understanding of the process of the Kura-Araxes culture in the Erzurum Highlands – Mehmet Işıklı On the Kura-Araxes expansion – Aram Kosyan Transformations in the Caucasus: Cultural interactions and movements of people from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age – Bertille Lyonnet Evaluation of the Kura-Araxes migration: From a mono-factorial phantasm to a multi-dimensional phenomenon – Sepideh Maziar Encountering the Kura-Araxes. Changes in the Malatya plain at the end of the 4th millennium – Giulio Palumbi and Marcella Frangipane Thirty years in the making: A critical overview of the Kura-Araxes periodization from a radiocarbon perspective – Annapaola Passerini Recent investigations on the Early Bronze Age sites in the Marmarik River Valley as part of the Kotayk Survey Project – Artur Petrosyan, Roberto Dan and Boris Gasparyan Why deer? Figural imagery and faunal remains in the Bronze Age South Caucasus – Karen S. Rubinson Zoomorphic clay figurines from the Early Bronze Age settlement of Harich – Mariam Saribekyan Early Bronze Age settlement from ancient city Samshvilde – Nino Shanshashvili and Goderdzi Narimanishvili New data on the construction and meaning of the Shengavit settlement wall – Hakob Simonyan and Mitchell S Rothman Early Bronze Age obsidian networks: A view from Project ArAGATS – Adam T. Smith On motifs and patterns on Early Trans-Caucasian IIA pottery from Yanik Tepe in northwestern Iran – Geoffrey D. Summers Preliminary results of excavations of the Early Bronze Age settlement in Lernakert (Armenia) – Benik Vardanyan, Mariam Saribekyan, Ruben Davtyan, Levon Mkrtchyan and
Sona Manukyan Bronze Age tomb from the cemetery of Sasunik – Nora Yengibaryan Clay figurines from Agarak – Nora Yengibaryan Armenian Summaries