Shulaveri-Shomu culture

Shulaveri-Shomu culture is a Late Neolithic/Eneolithic culture in the Transcaucasus region. The culture is dated to mid-6th or early-5th millennia BC. [Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archeology - Page 512 by Barbara Ann Kipfer] Archaeologists refer to the Shulaveri-Shomu culture of the central Transcaucasus region, including present day Georgia and the Armenian Highlands, as the earliest known Neolithic culture in the south-eastern Caucasus, radiocarbon-dated to roughly 6000 - 4000 BC.

Shulaveri culture predates the Kura-Araxes culture of the Armenian Highland and surrounding areas, which is assigned to the period of ca. 4000 - 2200 BC, and is believed to have subsequently developed into the Trialeti culture (ca. 2200 - 1500 BC). [Kushnareva, K. Kh. 1997. The Southern Caucasus in Prehistory: Stages of Cultural and Socioeconomic Development from the Eighth to the Second Millennium B.C. University Museum Monograph 99. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Museum.] Sioni culture of Eastern Georgia possibly represents a transition from the Shulaveri to the Kura-Arax cultural complex. [Kiguradze, T. and Menabde, M. 2004. The Neolithic of Georgia. In: Sagona, A. (ed.), A View from the Highlands: Archaeological Studies in Honour of Charles Burney. Ancient Near Eastern Studies Supplement 12. Leuven: Peeters. Pp. 345-398.]

In around ca. 6000–4200 B.C the Shulaveri-Shomu and other Neolithic/Chalcolithic cultures of the Southern Caucasus use local obsidian for tools, raise animals such as cattle and pigs, and grow crops, including grapes. [ [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/02/waa/ht02waa.htm Anatolia and the Caucasus, 8000–2000 B.C.] ] Many of the characteristic traits of the Shulaverian material culture (circular mudbrick architecture, pottery decorated by plastic design, anthropomorphic female figurines, obsidian industry with an emphasys on production of long prismatic blades) are believed to have their origin in the Near Eatern Neolithic (Hassuna, Halaf). [Kiguradze, T. 2001. Caucasian Neolithic. In: Peregrine, P. N. and Ember, M. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Prehistory. Volume 4: Europe. New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. Pp. 55-76.]

ee also

*Kura-Araxes culture
*Trialeti culture
*Prehistoric Georgia

References

External links

* [http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/History_of_Armenia_-_Prehistory/id/5099299 Experience Festival]