Palumbi G. The Red and Black. Social and Cultural Interaction between the Upper Euphrates and the Southern Caucasus Communities in the Fourth and Third Millennium BC

Roma: Sapienza Università di Roma, 2008. — 343 p. — (Studi di Preistoria Orientale (SPO), Volume 2).Red and Black have long been considered the trademark colors of the Kura-Araks (a.k.a. Early Transcaucasian) cultural complex, one of the most spatially extensive and temporally durable traditions of the Ancient Near East, and they are the symbolic weft and warp of G. Palumbi’s commendable monograph. Although the current renaissance of archaeology in the post-Soviet Caucasus has revived Kura-Araks research, as witnessed by a plethora of contributions to edited conference volumes and by important individual studies and reports, Palumbi’s new study stands out as the most sustained interpretive effort since A. Sagona introduced the archaeology of Early Bronze Age Transcaucasia to the English-speaking world. Such an effort is indeed timely, as new discoveries and the proliferation of local perspectives render a general appreciation of the phenomenon increasingly difficult. Few are better equipped to make this effort than Palumbi, who has excavated extensively throughout the region and immersed himself in the ancient and modern cultures of Eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus.
This study, while purporting to be of only regional significance, in fact informs the discussion of the whole of the Kura-Araks world, as it deals with the central issues at stake: definition of the phenomenon, chronology and origins, principle phases of development, mode of expansion, and social and cultural significance. Based on first-hand acquaintance with the material, it is accompanied by extensive quantitative analyses and the incorporation of newly drawn material, much of it accessible only in regional museums and storerooms. Its central aim, convincingly argued, is to restore an active role to Anatolia in the formation of the broad tradition conjured up by the term “Kura-Araks.”History of the Research, Terminologies and Chronologies. An Introduction.
The Beginnings and the Early Developments of the Kura-Araks Culture in the Southern Caucasus.
The Upper Euphrates and the Eastern Anatolian Communities during the Second Half of the Fourth Millennium (3500-3100 BC).
The Royal Tomb of Arslantepe. Funerary Ideology and Power Strategies in a Changing World.
The Kura-Araks Communities of Southern Caucasus during the End of the Fourth and the First Half of the Third Millennium (phases KA II and III).
The Upper Euphrates and Eastern Anatolia in the First Half of the Third Millennium.
Conclusions. The Upper Euphrates and the Southern Caucasus. A History of Interaction and Transformative Relations.