Archaeological culture · c. 3500–2000 BCE (ended earlier in some areas)
Kura–Araxes culture
Also called the Early Transcaucasian culture, it began on the Ararat plain of Armenia and spread over a huge area of the South Caucasus, eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran, about 1,000 by 500 km, with later offshoots as far as the Levant. Its villagers built mudbrick houses, at first round and later rectangular, and made distinctive black-polished pottery.
See Kura–Araxes culture on the map in 3500 BCE
- On the map
- 3500–2000 BCE
How we know
No writing existed; everything comes from excavated sites, their tools and pottery, and radiocarbon dates. Some scholars date its start as early as c. 4000 BCE.