Pages:  95-131 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp26295131

This article provides the first detailed description and classification of non-metallic jewelry (beads) from Middle Bronze Age burials from Ciscaucasia, dating to the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC (Kyondelen I burial ground). Based on visual detection data using optical microscopy, confirmed by the results of analyses of chemical composition performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDS), and mineral composition using X-ray diffraction, it was established that most of these items were made of faience, while the remainder (about a quarter of the total) were made of stone (talc/ steatite, calcite/limestone and carnelian). A study of burial complexes containing faience and carnelian items from the Middle Bronze Age of Ciscaucasia and the North-Western Caspian region has revealed a steady increase in the proportion of such ornaments from the second to the third quarter of the third millennium BC and a concentration of such items in sites in the North-Eastern Caucasus. This suggests that this particular territory served as a transit point for the spread of faience and carnelian ornaments to the Ciscaucasus and neighboring regions. The nearest sources of this import could have been the Northern Iran and Northern Mesopotamia regions, which were quite accessible for this type of transaction through the territory of the coastal part of Dagestan and the Greater Caucasus Passage.

Keywords: Middle East, Middle Bronze Age, Kyondelen I burial ground, burials, North Caucasian culture, ornaments, beads, faience, stone, talc, carnelian, chemical composition

Information about authors:

Alexander Kleshchenko (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-7577-8835

Ekaterina Stolyarova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Lomonosov Ave., 27-4, Moscow, 119192, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0001-9963-717X

Alexey Yapryntsev (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Chemistry. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lenin Ave., 31, Moscow, 119071, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-8166-2476

Alexey Okulov (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Geology and Mineralogy. Central Research Institute of Geological Prospecting for Base and Precious Metals. Varshavskoe Highway, 129, bld. 1, Moscow, 117545, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0006-3511-6865