Areni-1 Cave

One of the first researchers of chronological aspects of the Kura-Araxes culture B. A. Kuftin suggested the idea of the „Kura-Araxes Eneolithic‟ and placed it within the frames of the Copper Age. Academician B. Piotrovsky had the same opinion on this question [Piotrovsky, 1949: 32- 42]. Only H. Martirosyan [Martirosyan, 1964: 22-47] was the first to identify the Kura-Araxes culture as „Early Bronze Age phenomenon‟ and dated it to the beginning of the second half of the III Millennium BC. K. Kushnareva and T. Chubinishvili followed the same concept. As a result, the Kura-Araxes culture „achieved‟ an epochal status (the epoch of the Early Bronze Age) and was divided into three phases: Early (3000 - 2700/2600 BC), Middle (2700/2600 – 2400/2300 BC) and Late (2400/2300 – 2000 BC). Periodization of the Kura-Araxes culture suggested by S. Ashurov was different. According to him, its first phase dated back to 3600 - 3400 BC, the
Second - 3400 - 2800 BC, and the Third - 2800 - 2400 BC [Rybakov, 1994: 17-18].

New stratigraphic studies of the Kura-Araxes sites combined with the series of radiocarbon dates allowed the researchers to enlarge the chronological borders of the Early Bronze Age. Thus, the First phase, or EBA-I, dated back to XXXV-XXX centuries BC; the Second phase, or EBA-II – XXIX-XXVI centuries BC; and the Third phase, or EBA-III – XXVI-XXIV/XXII centuries BC [Avetisyan et al. 1996: 8-10; Kushnareva, 2000: 53-54].