"Rich and illuminating." Literary Review
A landscape of high mountains and narrow valleys stretching from the Black to the Caspian Seas, the Caucasus region has been home to human populations for nearly 2 million years. In this richly illustrated 2-volume series, historian and explorer Christoph Baumer tells the story of the region's history through to the present day. It is a story of encounters between many different peoples, from Scythians, Turkic and Mongol peoples of the East to Greeks and Romans from the West, from Indo-European tribes from the West as well as the East, and to Arabs and Iranians from the South. It is a story of rival claims by Empires and nations and of how the region has become home to more than 50 languages that can be heard within its borders to this very day.
This first volume charts the period from the emergence of the earliest human populations in the region – the first known human populations outside Africa - to the Seljuk conquests of 1050CE. Along the way the book charts the development of Neolithic, Iron and Bronze Age cultures, the first recognizable Caucasian state and the arrival of a succession of the great transnational Empires, from the Greeks, the Romans and the Armenian to competing Christian and Muslim conquerors. The History of the Caucasus: Volume 1 also includes more than 200 full colour images and maps bringing the changing cultures of these lands vividly to life.
Author(s): Christoph Baumer
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 392
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Contents
I. Along the European–Asian Border: An Introduction
1. A conflict-ridden present age
2. A unique geography
3. Peoples and languages
4. Objectives and sources
II. The Formation of the Landscape and the Early Humans of the Palaeolithic
1. The formation of the Caucasus Mountains and the history of the neighbouring seas – The Black Sea and Caspian Sea
Excursus: Did the Great Flood take place on the Black Sea?
2. Homo georgicus – The first early humans outside Africa
3. Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in the North and South Caucasus
III. Prehistoric Cultures: From the Neolithic to the Iron Age
1. The southern Caucasus
1.1 The Shulaveri-Shomutepe-Aratashen culture
1.2 The Chalcolithic cultures of Sioni and Leila Tepe
1.3 The Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes culture
1.4 The Kurgan cultures of the Middle Bronze Age
Excursus: The invention of the wheel and the wagon
1.5 The Late Bronze Age and Iron Age
1.6 Early tribal organizations, war alliances and confederations
1.7 Colchis in prehistoric times
2. The northern Caucasus
2.1 Chalcolithic settlements and early low burial mounds
2.2 The Early Bronze Age cultures of Maikop
2.3 The Middle and Late Bronze Age Dolmen culture
2.4 The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Priel’brus culture
IV. The First Caucasian State, Greek Emporia and Northern Horse Peoples
1. Urartu/Biainili – The first Caucasian state
1.1 The founding of Biainili
1.2 Biainili fights with the Neo-Assyrian Empire for supremacy in the Middle East
1.3 Neo-Assyria’s renewed ascent and Biainili’s demise
1.4 Biainili’s fall
2. Horsemen from the North and Greek trade colonies
2.1 Cimmerians
2.2 Immigrant Scythians and autochthonous Maiotes
2.3 Greek emporia in the north-western Caucasus
2.4 Sarmatians, Alans and the Hun invasion
V. The South Caucasus under Achaemenid Supremacy, Armenian Kingdoms and Pontus
1. Achaemenid supremacy
2. The Hellenization of Colchis
3. Early kingdoms of Armenia
3.1 Armenian dynasties of the Orontids/Yervanduni and early Artaxiad
3.2 Tigranes the Great, Pontus and the Mithridatic Wars
Excursus: The eight deities of the Armenian pantheon
3.3 Late Artaxiad: Armenia between Rome and Parthia
3.4 Roman client-rulers of Pontus
VI. Roman-Parthian Condominiums in the South Caucasus
1. Remarks on early historiography
2. The Kingdom of Kartli (Iberia) and Lazica
2.1 Legendary ancestors and the Parnavazids
2.2 Iberia in Rome’s political orbit
3. Caucasian Albania in pre-Islamic times
4. Armenia
4.1 Armenia as a Roman–Parthian condominium
4.2 Armenia between Sassanid and Roman sovereignty
VII. The Introduction of Christianity as a State Ideology and the Division of the South Caucasus
1. The legends of apostolic missionary work
2. Armenia and the tradition of Gregory the Illuminator
2.1 Syrian-Mesopotamian and Greek-Cappadocian influences
2.2 King Trdat IV and Gregory the Illuminator
2.3 Peculiarities of early Armenian Christianity
2.4 A power struggle between kings and church leaders, and Armenia’s division
2.5 The third missionization of Armenia and the end of the monarchy
Excursus: Mesrop Mashtots and the invention of the Armenian script
3. Kartli: From King Mirian III to the abolition of the monarchy
3.1 The legend of St Nino and the Christianization of Kartli
3.2 Kartli under Persian sovereignty
4. The conversion of Albania and the Apostolic Church of Caucasian Albania
5. Lazica and the initial Christianization of the North Caucasian Alans
5.1 The Lazic Wars
5.2 The Christianization of Lazica, Alania and Svaneti and the veneration of military saints
6. Persian hegemony in Armenia, Georgia and Albania
7. Alienation between the Caucasian church hierarchies
VIII. Between Caliphate, Byzantium and Khazars
1. South Caucasian principalities under Islamic rule up to the battle of Bagrevand in 772
2. The rise of the Bagratid dynasties
2.1 The emergence of the Kingdom of Armenia
Excursus: Paulicians and Tondrakians
2.2 The emergence of the Georgian Kingdom of Sakartvelo
3. The Kingdom of the Khazars
4. The Kingdom of Alania
5. Muslim dynasties of Albania and the invasion of the Seljuks
5.1 The Sajids
5.2 The Sallarids
5.3 The Rawwadids
5.4 The Shaddadids
5.5 The Yazidids and Hashimids
6. The kingdoms of Armenia, Byzantine rule and the Seljuk conquest
6.1 The Armenian kingdoms
6.2 The Byzantine annexation of Armenia
6.3 The Seljuks conquer Armenia
6.4 Ani under the rule of the Shaddadids
IX. Outlook
Appendices
I. Population statistics by country
II. Long-established languages of the Caucasus by language family
III. Chronology of the most important Caucasian dynasties
Notes
Bibliography
List of Maps
Photo credits
Acknowledgements
Indexes
Concepts
People
Places
