Paléorient, vol. 40.2, p. 47-69 © CNRS ÉDITIONS 2014 Manuscrit reçu le 13 janvier 2014, accepté le 19 juin 2014 THE KURA-ARAXES CULTURE

IN THE SHIDA KARTLI REGION OF GEORGIA: AN OVERVIEW

E. ROVA

Introduction

The Shida (Inner) Kartli province lies in the centre of present-day Georgia, between the Likhi range to the west, the Trialeti range to the south, the Great Caucasus to the north, and the Aragvi River to the east (fi g. 1). The modern administrative division roughly replicates the province’s historical borders, except for the presence of the autonomous province of South Ossetia. In the following, we will especially focus on the Kura River valley, which represents the core of the region. Areas which are historically part of the Shida Kartli province or are culturally related to it, e. g. the Mtskheta-Mtianeti province, will be occasionally included in the discussion. The area belongs to what is traditionally considered the heart of the Kura-Araxes (KA) culture, and is home to one of its regional variants, as opposed, for instance, to the “ Kvemo (Lower) Kartlian”, or “ Armenian” variants (Sagona 1984: 97-106; Lordkipanidze 1991: 43-54; Palumbi 2008: 206-207). It hosts a relatively high number of excavated sites of the period, some of which of comparatively large dimensions and with a longer sequence of occupation. Evidence for the preced-