The Trialeti culture is attributed to the first part of the 2nd millennium B.C. In the late 3rd millennium B.C. settlements of the Kura-Araxes culture began to be replaced by early Trialeti culture sites. The Trialeti culture was the second culture to appear in the Caucasus, after the Kura-Araxes culture. The Trialeti culture shows close ties with the highly-developed cultures of the ancient world, particularly with the Aegean.

The Trialeti culture was known for its particular form of burial. The elite were interred in large, very rich burials under earth and stone mounds, which sometimes contained four-wheeled carts. Also there were many gold objects found in the graves. These gold objects were similar to those found in Iran and Iraq.

In certain theories for locating the Urheimat (homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language, this culture is identified with the speakers of the Anatolian languages, and even as an earlier Urheimat. Soviet scholars Tamaz Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov placed the homeland in Armenia in the 1980's.

See also

• Kura-Araxes culture
• Shulaveri-Shomu culture
• Prehistoric Armenia
• Prehistoric Georgia

References