Overview

Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the Caucasus region has played a critical role in the dissemination of languages, ideas, and cultures since prehistoric times. In this study, Aram Yardumian and Theodore Schurr explore the dispersal of human groups in the Caucasus beginning in the Palaeolithic period. Using evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and anthropological genetics, they trace changes in settlement patterns, cultural practices, and genetic variation. Highlighting the region's ecological diversity, natural resources, and agricultural productivity, Yardumian and Schurr reconstruct the timings and likely migration routes for human settlement following the Last Glacial Maximum, as well as the possible connections to regional economies for these expansions. Based on analysis of archaeological site reports, linguistic relationships, and genetic data previously published separately and in different languages, their synthesis of the most up to date evidence opens new vistas into the chronology and human dynamics of the Caucasus' prehistory.

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9781009520232

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Reviews

'This is a timely and valuable resource on the Caucasus, and an important first in its thorough and up-to-date coverage of the geographical setting, genetics, archeology, and linguistics. Especially welcome is its grounding in current best work on linguistic relationships and prehistory. Clear and readable even on technical matters, it can be recommended to both scholarly and general readers.' Johanna Nichols, University of California, Berkeley

Author Information

Aram Yardumian is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Bryn Athlyn College. An anthropologist who works at the intersection of genetics and archaeology, he has conducted fieldwork in Georgia, Armenia, Oman, and the Caribbean. He has also investigated the dispersal and prehistory of anatomically modern humans through phylogeographic studies of Y-chromosome and mitochondrial haplogroups, and the analysis of genomic DNA. Theodore G. Schurr is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. For over 30 years, he has conducted anthropological genetics research that combines ethnographic fieldwork with laboratory analyses. He has investigated the prehistory of Siberia and the Americas, as well as that of Australia, Melanesia, Turkey, Georgia, Pakistan, and Kazkhstan. He has also explored the role of the mitochondrial DNA in complex diseases, metabolism, and adaptation.

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