POLITICAL CONTACTS

The geographical, historical and cultural links between Iran and the Caucasian area extend into remote antiquity. The Caucasus range has been from time immemorial the barrier separating the Eurasian steppe lands from more advanced civilizations centred on Mesopotamia and Anatolia. The Armenian plateau, with its mighty volcanic peaks, later imposed a formidable barrier to the westward drive of the Iranian people, once they were firmly established in their historical habitat. There is little doubt that some of the ancestors of the Iranians, like the Hittites and other Indo-European warrior aristocracies, entered Armenia from the north along the Caspian littoral, which was to be for centuries the classic invasion route for northern nomads attracted by the wealth and economic opportunities of the ancient Near East.

During the Early Bronze Age, extending through the 3rd millennium B.C., north-western Iran formed a single cultural zone with Armenia and southern Georgia, which all entered into the orbit of what is generally knows as the Kuro-Araxes culture. This in turn links up with the Khirbet-kerak pottery culture of Palestine and Syria. The connections between the Armenian and Iranian Middle and Late Bronze Ages are well known, while the Luristān bronzes are sometimes now attributed to Cimmerians who had entered Iran by way of the Caucasus (pl. 36(a)).

During recent decades, archaeologists have devoted increasing interest to the civilization of Urartu, the mighty rival of Assyria. The kingdom of Urartu flourished in a vast region centred on Lake Vān in Armenia, and incorporated at one time the advanced culture of the Mannians, around Lake Urmiya.