In the past few years, several international conferences in the United States (e.g., Chicago 2004; Pittsburgh 2006) have focused on the problems of social complexity in the vast region of Eurasia. I remember that during my first trip to the United States in 1994, I met David Anthony, Karen Rubinson, Adam Smith, Phil Kohl, and Karlene Jones-Bley. At that time, these individuals were representative of a very small group of American archaeologists whose academic interests were directed to a better understanding of Eurasian steppe prehistory. In retrospect, it has taken some time to overcome the consequences of the long academic separation that existed between Anglo-American and Russian archaeology during the Soviet period. In recent years, the beginning of a much better understanding between scholars of these regions and broader perceptions of Eurasian archaeological materials are being realized.

Both past and recent research has shown that Eurasian prehistory represents a number of socio-cultural phenomena not only of regional but also of wider historical significance. The assessment of these phenomena, particularly the character and level of social complexity of Eurasian cultures in light of modern theoretical models, forms a rather new agenda in Eurasian studies. This volume, and the set of essays that forms part I, contribute importantly to this new orientation.

All of the chapters in the first part focus on the Bronze Age. Geographically, three of the four papers fully or partly concern the Ural mountain region (Epimakhov, Anthony, Frachetti), one paper the Caucasus (Kohl), and another also includes the Semirech'ye area of southeastern Kazakhstan (Frachetti).