Rising from the high folds of the South Caucasus, the Kura‑Araxes phenomenon in Armenia appears as a cinematic fusion of landscape and craft. Archaeological data indicates an emergence in the early third millennium BCE, with the dataset here spanning 3625–2250 BCE. Sites sampled include Kaps, the Karnut Archaeological Complex, Berkaber, the Dzhoghaz cemetery (Meydanner), and the renowned Shengavit cemetery and settlement on the Yerevan plain.
Material culture — especially the distinctive red‑and‑black burnished pottery, compact domestic compounds, and standardized metalwork — defines the horizon archaeologists associate with Kura‑Araxes. These material signatures move across valleys and along mountain corridors, suggesting networks of exchange and shared ritual vocabulary. Limited evidence suggests local continuity with Late Chalcolithic communities of the Caucasus while also reflecting interactions with neighboring Anatolia and the Iranian plateau.
The twelve genomes sampled from Armenian Kura‑Araxes contexts provide a biological snapshot that complements the pottery and architecture: they belong to a period of active cultural re‑packing, where new communal forms and regional identities were being forged amid long‑standing local traditions. While the archaeological record is robust at many tell sites, genetic sampling remains geographically and numerically limited, so models of population movement and continuity remain provisional.