Archaeological research in the Eurasian steppes

Abstract

This paper presents the activities of the 'Eurasien-Abteilung' of the German Archaeological Institute in different countries of former USSR. Many of these projects have just begun; consequently the paper does not discuss the results of these investigations, but details their scientific purposes. The investigations cover an area which extends from the Black Sea to northeastern China. The principal objects of these investigations include: the transition from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age in the Pontic area north of the Black Sea and the Greek colonization of that area; the activities of the Scythians and the Sassanians in Transcaucasia, urbanism and metallurgy in the Bronze Age of Central Asia; and, finally, cultural developments from the Early Bronze Age to the periods of the Scythians and the Huns period in southern Siberia.