The longevity of the Kura-Araxes culture is an archaeological phenomenon in the Caucasus and Near East. Over the course of a millennium, this culture spread from its origins in Eastern Anatolia, the Transcaucasia and northwest Iran to Southeastern Anatolia, northern Syria, Palestine and Israel. Named after the settlement mound Karaz near Erzurum, the Karaz culture is a widely established Turkish term for the Kura-Araxes culture. In Palestine and Israel, this culture is called Khirbet-Kerak. Apart from the striking small finds and special architectural features, it has a special pottery with characteristics that remained almost uniform in its area of distribution. Situated in the Altınova plain in Eastern Anatolia, Tepecik was also home for this significant culture. Today, this settlement mound lies under the waters of the Keban Dam in Elazığ. Yet its strategic location on a tributary of the Euphrates enabled the emergence and development of various cultures. At this settlement, archaeologists documented the Karaz culture that occurred in an almost unbroken cultural sequence from the Late Chalcolithic up to the beginnings of the Middle Bronze Age. Thus, Tepecik is one of the most significant prehistoric settlements within the distribution area of the Kura-Araxes/Karaz/Khirbet Kerak culture in the Near East. This paper presents the Karaz pottery from Tepecik as well as the possible development of the Karaz culture in the course of the Early Bronze Age at this settlement.
.Dolgoživost kulture Kura-Araxes je arheološki fenomen na območju Kavkaza in Bližnjega vzhoda. Skozi tisočletje se je ta kultura razširila od izvornih območij v vzhodni Anatoliji, v Zakavkazju in v severozahodnem Iranu do jugovzhodne Anatolije, severne Sirije, Palestine in Izraela. Kultura Karaz je bila poimenovana po naselbinski gomili Karaz pri Erzurumu in predstavlja dobro uveljavljen turški termin za kulturo Kura-Araxes. V Palestini in Izraelu pa se ta kultura imenuje Khirbet-Kerak. Poleg presenetljivih majhnih najdb in posebnih arhitekturnih značilnosti ima kultura še posebno lončenino z značilnostmi, ki so ostale skoraj nespremenjene na celotnem območju razširjenosti. Najdišče Tepecik, ki se nahaja v nižini Altınova v vzhodni Anatoliji, je prav tako predstavljalo dom tej pomembni kulturi. Danes je celotni najdišče pod vodo za jezom Keban v pokrajini Elazığ. Strateška lega naselbine na pritoku Evfrata je omogočila nastanek in razvoj različnih kultur. Tukaj so arheologi dokumentirali kulturo Karaz, ki se pojavlja v skoraj nepretrgani kulturni sekvenci od poznega halkolitika do začetka srednje bronaste dobe. To postavlja Tepecik na mesto ene bolj pomembnih prazgodovinskih naselbin znotraj območja razširjenosti kulture Kura-Araxes/Karaz/Khirbet Kerak na Bližnjem vzhodu. V članku predstavljamo lončenino tipa Karaz iz Tepecika kot tudi možen razvoj kulture Karaz v času zgodnje bronaste dobe na najdišču
