It published the article "The South Caucasus on the threshold of the metal age "of Dr. Tufan Akhundov, on the collection of scientific essays of "Context and Connection: Essays on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East in Honour of Antonio Sagona" (Peeters Leuven, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta/OLA). Note that Dr. Tufan Akhundov is a senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of ANAS, and the leader of the expedition of the neolithic-chalcolithic Mugan.
The article states, an urgent problem in Caucasian archaeology is to identify the exact time of the appearance of local metallurgy and correct the established periodisation of the region's evolution accordingly. The appearance of new information concerning early metallurgy has made it possible to outline and to an extent address this question. The key source of new data was the settlement Alkhantepe, which joins the circle of the Leilatepe tradition's archaeological sites. Examination of the settlement has produced a sound collection, confirming, apart from other things, that the settlement's inhabitants had acquired the full repertoire of metallurgic production and metalworking. This paper provides a brief description of the Caucasus'historical evolution preceding the appearance of the true Caucasian metallurgy and offers some views about its periodisation. On the basis of this data, it is suggested that the Leilatepe tradition-carriers, including inhabitants of settlement Alkhantepe, were the region's first metallurgists and had already entered the Metal Age.