An analysis of eight Alu insertion loci (ACE, ApoA1, PV92, TPA25, NBC27, NBC102, NBC148 and NBC182) was carried out in three ethnic groups of the South Caucasus (Abkhazians, Armenians and Georgians). Genetic differentiation between these groups (Gst = 1%) was half as much as in European populations and four time less than in populations of Dagestan. Although it was not possible to determine a c...

The systematic excavations at Ortvale Klde rockshelter and Dzudzuana Cave in Western Georgia uncovered an occupational sequence spanning the Late Mousterian and Early Upper Paleolithic. The cultural break between the two entities is dated to ca 36–34 Ka BP and reflects a relatively late survival of Neanderthals in this region; similar results were reported from Mezmaiskaya cave on the northern ...

The Kura-Araxes cultural tradition existed in the highlands of the South Caucasus from 3500 to 2450 BCE (before the Christian era). This tradition represented an adaptive regime and a symbolically encoded common identity spread over a broad area of patchy mountain environments. By 3000 BCE, groups bearing this identity had migrated southwest across a wide area from the Taurus Mountains down int...

The establishment of irrevocable democracy, the rule of law, free market economic relations, and the protection of fundamental human rights have not yet assumed key significance in the South Caucasus countries. Consequently, all pressing problems of the region continue to intensify, keeping the region politically and economically unstable. Given contending geopolitical and geoeconomic interests...

Heterogeneous pyritaceous-polymetallic and copper-zinc-pyrrhotine deposits on the South slope of the Greater Caucasus are located in the Lower-Middle Jurassic terrigenous sediments. They were formed under a wide variation of physico-chemical parameters of mineral formation and are characterized by specific mineralogical-geochemical peculiarities. Ore-formation occurred in three stages. In the f...

The south Caucasus and Central Asia will be of growing geopolitical significance to the West and NATO over the next 10–15 years because of their potential contribution to global energy supplies and energy security and the risk that conflict and instability could spread beyond the region, invite foreign military intervention, provoke a resurgence of Russian neo-imperialism, redefine the territor...

Vkry variable incubation periods have been given by different observers, making it most difficult to make any definite, authoritative statement on the subject. Thus Ralph Hopkins of Lousiana places it at six to eight years, Besnier says it is usually four years, Iveravel in the Caucasus found it to be three to four years in a few cases where it could be definitely fixed, while Munch of South Ru...

Armenia, situated in the South Caucasus, was one of the first states of the former Soviet Union to gain independence. Fifteen years later however, there are still thousands of people with mental health problems in Armenia who live an uncertain life in a society that does not recognise them as equal members. As in many societies, in Armenia the community’s rejection is based on myths about peopl...