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Since the end of the second Chechen campaign, the North Caucasus counterinsurgency has experienced the shift from military involvement toward prevalence of law enforcement instruments. This paper discusses the composition of repressive tactics that the Russian state developed as a result of the two decades long evolution of a counter strategy designed to eliminate illegal armed groups operating in the North Caucasus. It is focused on the late stages of conflict (2007-2014) when the violence that had spread across the region started in the early 2000s had symbolically culminated in 2007 with the proclamation of the Caucasian Emirate. This paper advances a reconceptualization of the Russian counterinsurgency by devising an analysis of indiscriminate and discriminate repressive tactics. It demonstrates that security agencies incorporated more selective uses of violence into their tactics, thereby reducing the number of indiscriminate violent actions to an insignificant level. Moreover, along with selective violence, security institutions reinforced their effort by conducting preventive work such as the detection of secret caches of weapons, seizures, and arrests. Findings regarding the current composition of repressive tactics are illustrated by means of new disaggregated media-based data that were especially collected and analyzed to form the basis of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on radiocarbon (14C) results from the recent archaeological investigations in the ancient frontier fortress of Rabati, in southwest Georgia, a collaborative research project involving archaeologists from the Georgian National Museum and the University of Melbourne. From the first three excavation seasons spanning 2016, 2018, and 2019, it became clear that significant Bedeni phase deposits capped most of the summit of the site. Levels with their distinctive vessels and a range of contemporary, local domestic wares, pits and some traces of architecture seal underlying Early Bronze Age strata. The Early Bronze Age levels include massive architecture rarely seen in Kura-Araxes settlements. Some finds can only be described as unique and extraordinary while others suggest that the core population was stable with long-held traditions, yet open to new influences infiltrating this highland site during the subsequent Early Kurgan (Martkopi-Bedeni) period. We discuss the key discoveries at Rabati relative to the 14C readings from the site within the wider setting of contemporary sites in the Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the second Chechen campaign, the North Caucasus counterinsurgency has experienced the shift from military involvement toward prevalence of law enforcement instruments. This paper discusses the composition of repressive tactics that the Russian state developed as a result of the two decades long evolution of a counter strategy designed to eliminate illegal armed groups operating in the North Caucasus. It is focused on the late stages of conflict (2007-2014) when the violence that had spread across the region started in the early 2000s had symbolically culminated in 2007 with the proclamation of the Caucasian Emirate. This paper advances a reconceptualization of the Russian counterinsurgency by devising an analysis of indiscriminate and discriminate repressive tactics. It demonstrates that security agencies incorporated more selective uses of violence into their tactics, thereby reducing the number of indiscriminate violent actions to an insignificant level. Moreover, along with selective violence, security institutions reinforced their effort by conducting preventive work such as the detection of secret caches of weapons, seizures, and arrests. Findings regarding the current composition of repressive tactics are illustrated by means of new disaggregated media-based data that were especially collected and analyzed to form the basis of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on problems of the national movement of the Circassians – a small nation in the Caucasus, most of whose population is dispersed all over the world. The paper researches the development of the Circassian movement from 1989–2000 and its contemporary structure since 2005. The modern Circassian movement as a whole has never been approached from a political science viewpoint. This research aims to answer several core questions: What are the different strands of the movement? What principles are they based on? Who are the participants? What political forces support them? How do these political forces interact with each other? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abkhazia during the Stalin era was at the same time a subtropical haven where the great leader and his lieutenants built grand dachas and took extended holidays away from Moscow, and also a key piece in the continuing chess match of Soviet politics. This paper will examine how and why this small, sunny autonomous republic on the Black Sea, and the political networks that developed there, played a prominent role in the politics of the south Caucasus region and in Soviet politics as a whole during the Stalin period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A unique crustose lichen species was recently documented from various types of preserved forests across boreal and temperate Europe (Norway, Ukraine, the Czech Republic) and the Caucasus (Russia). It is formally described here as the new species Biatora amylacea. A phylogeny based on ITS and mtSSU sequences demonstrates that it belongs to an isolated group within the core of Biatora s. lat., together with the recently described B. radicicola. It is a distinctive taxon within the genus on account of its amyloid exciple, otherwise known only from members of the Biatora rufidula group. The new species is also characterized by amyloid thalline hyphae and the production of soredia with a blue-green pigment. This microlichen may serve as a bioindicator species of old-growth forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During a study of the incompletely known lichen flora of the Caucasus, we analyzed 237 specimens of corticolous Bacidia s. str. collected in the Northern and Southern Caucasus, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia. Of these, 54 specimens belonging to 11 species of Bacidia s. str. were selected for molecular studies, representing the observed morphological variability of the genus. We obtained 142 sequences from three RNA-coding genes (nrITS, nrLSU, and mtSSU) and two protein-coding genes (RPB 1 and RPB 2). The single and concatenated datasets were complemented with Bacidia s. str. sequences from GenBank and subjected to Bayesian inference and two maximum likelihood analyses (RAxML and IQ-TREE). The resulting trees yielded highly concordant topologies of the groups and corresponded with previous results, supporting two main clades correlating with apothecia pigmentation. Our analyses are the first to reveal the presence of Bacidia heterochroa in the Caucasus. An exceptionally high degree of morphological plasticity was found in the Rubella and Suffusa groups. As a result of morphological examination and phylogenetic results, B. caucasica (Suffusa group) was described as new to science. Furthermore, two putative taxa in the Rubella group, Bacidia inconspicua ined. and B. maritima ined., were introduced. This study furthers our understanding and documentation of the understudied lichen flora of the Caucasus, bringing the total number of Bacidia species for the region to 13. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research indicates that full-fledged Neolithic societies emerged in the Southern Caucasus in the early sixth millennium BC, most likely through interaction with and/or the immigration of the Neolithic societies of Southwest Asia. However, the absence of late seventh millennium BC excavated sites has prevented us from being able to interpret the processes in relation to earlier indigenous foraging societies. The 2016–2019 excavations at Damjili Cave, west Azerbaijan, revealed a stratified cultural sequence of the key Mesolithic-to-Neolithic transition period for the first time. Its radiocarbon chronology identified a rather abrupt emergence of the Neolithic economy at around 6000 cal BC, at least in the study region, urging a reconsideration of the long-standing claim that some other form of earlier Neolithic society had existed before this. At the same time, the stratigraphic analysis of cultural remains revealed continuity in certain elements of tool manufacturing and use from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. This complex situation shows the need for evaluating the degree to which indigenous foraging societies contributed to the Neolithization of the Southern Caucasus, rather than focusing merely on immigration models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that *Magas, capital city of the North Caucasian Kingdom of Alania, can be identified with the gorodishche (hillfort) of Il'ichevsk, in Krasnodar Krai in the modern Russian Federation. The Kingdom of Alania was the most powerful polity in the North Caucasus in the tenth and eleventh centuries; however, the location of its capital has never been satisfactorily established. This article reviews the evidence of written sources on *Magas – notably Masʿūdī, Juvayni, Rashid al-Din, and the Yuan-Shi – and identifies four criteria which can be used to identify the site of *Magas. These are its occupation between the tenth and thirteenth centuries; the influence of the Alan kings over it; its massive fortifications; and its capture by the Mongols in 1239–40. All of these features can be identified at Il'ichevsk, in contrast to previously proposed sites of *Magas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is causing glaciers in the Caucasus Mountains and around the world to lose mass at an accelerated pace. As a result of this rapid retreat, significant parts of the glacierized surface area can be covered with debris deposits, often making them indistinguishable from the surrounding land surface by optical remote-sensing systems. Here, we present the DebCovG-carto toolbox to delineate debris-covered and debris-free glacier surfaces from non-glacierized regions. The algorithm uses synthetic aperture radar-derived coherence images and the normalized difference snow index applied to optical satellite data. Validating the remotely-sensed boundaries of Ushba and Chalaati glaciers using field GPS data demonstrates that the use of pairs of Sentinel-1 images (2019) from identical ascending and descending orbits can substantially improve debris-covered glacier surface detection. The DebCovG-carto toolbox leverages multiple orbits to automate the mapping of debris-covered glacier surfaces. This new automatic method offers the possibility of quickly correcting glacier mapping errors caused by the presence of debris and makes automatic mapping of glacierized surfaces considerably faster than the use of other subjective methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lecanora s. lat. is a genus of crustose, rarely placodioid lichens comprising c. 1000 recognized species and subdivided into several morphology-based groups. Some of these groups have been supported in phylogenetic analyses and segregated as new genera. One of the remaining groups that has not been previously studied by molecular methods in much detail, the L. saligna-group, includes corticolous and lignicolous crustose lichens, usually containing isousnic or usnic acid (or both) as major secondary metabolites. As part of our ongoing project 'Lecanomics', a phylogenetic analysis based on two loci was conducted and found the L. saligna-group to be divided into two main clades and several well-supported minor clades. The L. varia clade, chosen as one of the outgroups, emerged within the L. saligna-group. The majority of the clades are characterized by phenotypic differences. However, several well-supported clades share similarities with their sister groups, suggesting that species circumscriptions based solely on phenotypic characters may be too conservative to characterize the true species diversity present within the group. Also, there is evidence for some geographical separation of lineages; for example, most North American individuals, previously known as Lecanora saligna and L. albellula, form two clades separate from their European namesakes and are here preliminarily called 'Lecanora sp. B', 'Lecanora sp. C' and 'Lecanora sp. D'. However, L. saligna and L. albellula also appear to occur in North America, and some specimens from the Caucasus and Iran cluster within the North American clades. Lecanora anopta and L. subravida are reported for the first time from Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropomorphic stone stelae of monumental dimensions dated to the 4th and 3rd millennia BC have been found in southern Europe between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caucasus. They are understood as symbolic human representations the size of which arises out of a new self-awareness of humankind in the world. Anthropomorphic stelae are one of many innovations appearing during this epoch. Other innovations are copper metallurgy and tools, in particular weapons and jewellery, as well as the wheel, the wagon, and the plough drawn by animals. These innovations are depicted on stelae; what is more, the stele itself is an innovation in which the other changes are bundled. Comparable stylistic features of stelae in different areas demonstrate far-reaching contacts. Often the origin of anthropomorphic stelae is seen in the Russian steppes, with the archaeogenetically proven migration from east to west being the cause for the building of stelae in central and western Europe. However, the oldest known stelae apparently originate in western Europe. The impulses behind the dissemination of innovations must have emanated from continuous exchange relations, but the migration in the 3rd millennium bce did not bring with it the idea itself of anthropomorphic stelae. Nowadays the question about the function of stelae is usually answered with the representation of ancestors. When anthropomorphic stones keep the memory of common roots alive, they serve the building of identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamorphic rocks associated with ophiolitic rocks occur on the eroded surface of a NW–SE-trending anticline in the Allahyarlu area, NW Iran, between the Caucasus and Zagros orogenic belts. Metapelitic rocks consist mainly of quartz, muscovite chlorite, altered biotite and garnet. S1 is the pervasive schistosity, wrapping garnet, which is folded by the second schistosity (S2). The amphibolite records only one phase of deformation as the main lineation. The rocks experienced metamorphism up to the amphibolite facies, then overprinted by greenschist facies condition. Thermobarometry indicates an average pressure of c. 5 kbar and an average temperature of c. 600 °C for the amphibolite facies metamorphism, corresponding to a ∼33 °C km−1 geothermal gradient in response to a thick magmatic arc setting. Greenschist facies metamorphism shows re-equilibration of the rocks during exhumation. Amphibolites whole rock geochemistry shows trace elements patterns similar to both island arc and back-arc basin basalts, suggesting that the protolith-forming magma of the amphibolites was enriched at shallow to medium depth of a subduction system. Negative Nb anomaly and slight enrichment in light rare earth elements (LREE) and large-ion lithophile elements (LILE) of the amphibolites indicate arc-related magmatism for their protolith and a back-arc sialic setting for their formation. 40Ar–39Ar dating on muscovite separated from two gneiss samples, and hornblende separated from three amphibolite samples, documents a Variscan (326–334 Ma) age. The magmatic and metamorphic rock association of the Allahyarlu area suggests the existence of an active continental margin arc during the Variscan orogeny, without clear evidence for a continental collision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steppe and forest-steppe areas of the Povolzhye area (Caucasus and central Asia) bear much interest for the Neolithic in connection with the productive economy of the region at the time. Recent data have allowed correction of the region's chronology. A number of 14C dates denote the existence of the Neolithic in this territory as early as the 5th to 6th millennium BP. However, some questions are still under debate and require further data to clarify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shrines fill the Eurasian land mass. They can be found from Turkey in the west to China in the east, from the Arctic Circle in the north to Afghanistan in the south. Between town and country, they can consist of full-scale architectural complexes, or they may compose no more than an open field, a pile of stones, a tree, or a small mausoleum. They have been at the centers and peripheries of almost every major religious tradition of the region: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Yet in the formerly socialist world, these places of pilgrimage have something even more in common: they were often cast as the last bastions of religious observance when churches, mosques, temples, and synagogues were sent crashing to the ground in rapid succession across the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study provides 39 new thermochronometric analyses from the western part of the Greater Caucasus, a region in which existing data are extremely limited and of questionable quality. The new results are consistent with field studies that identify Triassic to Middle Jurassic (Cimmerian) and Oligo-Miocene (Alpine) orogenic erosional events. An inverse relationship between the fission track and depositional ages of Oligo-Miocene sedimentary samples also implies some degree of Eocene erosion of the Greater Caucasus and intermediate sediment storage. Cooling ages and field relationships within the core of the range, west of Mt Elbrus, require ∼ 5 km of Permo-Triassic exhumation and restrict the overall amount of Cenozoic exhumation to ∼ 2.5 km. Current exhumation rates are typically low, and do not support a Plio-Pleistocene increase in climate-driven denudation. High (∼ 1 kmMa-1) rates of exhumation are restricted to the southern flank of the range in northwest Georgia. Despite a general lack of significant seismicity within the study region, this exhumation peak is close to the largest instrumentally recorded earthquake in the Caucasus (Ms = 7.0). This may suggest that exhumation is associated with the decoupling of the sedimentary succession from its crystalline basement in the southern part of the range and the inversion of the largely Jurassic fill of the Greater Caucasus basin. Rates of exhumation are compatible with this being driven by active shortening. Further sampling and analysis are required to provide a higher-resolution, low-temperature thermochronology of Alpine exhumation, to isolate the drivers for Palaeogene Dziruli Massif cooling and uplift, and to constrain better the extent of the current, localized phase of rapid exhumation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an exploration into the perceptions of the Caucuses and the Circassian people within the political imagination of Great Britain during the early 19th century. Discussion is given highlighting the opposing idealized views of the Circassians by the Russians and the British, both projecting their political ideals onto the social structures of the region. The diplomatic work and ethnographic observations of the British ambassadors J. A. Longworth and James Stanislaus Bell in the 1830s are particularly discussed relating to their championing of liberalism.

The article discusses the significance and role that Islam plays in defining the Chechen national identity. Chechnya's embrace of Islam, the author states, developed during a period of colonization as Chechens struggled to stop the Russians from encroaching on their land. Other topics include the 80 years Chechens spent under Soviet rule after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the geographic isolation of the Caucasus Mountains, and the Chechen victory over the Russian Federation during the 1994-1996 war.

The article presents one of the first attempts at a scholarly reassessment of the notions of the Caucasus and Caucasian identity. It consists of two parts, the first of which explores the main historical events that had formative influences on the Caucasian region and its inhabitants and the second of which deals with the challenges of post-Soviet nation building in the region. In this context, Russia regarded its relations with the state of Kartli-Kakheti, one of the most powerful state creations in the region, as being of particular importance.

In nineteenth-century Russia, the Caucasus was a large region composed of various territories and ethnic and religious groups. This region included Circassia, Mingrelia, Georgia, a part of Armenia, the ancient Media, Daghestan and the territories of Suanctians, Ossetians, Abkhazians, Karakalpaks and other mountaineer nations. In this study, focusing mainly on the nineteenth century, and how Russians occupied the Caucasus because the way Russians occupied and controlled the Caucasus had great impact on relations between them and the Caucasians. As Edward Allworth writes, Russian conquest, forced migrations and other brutal measures that the Russians used for their conquest of the Caucasus "inflicted scars upon the relationships between the invaders and invaded."

Focuses on the specific geographical and ethnocultural characteristics of the North Caucasus predetermined the role od Sufism in its societal and political evolution. Factors affecting the increase of traditional Sufi, Islam and Wahhabism; Dynamic of the Russian-Chechen conflict; Official and physical crackdown on Wahhabism.