Archeologia del Vicino Oriente antico a Ca' Foscari: dalla Mesopotamia al Caucaso

The paper summarises the main research activities of the Near Eastern Archaeology team of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice in the course of the last few years. Research on Early Bronze Age Upper Mesopotamia concentrated on the study of the results of the 1992-1010 Syro-Europaean excavations in Tell Beydar: the stratigraphy of Field I (Northern Building and North-Eastern Inner City Gate), 3rd millennium pottery, metallurgy and metal objects, and glyptics (seals and seal impressions). The Southern Caucasus was the object of field investigations in the Shida Kartli region of Georgia, where the sites of Natsargora and Aradetis Orgora and the Okherakhevi kurgan field were excavated, and unpublished material from old Georgian excavations at Natsargora was analysed and published. Important results were achieved, in particular, regarding the Kura-Araxes and Bedeni cultures (late 4th-3rd millennium BC) and the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age period (second half of the 2nd, early 1st millennium BC).