Abstract
<jats:p>This article provides the first detailed description and classification of non-metallic jewelry (beads) from Middle Bronze Age burials from Ciscaucasia, dating to the second quarter of the 3rd millennium BC (Kyondelen I burial ground). Based on visual detection data using optical microscopy, confirmed by the results of analyses of chemical composition performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDS), and mineral composition using X-ray diffraction, it was established that most of these items were made of faience, while the remainder (about a quarter of the total) were made of stone (talc/ steatite, calcite/limestone and carnelian). A study of burial complexes containing faience and carnelian items from the Middle Bronze Age of Ciscaucasia and the North-Western Caspian region has revealed a steady increase in the proportion of such ornaments from the second to the third quarter of the third millennium BC and a concentration of such items in sites in the North-Eastern Caucasus. This suggests that this particular territory served as a transit point for the spread of faience and carnelian ornaments to the Ciscaucasus and neighboring regions. The nearest sources of this import could have been the Northern Iran and Northern Mesopotamia regions, which were quite accessible for this type of transaction through the territory of the coastal part of Dagestan and the Greater Caucasus Passage.</jats:p>