AJNES XVI/1-2, 2022: 51–88 Homo mobilis: Some observations on the characteristics of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex Pavel Avetisyan Abstract: The terms ‘enclosed nomadism’ and ‘dimorphic structure’ which are used to describe the relationship between the Near Eastern mobile pastoralists living in the same habitat and sedentary agricultural communities, are fully applicable also for the description of the socio-cultural landscape of the second half of the 4th millennium BC in Armenia. Archaeological data accumulated year by year provide an opportunity to consider in more detail the relationship between the agricultural and specialized mobile pastoral groups in the region. From this point of view, important data are provided by the settlement of Godedzor, which represents the final stage of the Chalcolithic period, as well as by the clusters with materials of the early stage of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex (Talin, Avan, Tsaghkalanj), which are not associated with settlements. Keywords: Late Neolithic, secondary products revolution, translocal society, Early Bronze Age, Kura- Araxes cultural complex, social landscape, mobile pastoral groups, dimorphic societies․ Discussions on the first manifestations of the Kura-Araxes cultural complex and issues related to its distribution within different cultural areas occupy an important place among the archaeological studies of the region. Such interest is undoubtedly due to the fact that the movement of features characteristic of this cultural complex is clearly documented within a very large geographic area. It is noteworthy that initial discussions about this movement were framed in the context of movements of groups with nomadic or mobile ways of life. 1 The critique and rejection by the proponents of ‘New Archaeology’ of the idea that migration was the catalyst of change within a culture, including D. Anthony’s widespread concept of ‘archaeological migrations’, 2 gave rise to new interpretations and views on the spread of the Kura-Araxes culture or the so-called ‘Kura-Araxes expansion’. One of the key achievements of this research is that instead of explaining the ‘movement of things’ through the migration of human (ethnic) groups, the manifestations of the Kura-Araxes material cultural are now considered within a broader socio- 1 Burney 1961: 237-240; Sagona 1993: 473f.; Edens 1995: 54; Frangipane et al. 2001: 105-139. 2 Anthony 1990: 895-914; Hakenbeck 2008: 9-26; Burmeister 2016: 42-64; Furholt 2019: 53-68; Hofmann 2019: 133-140; Mcsparron et al. 2020: 219-232.