The excavations at the Bronze Age site of Altyn-Depe in southwest Soviet Central Asia (Turkmenistan) have revealed an urban community dating to the Middle Bronze Age. The region of Turkmenistan forms a natural crossroads between Eastern Iran and Central Asia, and between Siberia and southern Russia and the Indus Valley. Altyn-Depe was important not only for its development as a cultural center in its own right but as a link between the various Bronze Age cultures of Eurasia.

The volume is a translation of the 1981 Soviet publication with the addition of several plates representing the earliest strata at the site. The book will be of interest to scholars of the ancient Near East, and more particularly of the Bronze Age and development of urbanization.