The Central-Asian "painted ware cultures" were developed during the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. (Early Iron Age) in the vast territory covering the present Republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan, as well as in northern Afghanistan and north-eastern Iran. Known for almost a century owing to numerous research studies led by Soviet archaeologists, the emergence of these cultures is considered as a material, cultural and socio-economic 'regression' which is thought to have contributed to the disappearance of the highly developed civilization of the Late Bronze Age. But if their material production has been well-studied, their structure and their place within the Central-Asian proto-history has only been known superficially; our study therefore aims to take a new look at the our perception of these cultures. Through the analysis of an extensive corpus of unpublished ceramics from recent French and Italian excavations (Koktepe, Dzharkutan, Dzham-53 in Uzbekistan; Ulug-depe in Turkmenistan) and of previous Soviet excavations, and also as a result of a thorough examination of the available published and unpublished data, we have been able to refine and characterize the material production of these cultures and to determine their the socio-economic base, thus proposing new definitions of their cultural characteristics. In addition, we discuss the patterns and circumstances of the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, then those of the passage to the Middle Iron Age by placing them in a broad chronological and geographical context, using a methodical and thematic approach which adheres to the research perspectives which presently prevail in Central Asia and the Near-East.
