The assault of the Liventsovka-Karataevo fortress: the war of the worlds or the war within the world?

The paper analyzes materials from the Liventsovka-Karataevo fortress which indicate that during the final stage of the Middle Bronze Age the fortress fell during a massive assault. The paper contains historiographic analysis of the approaches used to address the issue regarding cultural attribution of the besieging troops. The analysis of flint arrowheads scattered all over the site shows that they could not belong to the warriors of the chariot-using cultures dated to the early period of the Late Bronze Age. The events that unfolded around the fortress are linked to an incursion of the people associated with the southern Fore-Caucasus traditions developed within the Lola cultural circle. This fact is confirmed by the stratigraphic data and cultural and typological comparison in the system of the East European chronology of the end of the Middle Bronze Age - beginning of the Late Bronze Age.