We present a brief archaeological summary of the main phases of cultural and social change in the Western, Central, and South Asia ca. 4000-1500 BCE as a contextual framework for the findings presented in Damgaard et al. 2018. We stress the role of the Caucasus as a conduit in Western Asia linking the steppe and Eastern Europe with Anatolia, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. We track the emergence of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) in Central Asia as a cultural melting pot between the steppe and the sown lands during a period of more than a millennium. And we highlight indicators of cultural and commercial exchange, tracking developments in technology as well as social and political organization that came about as part of complex processes of interaction in a region stretching from South Asia to the Mediterranean.