In 1897, Professor Nikolay Veselovsky, a Russian archaeologist and orientalist, specializing in the history and archeology of Central Asia, discovered one of the greatest archaeological finds in recent history. here in a small town in the Northwest Caucuses called Maykop. The Mound of Maykop, or Chieftain’s Tomb, contains a wealth of ancient riches and spoils from an unprecedented Bronze Age civilization.
Comparison with similar artefacts from other cultures roughly contemporaneous with the 4th-3rd century Maykop culture of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas. ( LibReddit )
The many wonders of the Maykop mound
The Maykop Catacombs have a large central chamber divided into three rooms of different sizes, each containing a body lying in a crouching position. The largest of these tombs was dedicated to the main occupant, who was decorated with an ornate set of clothes, hundreds of semi-precious stones, a set of weapons, a bronze cauldron and some Polished clay vase.
One of the most exquisite pieces is the black fur coat, the earliest fur garment found in Eastern Europe. This special tunic is made from souslik fur, a type of squirrel fur endemic to the region, and it is estimated that 25 to 30 hides were needed to make it. The silver pins found on the garment, along with the sheer amount of silver and gold, indicated the noble status of the wearer.
The treasure was so great that in 1898 the entire collection was transferred to the Hermitage in St Petersburg and prepared for display to the Tsar and his family at the Imperial Archaeological Commission, where it became a prominent exhibit turn on. Over the next century, much about the mysterious Maykop would become clear.
Early Maykop objects from the leader’s grave in Maikop, Russia. The lion, the bull, the necklace, and the crown were all of gold; silver engraved cup; two ceramic vases; and other objects are arsenic bronze. The silver riveted bronze blade is 47 cm (18.5 inches) long and has sharp edges. (Erenow)
How old is Maykop?
From the first discovery in 1897, the age of the Maykop civilization quickly became the subject of heated debate. Archaeologists are mainly torn between the 3rd millennium BC or the 4th millennium BC.
Early theorists, working without radiocarbon dating, often established timeframes by comparing the artistic styles of other ancient civilizations.
In 1911, Tallgren proposed a date of 2000 BC by comparing the silver vessels found at Maykop with the Treasure of Priam, a trove of gold coins unearthed in 1873. But in the years 1920, an even earlier date has been proposed.
Rostovstev, finding similarities between the art of ancient Egypt, rejected Tallgren’s arguments, describing the Maykop objects as “more primitive” and “much older.” Additionally, Schmidt, by analyzing newly discovered artifacts excavated at the Early Imperial Cemetery of the Ur Dynasty, joined Rostovstev in declaring a date of the third millennium BC.
During the 1930s to the 1950s, numerous archaeological excavations in the Caucasus would contribute to improved understanding of the Maykop culture and especially their relationship with other primitive societies. They revealed that Maykop was not only bound to the Kuban region but also occupied the entire northern Caucasus region.
In 1956, Alexsandr Iessen reviewed the available documents and agreed with earlier statements that Maykop art bears similarities to the Priam Treasure and the art of ancient Egypt. He therefore proposed the early Maykop period to be around 2300-1900 BC, and the late period to be around 2100-1700 BC. His framework, although based on evidence of fewer than 20 burials and only one settlement, has been widely accepted in academic circles for several decades.
The Maykop culture existed between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, with the Yamna culture to the north and the Kura-Araxes culture to the south. (Joostik / CC BY-SA 3.0 )
Besides, Munchaev’s extensive research in the 1950s and 1960s firmly established the coexistence of the Maykop people and the Kura-Araxes, an early South Caucasian kingdom, generally dating from 2800- 2100 BC. Additionally, Safranov in the 1970s placed Maykop within the archaeological period of Tripolie 2, conventionally dated to 2600-1700 BC.
However, Andreeva, using the same methods as Safranov, came to a completely different verdict. She argues that Maykop art resembles pottery of the Gawra XII-VIII period in Northern Mesopotamia, which clearly indicates a date of the 4th millennium BC. Over the next few years, the schools of the 3rd and 4th millennium will carry out their debates in articles, journals and academic lectures.
But with the emergence of radiocarbon dating in the early 1980s, new and valuable insights surrounding the Maykop culture would emerge. In 1983, Kavtaradze, in the first radiocarbon survey of the Caucuses region, gave a 4th millennium date for the Kura-Araxes, who had previously been considered contemporaries of Maykop, rebutting Munchaev’s 3rd millennium thesis.
More recently, in 1991, the first radiocarbon dating of the Maykop sites was made from animal bones found at Galjugal, in the Terek valley. Korenevskij’s data suggest a 4th millennium date, further strengthening the connection between Kura-Araxes and the existence of the Maykop culture at the end of the Tripoli period in the region, with some research in the years 1990 continued to validate his hypothesis.
Thus, radiocarbon dating finally placed Maykop at the 4th millennium BC, a point of contention that raged for nearly 100 years.
The 3rd millennium school was seriously weakened, especially because its conclusions were based solely on comparisons of art objects and ignored the archaeological context. Even so, the similarity of objects from the Great Cemetery at Ur to Schmidt’s Maykop fragments, remains a convincing statement. However, if the 4th and 3rd millennium dates are both correct then it would suggest that Maykop has existed for a staggering 1500 years. The uniformity of Maykop’s documents proves this impossible and implies that the timeline is shorter, since a longer chronology would certainly contain objects of varying degrees of variation and differentiation. larger period.
The busiest part of early human civilization in the Caucasus, especially between the Black and Caspian Seas in the upper left of this map, includes pre-Maykop peoples, PIE-speaking peoples and the Proto-Uralic tribes. (Web Spaceship)
Pre-Maykop and Maykop culture
Over the years, two distinct periods of Maykop have been recognized, the pre-Maykop period and the Maykop period.
In 1929, the first evidence of the pre-Maykops period appeared at an archaeological dig in Agubekovo. Additional discoveries in the 1950s and 1960s led scholars Formozov and Stoljar to argue that Maykop-like settlements existed in the 5th millennium BC.
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Subsequently, numerous pre-Maykop communities were discovered in the southern Kuban, the Lower Kuban steppes, and the Kislovodsk and Terek valleys. Ancient objects discovered in these areas are distinctly different and are often characterized by egg-shaped bodies without handles, pointed and rounded bottoms, gray, red and brown colors, jade ornaments clams and incisions at the edges.
Further investigations revealed a unique set of pre-Maykop treasures unmatched by other Maykop items. Obsidian tools, stone bracelets, polished stone axes, clay figurines of humans and animals, and cross-shaped mace heads all clearly date to the 5th millennium BC. Additional radiocarbon testing of animal bones from Svobodnoe, Jasenovaja and Mesoko again indicated a date of the second half of the 5th millennium BC.
Silver vase with animal frill and landscape depiction, found at the Great Kurgan in Maikop, Russia. ( LibReddit )
In addition, an assemblage of graves from the Lower Kuban and Stavropol plateaus, including flint tools, rare ceramics, small personal ornaments made of stone, bone, bronze, and shells demonstrated clearly depicts a society that predated Maykop. Signs of a typical Early Bronze Age burial at Verkhniy Akbash, where the corpse was laid sideways with the hands in front of the feet, also confirm a 5th millennium date.
After the pre-civilization period, it is generally believed that the Maykop culture inhabited the foothills of the Western and Northern Caucuses as well as the steppe lowlands of the Lower Kuban, Manych, Terek and Stavropol.
A unique type of grave sets the Maykop people apart from their Bronze Age neighbors. The body is usually placed on its side, with both hands placed in front of it, and a layer of soil is scooped on top. Personal mementos and valuables are often placed next to the deceased.
In 2004, Korenevskij, using ceramic evidence, divided Maykop into 2 types. Galjugaj-Sereginskoe is distinguished by the prevalence of simple spherical and pearlescent vases with round bottoms, vases with short necks, beakers with thin necks, conical clay vessels and vases of precious metals.
The second type are Psekupskoe and Dolinskoe, who can be identified by their more complex forms of pottery and decoration, such as decorated, patterned and polished squat circles, and the absence of The remarkable face of spherical shapes was crafted by their Galjugaj-Sereginskoe countrymen. .
Korenevskij revealed that Galjugaj-Sereginskoe belongs to the previous stage, and Psekupskoe and Dolinskoe are an Eastern and Western branch of Maykop that will separate in a later stage.
A golden crown, giant gold and silver bull statues and golden lion plaques sewn onto fabric, from the archaeological site of Maykop, or Maikop in southern Russia. (Mobile Megalithic Gate)
People who influenced the ancient world
Most commentators believe that Maykop was influenced by the Near East, an idea first proposed by Alexsandr Iessen in the 1950s because of the spread of foreign imports at the Maykop burial mounds.
Reinforcing this new line of thought was Safranov, who in the 1970s advanced the view that Maykop culture may have come from the Arameans of Harran, a semi-mythical people said to have inhabited Ciscausasia in the north Syria today. She argues that material from the Chuera collection, from around 24000 BC, has details that are strikingly similar to Maykop crafts.
A more recent examination linking the Maykop people to the Sumerians, the earliest known civilization in Southern Mesopotamia, comes from Trifonov, Petrov and Savelieva, who reanalyzed scepters found in The Chieftain’s Tomb, instead presents them as pipes for communal drinking beer.
They compared the tubes to ancient Sumerian drinking vessels, which were typically made of a long, hollow reed, and through residue analysis, they found traces of barley starch grains. Furthermore, in an arrangement similar to that practiced in early royal funerals in the Near East, the pipes were placed closest to the body to emphasize the importance of the funeral feast.
Some people go further, arguing that Maykop was not only closely associated with the Near East but also had quite a large influence in the ancient world. In 2008, Ivanova-Bieg commented on Maykop’s many artifacts reflecting the stage of development of Near Eastern societies. She calls for “a change in chronological perspective to allow Maykop to become an innovation hub in its own right” .
Gold Bull artifacts and silver vases from the Maykop Culture of the Northwest Caucasus (c. 4-3 millennium BC). ( LibReddit )
Her call was answered in 2019 by Hansen, who, in an effort to destroy the grand narrative that all prehistoric technological advances originated in Egypt and Mesopotamia, singled out Maykop as an important intermediary site for the generation and diffusion of new ideas.
His new approach argued that the success of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians was due to their adaptation of techniques produced in peripheral areas, such as the North Caucuses where the Maykop people resided.
Previously, early theorists recognized a strong Mesopotamian tendency toward Maykop objects, but generally attributed it to direct Mesopotamian influence on Maykop.
Using later radiocarbon dating of the Chieftain’s Tomb, Hansen showed that the crypt was built around 3700-3500 BC, a thousand years older than previous estimates , implying that it was the Maykops who influenced the Mesopotamians.
It reveals that the Chieftain’s Tomb represents the oldest evidence of metal and the earliest use of lion glyphs on a ruler’s coat of arms, suggesting that tentative steps towards the formation of The state was implemented by Maykop in the first half of the 4th millennium.
Additionally, similar bronze tools found in the Tomb of the Chieftain have also been found in Mesopotamia and as far away as Crete. The association of knives, swords, and axes in Maykop, Mesopotamia, and Crete supports Maykop as an important intermediary in the spread of technology during the 4th millennium BC.
Maykop’s influence is found even further than Crete. In an astonishing discovery, Maykop weapons, bows and quivers were found in Göhlitzsch, Germany, identical to similar weapons from a site in Novosvobodnaya near Maykop.
Thus, the Maykops had an impact on the development and distribution of technology during the 4th millennium BC, being key players in the innovation system that combined Eastern, Caucuses and Central Europe. There is no doubt that the Caucuses’ wealth in ore, pasture, and timber proved extremely attractive to the growing urban centers with which Maykop was also closely associated.
Reconstruction of Auroch based on the Gold Bull artifact from Maykop. ( LibReddit )
Maykop: The pioneers who changed the western prairies
Andrew Sheratt has described the Maykop as “the world’s first barbarian society” operating on the periphery of urban centers in the Near East. Indeed, Maykop was instrumental in spreading lifestyle and technology to the steppes.
Acting as intermediaries between East and West, they were also an integral part of the technological revolutions of the 4th millennium BC, which included the wheel, chariots, and the domestication of donkeys, sheep, and horses. as well as olive and wine growing. Several innovations in metallurgy and wool are attributed to the Maykop people, who were not only effective transferors of knowledge but also pioneers in their own right.
