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{{Short description|Bronze Age civilization in the Caucasus (c. 3700–3000 BC)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{
Infobox archaeological culture
|name        = Maykop culture
|map         = Maykop culture-en.svg
|mapalt      =
|altnames    = Maikop, Majkop
|horizon     =
|region      = [[Eurasian Steppe]]
|period      = [[Bronze Age]]
|dates       = c. 3700 BC – 3000 BC
|typesite    =
|majorsites  = 
|extra       =
|precededby  = [[Darkveti-Meshoko]]
|followedby  = [[Yamna culture]], [[Novosvobodnaya culture]]
}}

The '''Maykop culture''' or '''Maikop culture''' ({{Langx|ru|майкоп}}, {{IPA|ru|mɐjˈkop|}}, scientific transliteration: ''Majkop,''), c. 3700 BC – 3000 BC,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ivanova|first=Mariya|title=The Chronology of the "Maikop Culture" in the North Caucasus: Changing Perspectives|journal=Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies|year=2007|volume=II|pages=7–39|url=https://www.academia.edu/2543641}}</ref> is a major [[archaeological culture]] of the [[Bronze Age]] in the western [[Caucasus]] region.

It extends along the area from the [[Taman Peninsula]] at the [[Kerch Strait]] to near the modern border of [[Republic of Dagestan|Dagestan]] and southwards to the [[Kura (Caspian Sea)|Kura River]]. The culture takes its name from a royal burial, the [[Maykop kurgan]], in the [[Kuban River]] valley.

According to genetic studies on [[ancient DNA]] published in 2018, the Maykop population came from the south, from [[Imereti]], and was descended from the [[Chalcolithic]] farmers known as [[Darkveti-Meshoko]] who first colonized the north side of the Caucasus. Maykop is therefore the "ideal archaeological candidate for the founders of the [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian language family]]".<ref name="Wang et al 2019">{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Chuan-Chao |last2=Reinhold |first2=Sabine |last3=Kalmykov |first3=Alexey |last4=Wissgott |first4=Antje |last5=Brandt |first5=Guido |last6=Jeong |first6=Choongwon |last7=Cheronet |first7=Olivia |last8=Ferry |first8=Matthew |last9=Harney |first9=Eadaoin |last10=Keating |first10=Denise |last11=Mallick |first11=Swapan |last12=Rohland |first12=Nadin |last13=Stewardson |first13=Kristin |last14=Kantorovich |first14=Anatoly R. |last15=Maslov |first15=Vladimir E. |last16=Petrenko |first16=Vladimira G. |last17=Erlikh |first17=Vladimir R. |last18=Atabiev |first18=Biaslan Ch. |last19=Magomedov |first19=Rabadan G. |last20=Kohl |first20=Philipp L. |last21=Alt |first21=Kurt W. |last22=Pichler |first22=Sandra L. |last23=Gerling |first23=Claudia |last24=Meller |first24=Harald |last25=Vardanyan |first25=Benik |last26=Yeganyan |first26=Larisa |last27=Rezepkin |first27=Alexey D. |last28=Mariaschk |first28=Dirk |last29=Berezina |first29=Natalia |last30=Gresky |first30=Julia |last31=Fuchs |first31=Katharina |last32=Knipper |first32=Corina |last33=Schiffels |first33=Stephan |last34=Balanovska |first34=Elena |last35=Balanovsky |first35=Oleg |last36=Mathieson |first36=Iain |last37=Higham |first37=Thomas |last38=Berezin |first38=Yakov B. |last39=Buzhilova |first39=Alexandra |last40=Trifonov |first40=Viktor |last41=Pinhasi |first41=Ron |last42=Belinskij |first42=Andrej B. |last43=Reich |first43=David |last44=Hansen |first44=Svend |last45=Krause |first45=Johannes |last46=Haak |first46=Wolfgang |title=Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions |journal=Nature Communications |date=December 2019 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=590 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-08220-8 |pmid=30713341 |pmc=6360191 |bibcode=2019NatCo..10..590W }}</ref><ref name=Anthony2019>{{Cite journal |last=Anthony |first=David |title=Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard |url=https://www.academia.edu/39985565 |journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies |volume=47 |issue=1/2 |date=2019 |pages=175–198 }}</ref>

==Territory==
[[File:Distribution of archaeological cultures in Europe and Caucasus before and after 3000 BCE.png|thumb|upright=2|The Maykop culture (<small>{{Color sample|#F4A460|0.6}}</small>) and distribution of archaeological cultures in Europe and Caucasus before and after 3000 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Chuan-Chao |title=Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions |journal=Nature Communications |date=2016 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330855366}}</ref>]]
In the south, the Maykop culture bordered the approximately contemporaneous [[Kura–Araxes culture]] (3500–2200 BC), which extends into the [[Armenian highlands|Armenian Plateau]] and apparently influenced it. To the north is the [[Yamna culture]], including the [[Novotitarovskaya culture]] (3300–2700), which it overlaps in territorial extent. It is contemporaneous with the late [[Uruk period]] in [[Mesopotamia]].

The [[Kuban (river)|Kuban River]] is navigable for much of its length and provides an easy water-passage through the [[Sea of Azov]] to the territory of the Yamna culture, along the [[Don River, Russia|Don]] and [[Donets]] River systems. The Maykop culture was thus well-situated to exploit the trading possibilities with the central [[Ukraine]] area.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}

[[Carbon-14|Radiocarbon]] dates for various monuments of the Maykop culture are from 3950 - 3650 - 3610 - 2980 calBC.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dissercat.com/content/drevneishie-zemledeltsy-i-skotovody-predkavkazya-maikopsko-novosvobodnenskaya-obshchnost-pro%D0%A1.%D0%9D. |title=Кореневский. Древнейшие земледельцы и скотоводы Предкавказья |access-date=29 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002055224/http://www.dissercat.com/content/drevneishie-zemledeltsy-i-skotovody-predkavkazya-maikopsko-novosvobodnenskaya-obshchnost-pro%D0%A1.%D0%9D. |archive-date=2 October 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 
After the discovery of the [[Leyla-Tepe culture]] in the 1980s, some links were noted with the Maykop culture.

The Leyla-Tepe culture is a culture of archaeological interest from the [[Chalcolithic]] era. Its population was distributed on the southern slopes of the Central Caucasus, in the [[Aghdam District]] of modern [[Azerbaijan]], from 4350 until 4000 B.C. Similar [[amphora]] burials in the South Caucasus are found in the [[Jar-Burial Culture]] of western [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].

The Leyla-Tepe culture has also been linked to the [[Ubaid period]] monuments, in particular with the settlements in the [[Eastern Anatolia region]]. The settlement is of a typical Western-Asian variety, with the dwellings packed closely together and made of mud bricks with smoke outlets.

It has been suggested that the Leyla-Tepe were the founders of the Maykop culture. An expedition to [[Syria]] by the Russian Academy of Sciences revealed the similarity of the Maykop and Leyla-Tepe artifacts with those found recently while excavating the ancient city of [[Tell Hazna|Tel Khazneh I]], dated to the 4th millennium BC.

In 2010, nearly 200 [[Bronze Age]] sites were reported stretching over 60 miles from the Kuban River to [[Nalchik]], at an altitude of between 4,620 feet and 7,920 feet. They were all "visibly constructed according to the same architectural plan, with an oval courtyard in the center, and connected by roads."<ref name=oldphotos>{{cite news | url = http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/ancient-civilization-caucasus.html | title = Bronze Age Civilization Spotted in Old Photographs |date = 12 October 2010 | work = Agence France-Presse | publisher = Discovery.com | access-date = 14 October 2010}}</ref>

== Culture ==
[[Image:R3 2 2d eneolith bull.jpg|thumb|Golden ox figurine found in the [[Maykop kurgan]] (mid-4th millennium BC), [[Hermitage Museum]]]]
[[File:Maikop Plate.png|thumb|Maykop plate with petroglyphs.]]
{{blockquote|''The Maikop Culture in the northern Caucasus was concurrent with the Kura-Araxes Culture in the south of the Caucasus and the Uruk period in Mesopotamia. The finds in the Maikop kurgan (tumulus) and other kurgans of the Maikop Culture are still regarded as unique to this day. More than 7000 objects of gold and some 1000 of silver are known. Nowhere else in the Early Bronze Age world of the second half of the 4th millennium BC has such a large number of exquisite gold and silver items come to light.''|Hansen (2014)<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.academia.edu/9304794 |journal=Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle |volume=11 |issue=2 |title=Gold and silver in the Maikop culture |date=2014 |last=Hansen |first=Svend |pages=389–410 |isbn=9783944507132}}</ref>}}

=== Art ===
In the early 20th century, researchers established the existence of a local Maykop animal style in the artifacts found. This style was seen as the prototype for animal styles of later archaeological cultures: the Maykop animal style is more than a thousand years older than the [[Scythian art|Scythian]], [[Sarmatians|Sarmatian]] and [[Celtic art|Celtic]] animal styles.

Attributed to the Maykop culture are [[petroglyph]]s which have yet to be deciphered.<ref>Е.И.Крупновым «О загадочной майкопской надписи // Вопросы истории № 3, М. 1964г</ref>

=== Horse breeding ===
The Maykop people lived sedentary lives, and horses formed a very low percentage of their livestock, which mostly consisted of pigs and cattle.

Archaeologists have discovered a unique form of bronze cheek-piece, which consists of a bronze rod with a twisted loop in the middle that threads through the nodes and connects to the bridle, halter strap, and headband. Notches and bumps on the edges of the cheek-pieces were, apparently, to attach nose and under-lip straps.<ref>Мунчаев Р. М. Бронзовые псалии майкопской культуры и проблема возникновения коневодства на Кавказе,«Кавказ и Восточная Европа в древности», М.,1973.</ref>

Some of the earliest wagon wheels in the world are found in Maykop culture area. The two solid wooden wheels from the kurgan of Novokorsunskaya in the Kuban region have been dated to the second half of the fourth millennium.<ref>Holm, Hans J. J. G. (2019): "The Earliest Wheel Finds, their Archeology and Indo-European Terminology in Time and Space, and Early Migrations around the Caucasus". Series Minor 43. Budapest: ARCHAEOLINGUA ALAPÍTVÁNY. {{ISBN|978-615-5766-30-5}}.</ref>

=== Terrace agriculture ===
The construction of artificial terrace complexes in the mountains is evidence of their sedentary living, high population density, and high levels of agricultural and technical skills. The terraces were built around the fourth millennium BC. and all subsequent cultures used them for agricultural purposes. The vast majority of pottery found on the terraces are from the Maykop period, the rest from the Scythian and [[Alans|Alan]] period. The Maykop terraces are among the most ancient in the world, but they are little studied. The longevity of the terraces (more than 5000 years) points to a tradition of landscape engineering.

==Origins==

===Colchis region===
[[File:Maykop admixture.png|thumb|260px|Admixture analysis of various Maykop culture populations<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Chuan-Chao |title=Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions |journal=Nature Communications |date=2016 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330855366}}</ref>]]
{{Indo-European topics}}
Based on Wang (2018),<ref name="Wang et al 2019"/> David W. Anthony (2019)<ref name=Anthony2019/> notes that "the Maikop population was descended from the [[Chalcolithic]] farmers [that] came from the south, probably from western Georgia [the [[Darkveti-Meshoko]] culture], and are the ideal archaeological candidate for the founders of the Northwest Caucasian language family." He also notes that the Bronze Age Maykop individuals tested by Wang (2018) could not have contributed to the Yamnaya gene pool, Yamnaya being the archeological culture most likely connected to the spread of Indo-European languages. Wang (2018) further found that 'Steppe Maykop' (a population related to the Maykop culture) probably had a minor East Asian-related component, which was estimated at ~6.9% of their ancestry,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=Chuan-Chao|last2=Reinhold|first2=Sabine|last3=Kalmykov|first3=Alexey|last4=Wissgott|first4=Antje|last5=Brandt|first5=Guido|last6=Jeong|first6=Choongwon|last7=Cheronet|first7=Olivia|last8=Ferry|first8=Matthew|last9=Harney|first9=Eadaoin|last10=Keating|first10=Denise|last11=Mallick|first11=Swapan|date=4 February 2019|title=Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions|journal=Nature Communications|volume=10|issue=1|pages=590|doi=10.1038/s41467-018-08220-8|issn=2041-1723|pmc=6360191|pmid=30713341|bibcode=2019NatCo..10..590W |quote=However, we could successfully model Steppe Maykop ancestry as being derived from populations related to all three sources (p-value 0.371 for rank 2): Eneolithic steppe (63.5 ± 2.9%), AG3 (29.6 ± 3.4%) and Kennewick (6.9 ± 1.0%) (Fig. 4; Supplementary Table 3). We note that the Kennewick related signal is most likely driven by the East Eurasian part of Native American ancestry as the f4-statistics (Steppe_Maykop, Fitted Steppe_Maykop; Outgroup1, Outgroup2) show that the Steppe Maykop individuals share more alleles not only with Karitiana but also with Han Chinese (Supplementary Table 2).}}</ref> relating them to [[Ancient North Eurasians]] (Upper Palaeolithic Siberians [[Afontova Gora|AG3]], [[Mal'ta–Buret' culture|MA1]]) and Native Americans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wang|first1=Chuan-Chao|last2=Reinhold|first2=Sabine|last3=Kalmykov|first3=Alexey|last4=Wissgott|first4=Antje|last5=Brandt|first5=Guido|last6=Jeong|first6=Choongwon|last7=Cheronet|first7=Olivia|last8=Ferry|first8=Matthew|last9=Harney|first9=Eadaoin|last10=Keating|first10=Denise|last11=Mallick|first11=Swapan|date=4 February 2019|title=Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions|journal=Nature Communications|volume=10|issue=1|pages=590|doi=10.1038/s41467-018-08220-8|issn=2041-1723|pmc=6360191|pmid=30713341|bibcode=2019NatCo..10..590W |quote=A surprising discovery was that Steppe Maykop individuals from the eastern desert steppes harboured a distinctive ancestry component that relates them to Upper Palaeolithic Siberians (AG3, MA1) and Native Americans. This is exemplified by the more commonly East Asian features such as the derived EDAR allele (Supplementary Note 7), which has also been observed in HG from Karelia and Scandinavia.}}</ref>

===Pontic–Caspian steppe===
Its burial practices resemble the burial practices described in the [[Kurgan hypothesis]] of [[Marija Gimbutas]], and it has been speculated that the Maykop culture may have contributed to the [[Yamnaya culture]] which is nowadays recognised as the ancestor of most Indo-European languages. According to a 2019 article by David Anthony,<ref name=Ant2019>David Anthony (2019), [https://www.academia.edu/39985565/Archaeology_Genetics_and_Language_in_the_Steppes_A_Comment_on_Bomhard?email_work_card=view-paper "Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard"], ''Journal of Indo-European Studies'', Volume 47, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2019.</ref>

{{blockquote|Most Yamnaya genomes studied to date exhibit admixed EHG (Eastern Hunter Gatherer) & CHG (Caucasus Hunter Gatherer) ancestry with each in robust proportions, often with CHG ancestry higher than 50%... the Maikop culture (3600-3000 BC) is regarded in many scenarios as the likely source of the CHG that mixed with steppe EHG mating networks to create the Yamnaya genetic synthesis.}}

However, more detailed studies cast doubt on this scenario. The Maykop DNA contains quite a large admixture (30%–40%) of Anatolian Farmer ancestry. Anthony continues:<ref name=Ant2019 />

{{blockquote|This mixture was too rich in Anatolian Farmer genes to have contributed much to the Yamnaya gene pool, which had only 10-18% Anatolian Farmer ancestry, and most of that arguably derived from the west, from [[Globular Amphora culture|Globular Amphorae]] and late [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture|Tripol’ye]] populations... This partial description of the genetic data, if it stands, suggests that Maikop was not the source of most of the CHG that amounts to half of Yamnaya ancestry. This is because CHG was already in the steppes long before Maikop.}}

According to J.P. Mallory, writing in 1987 before ancient DNA evidence became available:
{{blockquote|... where the evidence for barrows is found, it is precisely in regions which later demonstrate the presence of non-Indo-European populations.<ref>In Search of the Indo-Europeans - J.P. Mallory, Thames and Hudson, 1987, {{ISBN|0-500-27616-1}}, p233.</ref>}}

Anthony agrees that the Maykop culture people probably spoke languages which are ancestral to the [[Northwest Caucasian languages]] found in the same region today. Nonetheless, their culture seems to have influenced that of the early Indo-Europeans. Anthony writes:<ref name=Ant2019 />

{{blockquote| I also accept the general consensus that the appearance of the hierarchical Maikop culture about 3600 BC had profound effects on pre-Yamnaya and early Yamnaya steppe cultures. Yamnaya metallurgy borrowed from the Maikop culture two-sided molds, tanged daggers, cast shaft hole axes with a single blade, and arsenical copper. Wheeled vehicles might have entered the steppes through Maikop, revolutionizing steppe economies and making Yamnaya pastoral nomadism possible after 3300 BC.}}

===Iranian Plateau===
According to Mariya Ivanova the Maykop origins were on the Iranian Plateau:
{{blockquote|Graves and settlements of the 5th millennium BC in North Caucasus attest to a material culture that was related to contemporaneous archaeological complexes in the northern and western Black Sea region. Yet it was replaced, suddenly as it seems, around the middle of the 4th millennium BC by a “high culture” whose origin is still quite unclear. This archaeological culture named after the great Maykop kurgan showed innovations in all areas which have no local archetypes and which cannot be assigned to the tradition of the Balkan-Anatolian Copper Age. The favoured theory of Russian researchers is a migration from the south originating in the Syro-Anatolian area, which is often mentioned in connection with the so-called “Uruk expansion”. However, serious doubts have arisen about a connection between Maykop and the Syro-Anatolian region. The foreign objects in the North Caucasus reveal no connection to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris or to the floodplains of Mesopotamia, but rather seem to have ties to the Iranian plateau and to South Central Asia. Recent excavations in the Southwest Caspian Sea region are enabling a new perspective about the interactions between the “Orient” and Continental Europe. On the one hand, it is becoming gradually apparent that a gigantic area of interaction evolved already in the early 4th millennium BC which extended far beyond Mesopotamia; on the other hand, these findings relativise the traditional importance given to Mesopotamia, because innovations originating in Iran and Central Asia obviously spread throughout the Syro-Anatolian region independently thereof.<ref>Ivanova M. 2012.  Kaukasus und Orient: Die Entstehung des„Maikop-Phänomens“ im 4. Jahrtausend v.Chr Praehistorische Zeitschrift 2012; 87(1): 1–28</ref>}}

===Azerbaijan===
More recently, some very ancient kurgans have been discovered at [[Soyuqbulaq, Agstafa|Soyuqbulaq]] in [[Azerbaijan]]. These kurgans date to the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, and belong to [[Leylatepe]] Culture. According to the excavators of these kurgans, there are some significant parallels between Soyugbulaq kurgans and the Maykop kurgans:
{{blockquote|"Discovery of Soyugbulaq in 2004 and subsequent excavations provided substantial proof that the practice of kurgan burial was well established in the South Caucasus during the late [[Eneolithic]] [...] The Leylatepe Culture tribes migrated to the north in the mid-fourth millennium, B.C. and played an important part in the rise of the Maikop Culture of the North Caucasus."<ref>Najaf Museyibli, [http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1057-1/dissemination/pdf/Phase_3_and_4_Mitigation/432_Soyuqbulaq/432_Soyuqbulaq.pdf Excavations of Soyugbulaq Kurgans] Azerbaijan Republic National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. Baku, Azerbaijan 2008</ref>}}

==See also==
{{Bronze Age}}
* [[Lola culture]]
* [[Yamnaya culture]]
* [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture|Cucuteni-Trypillia culture]]
* [[Varna culture]]
* [[Koban culture]]

==Sources==
*{{cite journal |last=Ivanova |first=Mariya |title=The Chronology of the 'Maikop Culture' in the North Caucasus: Changing Perspectives |journal=Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies |year=2007 |volume=2 |pages=7–39 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2543641 }}
*[[J. P. Mallory]], "Maykop Culture", ''[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture]]'', Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
* Р.М. Мунчаев, Н.Я. Мерперт, Ш.Н. Амиров ТЕЛЛЬ-ХАЗНА I. Культово-административный центр IV–III тыс. до н. э. в Северо-восточной Сирии. Издательство «Палеограф». Москва 2004. {{ISBN|5-89526-012-8}}

==Footnotes==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Anthony |first1=David W. |author-link1=David W. Anthony |year=2019 |chapter=Ancient DNA, Mating Networks, and the Anatolian Split |editor-last=Serangeli |editor-first=Matilde |editor2-last=Olander |editor2-first=Thomas |title=Dispersals and Diversification: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHnEDwAAQBAJ |publisher=Brill |pages=21–54 |isbn=978-90-04-41619-2 |doi=10.1163/9789004416192_003|s2cid=213909442 }}

==External links==
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