The Maykop culture ca. 3700 BC—2500 BC, was a major Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 archaeological culture situated in Southern Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 running from the Taman Peninsula

Taman peninsula

The Taman Peninsula is a peninsula in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia. It is bounded on the north by the Sea of Azov, on the west by the Strait of Kerch and on the south by the Black Sea. The peninsula has evolved over the past two millennia from a chain of islands into the peninsula it is...

 at the Kerch Strait nearly to the modern border of Dagestan, centered approximately on the modern Republic of Adygea (whose capital is Maykop

Maykop

Maykop is the capital city of the Republic of Adygea, Russia, located on the right bank of the Belaya River . Population: -History:...

) in the Kuban River

Kuban River

The Kuban River is a river in Russia, in the North Caucasus region. It flows mostly through Krasnodar Krai but also in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea....

 valley. The culture takes its name from a royal burial found there. The Maikop Barrow was first discovered in 1897.

Its inhumation practices were typically Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

, typically in a pit, sometimes stone-lined, topped with a kurgan

Kurgan

Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

 or (tumulus

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

). The Maikop Barrow, was extremely rich in gold and silver artifacts; unusual for the time. The Mayop culture is also believed to be one of the first to take of the wheel

Wheel

A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...

.

Territory

The Kuban River

Kuban River

The Kuban River is a river in Russia, in the North Caucasus region. It flows mostly through Krasnodar Krai but also in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea....

 is navigable for much of its length, and an easy water-passage via the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

 into the territory of the Yamna culture

Yamna culture

The Yamna culture is a late copper age/early Bronze Age culture of the Southern Bug/Dniester/Ural region , dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC...

, by way of the Don and Donets River systems was available. The Maykop culture was well-situated to exploit the trading possibilities of the central Ukraine area.

In 2010, nearly 200 Bronze Age sites were reported stretching over 60 miles between the Kuban river

Kuban River

The Kuban River is a river in Russia, in the North Caucasus region. It flows mostly through Krasnodar Krai but also in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Stavropol Krai and the Republic of Adygea....

 and Nalchik

Nalchik

Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area 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."

Contemporaneous cultures

It is approximately contemporaneous with and is apparently influenced by the Kuro-Araxes culture (3500—2200 BC) which straddles the Caucasus and extends into eastern Anatolia. To the north and west is the similarly contemporaneous Yamna culture

Yamna culture

The Yamna culture is a late copper age/early Bronze Age culture of the Southern Bug/Dniester/Ural region , dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC...

 and immediately north is the Novotitorovka culture

Novotitorovka culture

Novotitorovka culture, 3300—2700 BC, a Bronze Age archaeological culture of the North Caucasus immediately to the north of and largely overlapping portions of the Maykop culture facing the Sea of Azov, running from the Kerch Strait eastwards, almost to the Caspian, roughly coterminous with...

 (3300—2700), which it overlaps in territorial extent.

Culture

The culture takes its name from a royal burial found there. The Maikop Barrow, was extremely rich in gold and silver artifacts; Exceptional for the time.

The Maykop culture is believed to be one of the first to take of the wheel

Wheel

A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...

.

Its inhumation practices were typically Indo-European

Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan race, a 19th century and early 20th century term for those peoples who are the native speakers of Indo-European languages...

, typically in a pit, sometimes stone-lined, topped with a kurgan

Kurgan

Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

 or (tumulus

Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn...

). Stone cairns replace kurgans in later interments. Because of its burial practices, and in terms of the Kurgan hypothesis

Kurgan hypothesis

The Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...

 of Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas , was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological...

, it is listed as an intrusion from the Pontic steppe into the Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

. According to Mallory this is hard to evaluate and he emphasizes that: where the evidence for barrows is found, it is precisely in regions which later demonstrate the presence of non-Indo-European populations. In other occasions the culture has been cited, at the very least, as a kurganized culture with a strong ethnic and linguistic links to the descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans

Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...

. It has been linked to the Lower Mikhaylovka group

Lower Mikhaylovka group

Lower Mikhaylovka group, 3600—3000 BC, a late copper age archaeological culture of the lower Dnieper River immediately underlying remains of the successor Yamna culture site named Mikhaylovka I, noted for its fortifications. It is related to the Kemi Oba culture and seems to have connections...

 and Kemi Oba culture

Kemi Oba culture

Kemi Oba culture, ca. 3700—2200, an archaeological culture at the northwest face of the Sea of Azov, the lower Bug and Dnieper Rivers and the Crimea. This was a component of the larger Yamna horizon....

, and more distantly, to the Globular Amphora

Globular Amphora culture

The Globular Amphora Culture , German Kugelamphoren-Kultur , ca. 3400-2800 BC, is an archaeological culture preceding the central area occupied by the Corded Ware culture. Somewhat to the south and west, it was bordered by the Baden culture. To the northeast was the Narva culture. It occupied much...

 and Corded Ware

Corded Ware culture

The Corded Ware culture , alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture, is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic , flourishes through the Copper Age and culminates in the early Bronze Age.Corded Ware culture is associated with...

 cultures, if only in an economic sense. Mallory states:

Such a theory, it must be emphasized, is highly speculative and controversial although there is a recognition that this culture may be a product of at least two traditions: the local steppe tradition embraced in the Novosvobodna culture and foreign elements from south of the Caucasus which can be charted through imports in both regions.—EIEC,"Maykop Culture".

Anatolian theory

Gamkrelidze

Tamaz Gamkrelidze

Tamaz Valeryanovich Gamkrelidze is a distinguished Georgian linguist, orientalist public benefactor and Hittitologist, Academician and President of the Georgian Academy of Sciences , Doctor of Sciences , Professor .Gamkrelidze was born in Kutaisi, Georgian SSR...

 and Ivanov

Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov

Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov is a prominent Soviet/Russian philologist and Indo-Europeanist probably best known for his glottalic theory of Indo-European consonantism and for placing the Indo-European urheimat in the area of the Armenian Highlands and Lake Urmia.-Early life:Vyacheslav Ivanov's...

, whose views are somewhat controversial, suggest that the Maykop culture (or its ancestor) may have been a way-station for Indo-Europeans migrating from the South Caucasus and/or eastern Anatolia to a secondary Urheimat

Urheimat

Urheimat is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language...

 on the steppe. This would essentially place the Anatolian stock in Anatolia from the beginning, and at least in this instance, agrees with Colin Renfrew

Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn

Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Ph.D., FBA, FSA, HonFSAScot is a prominent British archaeologist and highly regarded academic, noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites...

's Anatolian hypothesis

Anatolian hypothesis

The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's Neolithic Discontinuity Theory ; it proposes that the dispersal of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia...

. Considering that some attempt has been made to unite Indo-European with the Northwest Caucasian languages

Northwest Caucasian languages

The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean, or sometimes Pontic as opposed to Caspian for the Northeast Caucasian languages, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region, chiefly in Russia , the disputed territory of Abkhazia, and Turkey, with smaller communities...

, an earlier Caucasian pre-Urheimat

Urheimat

Urheimat is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language...

 is not out of the question (see Proto-Pontic). However, most linguists and archaeologists consider this hypothesis highly unlikely, and prefer the Eurasian steppes as the genuine IE Urheimat.

Source

• J. P. Mallory, "Maykop Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The encyclopedia was edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams and published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn...
  
  , Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.