Majkopska kultura na sjevernom Kavkazu
The Maikop culture in the Northern Caucasus

Summary/Abstract: The Maikop culture represents one of the most significant occurrences in the context of pre-urban agricultural and livestock communities of the Middle East and Caucasus. It covers the borderline area between south-west Asia and Eastern Europe, pre-Caucasian steppe and north Caucasus, where the cultural influences of southern peoples confront with tradition of European population for ages. The study of Maikop culture began by the end of 19th century after the discovery of exceptionally rich tombs in Maikop (1897) and two stone tombs in Carska, present-day Novosvobodna (1898). The most extensive research was done in the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. After the seventies, in the 20th century, several monographs and journals dealing with the Maikop culture were published, including general research by R.N. Munčaev, S.N. Korenevki and A.D. Rezepkin. The issue of Maikop culture is undoubtedly very interesting outside the Russian federation, but it mostly involves the review of the results from modern-day Russian research. This tendency is clearly visible in the works by A. Häusler, B. Govedarica, B. Lionne, F. Kohl, D. Anthony and others. The most important archaeological monuments of the Maikop culture are settlements and necropoles. Nowadays, we have information about several dozens of Maikop settlements and according to the material published, the most famous are Dolinsk, Ust-Džegutinsk, Galjugaevsk 1, Sereginsk, Psekupsk i Boljšetegensk. The settlements investigated are mostly situated in the river valleys, at lower grounds close to the river banks. In the Caucasus foothills, the settlements are located on the plains at hill slopes. They are mostly open settlements, while cave habitats are very rare. Burying was done in tumuli – kurgans. In the northern Caucasus, this tradition originates from the Chalcolithic, during fifth millennium BC. This phenomenon was further developed by the representatives of Maikop culture through the building of great multi-layered kurgans which apart from burial also had the role of sanctuary. Mounds are made of earth or of stone. In the case of earth kurgans, mounds are occasionally made only of a layer of humus, but they are most frequently mounds of mixed earth. Stone kurgans are made by placing stones over the tomb which was later covered with a layer of earth. Besides, in Maikop kurgans, frequently there are circular stone walls – kromlexes – which can be single or multiple depending on the phase of the burial and rituals performed through. The most frequent are individual kurgans meaning that there were not subsequent burials of Maikop people in the mounds above primary grave. Kurgans with several Maikop burials are scarcely represented.

• Details
• Contents