Archaeological culture · c. 3700–3000 BCE

Maykop culture

A Bronze Age culture of the North Caucasus, stretching from the Taman Peninsula toward Dagestan. Its leaders were buried under large earth mounds (kurgans) with gold, silver and bronze, as at the Maykop kurgan itself.

It was contemporary with late Uruk Mesopotamia, and its metalworking, including arsenical copper, influenced the steppe peoples to the north. Ancient DNA suggests they descended from farmers who came from the south, from the South Caucasus.

See Maykop culture on the map in 3700 BCE →

On the map

3700–3000 BCE