Maykop culture

Maykop culture

Alternative names	Maikop, Majkop
Geographical range	Eurasian Steppe
Period	Bronze Age
Dates	c. 3700 BC – 3000 BC
Preceded by	Darkveti-Meshoko
Followed by	Yamna culture, Novosvobodnaya culture

The Maykop culture or Maikop culture (Russian: майкоп, [mɐjˈkop], scientific transliteration: Majkop,), c. 3700 BC–3000 BC,^[1] is a major Bronze Age archaeological culture in the western Caucasus region.

It extends along the area from the Taman Peninsula at the Kerch Strait to near the modern border of Dagestan and southwards to the 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 language family".^[2][3]