Maikop Culture

an archaeological culture of the second half of the third millennium B.C. that was widespread in the foothills of the northern Caucasus. It was named after the Maikop kurgan, which was investigated in 1897.

The Maikop culture is represented by numerous barrows and by a number of fortified settlements. Stone tombs, including dolmens, appeared during the later stage of its development. The principal implements and weapons were shaft-hole stone axes, insets for knives and sickles, and arrowheads, as well as copper axes, hoes, gouges, knives, daggers, pitchforks, and spearheads. Various ornaments indicate links between the Maikop culture and the Orient. The pottery, some of which was made on the potter’s wheel, is primarily red and polished; sometimes it is decorated. The tribes of the Maikop culture engaged in stock raising and farming and lived in a primitive communal system. However, the rich burial inventory of some barrows attests to considerable property inequality.