Kurgan of Maikop

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Monument at the excavation site

The Kurgan of Maikop was a kurgan from the 4th millennium BC. At a crossroads in the area of ​​the city of Maikop in the northwestern Caucasus . It was excavated from St. Petersburg in 1897 by the Russian orientalist Nikolai Iwanowitsch Wesselowski . It became the eponymous site for the Maykop culture of the northwestern Kaukausus foreland.

Building the hill

Before the excavation, which lasted about a month, the hill was 10.6 m high. The residents use the mound made of clay to extract building material, whereby it was already partially destroyed on the west and north sides. Since Wesselowski feared they would destroy a grave, he began excavations. The mound contained a subsequent burial in the western part at a depth of 3.2 m and was surrounded by a stone circle .

Burial chamber

The burial chamber was 5 × 3 m in size and 1.45 m high. The roof of the wooden burial chamber, which had not been preserved, was supported by four posts and was decorated with nailed silver stripes. The three-part chamber contained three skeletons that were never examined anthropologically.

Main burial

The skeleton in the larger chamber was covered with a layer of lead oxide (Pb 3 O 4 ). His clothing was decorated with 135 gold applications in the form of animals (68 lions, 19 bulls), plants (10 rosettes) and geometric patterns (38 circles). Pearls made of gold, silver, carnelian and turquoise have been identified as jewelry . Gold stripes lay under the skull, which are interpreted as components of tiara .

Among the additions were twelve arrowheads from flint , 17 segments and a plurality of gold and silver tubes 1914 is one of BV Farmakovskii as components of the canopy have been interpreted. In addition to tools made of stone and copper, the chamber contained 16 vessels made of gold and silver as well as clay vessels. A number of animals are depicted on the metal vessels and appliqués, including cats ( leopards or cheetahs ), aurochs , wild sheep, various birds, wild boars , wild horses , wild sheep , crop gazelles , lions and bears .

The excavator interpreted the burial as male and assumed that the deceased had been buried with his wife and a slave. However, this interpretation has not been supported by anthropological research.

literature

  • Philip P. Betancourt: The Maikop Copper Tools and Their Relationship to Cretan Metallurgy. In: American Journal of Archeology. 1970.
  • Philip L. Kohl: The Making of Bronze Age Eurasia. Cambridge World Archeology, 2007, ISBN 978-0-511-26695-9 , pp. 73 ff.
  • Brian Murray Fagan: The Oxford Companion to Archeology. 1996, ISBN 0-19-507618-4 , p. 398.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 5 bags
  2. ↑ Н. И. Отчёт: Веселовского о раскопках Майкопского кургана в 1897 г. Рукописный архив ИИМК РАН. Фонд 1, 1896, № 204, лл.52—52 об. In: Древние общества Кавказа в эпоху палеометалла (ранние комплексные общества и вопросы культурной трансформации). (= Археологические изыскания Вып. 46). St. Peterburg 1997, ISBN 5-201-01200-0 , p. 44.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Mariya Ivanova: Caucasus and Orient: The emergence of the “Maikop phenomenon” in the 4th millennium BC Chr. In: Prehistoric Journal. Volume 87, No. 1, 2012.
  4. ↑ Marion Uerpmann, Hans-Peter Uerpmann: draft and pack animals between Maikop and Trialeti. In: Svend Hansen et al. (Ed.): From Maikop to Trialeti; Extraction and distribution of metals and obsidian in the Caucasus in the 4th to 2nd millennium BC Chr. Habelt, Bonn 2010, pp. 227–251.

Web links

Commons : Kurgan von Maikop  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 44 ° 36 ′ 35.3 "  N , 40 ° 7 ′ 52.5"  E