Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus | Explore & Learn

Death and Burial: Caucasus

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From the northern Caucasus to northwestern Iran hundreds of burial mounds are known that share certain features: an outer encircling stone revetment, a central earth pit or stone lined tomb covered by stones, pebble floors, body positions, and the presence of ochre. They are identified as belonging to the Maikop (named after a large burial mound excavated at the site of Maikop near the Black Sea) and related cultures. The wealth buried in the tombs and the effort required to construct them shows that they belonged to powerful elites. Whether these people buried in the tombs lived a seminomadic or more settled existence has yet to be demonstrated.


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Images, from top to bottom: Vessel with incised decoration, late 4th–early 3rd millennium B.C. North Caucasus, Maikop kurgan. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 34-95. Appliqués of lions, bulls, and rings, late 4th–early 3rd millennium B.C. North Caucasus, Maikop kurgan. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 34-30, 34-31, 34-32, 34-33. Bull standard, late 4th–early 3rd millennium B.C. North Caucasus, Maikop kurgan. The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia 34-22.

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