Gold and silver beads in the Maikop burial mound (Oshad): some aspects of a comprehensive study

Studies around the Maikop culture are one of the most popular topics today both in the Russian and foreign literature. Since the 1950s, search for reliable sites for dating has been resumed, especially concerning the materials of the Maikop burial mound (Oshad). The A.A. Iessen studies who suggested that chronology can be refined based on analysis of links with other cultures are of particular importance. However, in the 1970s — 1980s new sites discovered in Mesopotamia and Anatolia changed crucially the chronology of the sites, particularly due to calibrated radiocarbon 14C dates. It led to a dramatic shift in the time scale of the Copper Age cultures, which also affected the chronology of the Maikop culture. International conferences played a special role in popularisation of these materials, i.e. the conference ‘The Maikop Phenomenon in the Ancient History of the Caucasus and Eastern Europe’ held in 1991. Later on, our relations with foreign, first of all German, colleagues successfully developed. International conferences held in St. Petersburg in 2015 and Frankfurt am Main in 2018, and recent one organized by the Eurasian Department of the German Archaeological Institute in Georgia in 2022 and 2023 were of great importance. The result of this co-operation appeared to be the definition of the special status and significance of the Caucasus in the middle of the 4th millennium BC for the whole Eurasia. Nowadays detailed study of materials and their representation is of great importance. This article is focused on the analyses of gold and silver beads of the Maikop burial mound (Oshad) and similar items in the Caucasus and neighbou­ring territories. Over 6000 beads were divided into 17 groups. The most numerous are disc-shaped lamellar beads-“pucks”, which are the most widespread in other complexes. This allows sugges­ting series manufacturing of such jewellery.