The Maykop (or Maikop) Culture was a Bronze Age people of the Caucasus mountains who traded with the ancient civilization of Uruk Mesopotamia and the Yamnaya steppe herders.

When the famous Maykop Chieftain's kurgan was excavated in 1897 it was almost 11m high and more than 100m in diameter. Inside were astonishing treasures of gold, silver, arsenical bronze, and precious stones from distant lands.

This ancient king of the northern mountains was wealthy beyond belief. His tunic had 68 golden lions and 19 golden bulls applied to its surface. He wore necklaces with 60 beads of turquoise, 1,272 beads of carnelian, and 122 golden beads. Under his skull was a diadem with five golden rosettes of five petals each on a band of gold pierced at the ends.

How did this remote kingdom acquire such wealth? What did they eat, what weapons and tools did they use, and what language did they speak?

Who were the mysterious people Soviet archeologists called the Steppe Maykop (or Steppe Maikop)?

And how did the Maykop culture influence the Yamnaya culture to their north?