The Maykop Culture

The Maykop culture of the North Caucasus buried its dead under kurgans with astonishing wealth: more than seven thousand gold objects and around a thousand of silver, some of the earliest wheeled vehicles, and castings in arsenical copper. At Klady near Novosvobodnaya, megalithic dolmen tombs define the Novosvobodnaya phase of the culture. These four people were buried there between about 3600 and 3100 BCE. Their genomes continue the local Eneolithic ancestry of the Caucasus, with a large share (40 to 70 percent) related to Chalcolithic Anatolia alongside Iranian and Caucasus hunter-gatherer roots, and stand apart from the so-called Steppe Maykop groups with their Siberian input. They are also the best single source for the Kura-Araxes people who followed.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Maykop Culture are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

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  Who were the Maykop Culture?

  The Maykop Culture (c. 3600-3000 BCE, Klady, Novosvobodnaya, Adygea, Russia) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 4 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions".

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  What does "matching" the Maykop Culture mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

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  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Maykop Culture?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• Ötzi the Icemanc. 3350-3120 BCE

• The Newgrange Chieftainc. 3200 BCE

• The Chalcolithic Anatolians of Arslantepec. 3950-3050 BCE

• The Long Barrow Buildersc. 3700-3400 BCE

• The Yangshao Farmers of Baligangc. 4100-3000 BCE

• The Megalith Farmers of Falbygdenc. 3300-2800 BCE

• The Collective Tomb of Buryc. 3200-2500 BCE

• The Ancient City of Tepe Hissarc. 3600-2400 BCE

• The Seal Hunters of Gotlandc. 3000-2700 BCE

• The Family of Koszycec. 2950-2700 BCE

• The Burnt City of Shahr-i Sokhtac. 3000-2550 BCE

• The Cucuteni-Trypillia Mega-Settlementsc. 4300-3500 BCE