Maikop pottery in archaeological context – collecting basic data

拟议研究的主题是Maikop“文化”，这是一种出现并存在于公元前四千年(约公元前3950-3100年)的现象，从西部的黑海到东部的车臣，从北部的库马河和曼奇河到南部的高加索山脉北部斜坡。这种现象的出现和存在可以用关于移民、文化模仿和参与交流网络/“传播网络”的理论来解释，仅仅是工匠的迁移。侧重于金属器物或非常特殊的特征，享有盛誉的发现和埋葬现象忽视了主要的题材和信息来源。学者们一直在研究麦科普现象，但没有分析其基本成分。麦科普聚落仍然笼罩在库尔干人和著名发现的阴影下，大多数研究的特点是循环推理，对物质文化和背景的缺乏理解加剧了这一现象。在讨论接触、影响、迁徙和社会分层之前，应该先描述Maikop定居点居民的物质文化。这样的讨论不能建立在零散的研究定居点和数十部已出版的库尔干文字的基础上。关于移民、长途贸易和酋长的理论没有对迈科普现象提供充分的描述，也没有解释迈科普意味着什么。系统的、高分辨率的发掘，以及对迈科普聚落物质文化各个方面的环境和技术研究，是进一步讨论这一时期所必需的。拟议的项目旨在通过对陶器组合的打字技术定义，基于高分辨率挖掘、上下文分析和对这一现象的关键地点的全面公布，来解决这一差距。在库班山谷对谢里金斯科伊进行高分辨率、控制良好的研究和发掘，形成了走出建立在对物质文化模糊理解的理论恶性循环所必需的程序。在仔细研究物质文化的各个方面的基础上，在其聚落背景下对Maikop物质文化进行深入的描述，将有助于确定Maikop人的基本行为特征，并开始讲述这一现象的故事。

The subject of the proposed research is Maikop “culture”, a phenomenon that emerged and existed in the 4th millennium BC (ca. 3950-3100 BC) between the Black Sea in the west to Chechnya in the east, from the Kuma and Manych Rivers in the north into the northern slopes of the Great Caucasian Mountains in the south. The appearance and existence of the phenomenon is explained by theories about migration, cultural emulation and participation in exchange networks/”networks of transmission”, to mere migration of artisans. Focusing on the metal objects or very special feature, prestigious finds and burials of the phenomenon neglected the main subjects and information sources. Scholars have been dealt with the Maikop phenomenon without analyzing its basic components.Maikop settlements remained in the shadow of kurgans and prestigious finds and most studies are characterized by a circular reasoning, exacerbated by a poor understanding of material culture and contexts. The material culture of the inhabitants of the Maikop settlements should be described before the discussion about contacts, influences, migrations and social stratification. Such discussions can not be based on fragmentary studied settlements and dozens of published kurgans. Theories on migration, long-distance trade and chiefs does not supply a sufficient description of the Maikop phenomenon, nor does it explain what does it mean to be Maikop.Systematic, high-resolution excavations, along with environmental and technological studies of various aspects of Maikop settlement material-culture are necessary for further discussion of the period. The proposed project is intended to address this gap through typo-technological definition of the pottery assemblage, based on high-resolution excavation, contextual analysis, and full publication of a key-site of the phenomenon. High-resolution, well-controlled research and excavations of Sereginskoe in the Kuban Valley form a procedure necessary to get out of the vicious circle of theories, built on a vague understanding of the material culture. A “thick” description of the Maikop material culture in its settlement context, based on close examination of various aspects of the material culture, will allow to identify basic behavioral traits of the Maikop people and to start telling the story of the phenomenon.