Pages: 227-242

The article considers three hypotheses of the origin of the North-Caucasian culture: autochthonous, southern (from Transcaucasia) and Northern (from the steppe). The first part of the paper presents arguments against the first two hypotheses based on the analysis of the modern source base. Next, the third — the most probable version — is analyzed in detail. It is connected with direct or indirect (through connections with other cultural traditions) penetration of burial rites and material culture of the population from the Northern Pontic region (bearers of the Kvityana culture) in Ciscaucasia at the turn of IV and III Millenium BC.

Keywords: Ciscaucasia, Northern Pontic region, Eneolithic period, Early and Middle Bronze Age, North-Caucasian culture, Maikop culture, Novotitorovskaya culture, Yamnaya culture, Kvityana culture, migration, burial rite

Information about author:

Alexander Kleshchenko (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]