Novozavedennoye Kurgan Field – Stavropol Steppe
Novozavedennoye Maikop–Catacomb Kurgans
Maikop to Sarmatian (3600 BCE–300 CE)·Maikop / Yamnaya / Catacomb / Sarmatian·🇷🇺 Stavropol Krai, Georgiyevsky District, near Novozavedennoye, Russia
About
About Novozavedennoye Kurgan Field – Stavropol Steppe
A multi-period kurgan cemetery spanning Maikop (3600–2500 BCE) through Yamnaya, Catacomb and Sarmatian layers, clustered at Novozavedennoye on the Stavropol Ciscaucasian steppe. 3200 BCE) produced an exceptionally rich wagon burial with solid-wood wheels and arsenical copper tools, establishing Ciscaucasian Maikop's links to Mesopotamian metallurgy. Overlying Catacomb (2500–2000 BCE) kurgans yielded incised ochre catacombs and Yamnaya ochre pits intruded into earlier mounds, demonstrating 2,000-year reuse.
Excavated 1979–1991 by S. N. Korenevskii and M. V. Andreyeva, the field is stratigraphic anchor for the Caucasus–steppe neolithic-to-Bronze transmission.
Why it mattersOnly cemetery stacking Maikop wagon, Yamnaya, Catacomb and Sarmatian in one kurgan group, anchoring steppe–Caucasus chronology.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Maikop–Mesopotamian metal source
Theories
- 01Kurgan reuse as legitimation
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3600 BCE – 300 CE (multi-period)
- Period
- Maikop to Sarmatian (3600 BCE–300 CE)
- Culture
- Maikop / Yamnaya / Catacomb / Sarmatian
- Builders
- Ciscaucasian steppe sequence
- Purpose
- Diachronic lineage necropolis reusing mounds
- Abandoned
- c.400 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1979 Korenevskii Stavropol expedition
- Excavation
- Excavated
3200 BCE
Maikop wagon kurgan Novozavedennoye I
2500 BCE
Catacomb ochre catacomb intrusions
1991
Korenevskii synthesizes sequence
On the ground
Structures & features
44.3200° N · 43.5800° E · 280 m · 2 mapped features
Maikop Wagon Kurgan I
kurgan3200 BCE wagon burial with solid wheels
44.3210° N · 43.5810° ECatacomb Kurgan 7 ochre niche
kurgan2500 BCE incised catacomb with ochre
44.3180° N · 43.5770° E