Chronology of the Maykop-Novosvobodnaya entity in the light of new data and discussions

The paper analyzes radiocarbon data for the Maykop-Novosvobodnaya culture. A special focus is placed on the dates of the first third of IV millennium BC related with the earliest manifestations of the Maykop-Novosvobodnaya entity. This dating series includes over a dozen of dates obtained from animal and human bones as well as ceramic samples in various laboratories. The paper also reviews a chronological sequence suggested by A. A. Iessen in 1950 that raised an issue of early Maykop and late Maykop sites. This sequence was mainly based on bronze items. Today the sequence based on ceramics makes it possible to identify four typological variants of the Maykop-Novosvobodnaya culture. The latter column is compared with Iessen's sequence and radiocarbon dates. As a result, the radiocarbon chronology for each variants is presented. The research led the author to the conclusion that the Maykop-Novosvobodnaya culture existed for quite a long time, with the timeline of its earliest variant determined as the beginning and the middle of IV mill. BC. In some places it survived until the last centuries of IV mill. BC (34th - 32nd centuries BC).