Bronze Age Mountain Kings | The Maykop Culture

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3 жыл бұрын

The Maykop (or Maikop) Culture was a Bronze Age people of the Caucasus mountains who traded with the ancient civilization of Uruk Mesopotamia and the Yamnaya steppe herders.
When the famous Maykop Chieftain's kurgan was excavated in 1897 it was almost 11m high and more than 100m in diameter. Inside were astonishing treasures of gold, silver, arsenical bronze, and precious stones from distant lands.
This ancient king of the northern mountains was wealthy beyond belief. His tunic had 68 golden lions and 19 golden bulls applied to its surface. He wore necklaces with 60 beads of turquoise, 1,272 beads of carnelian, and 122 golden beads. Under his skull was a diadem with five golden rosettes of five petals each on a band of gold pierced at the ends.
How did this remote kingdom acquire such wealth? What did they eat, what weapons and tools did they use, and what language did they speak?
Who were the mysterious people Soviet archeologists called the Steppe Maykop (or Steppe Maikop)?
And how did the Maykop culture influence the Yamnaya culture to their north?
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Video Sources
The Horse, the Wheel, and Language - David Anthony ➜ amzn.to/3aD3Rhu
The Archaeology of the Caucasus - Antonio Sagona ➜ amzn.to/2St3IqQ
In Search of the Indo-Europeans - JP Mallory ➜ amzn.to/3gX7dQp
The Oxford Introduction to the Proto-Indo-European World - JP Mallory ➜ amzn.to/3t8zqX2
The Archaeology of Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Anatolian - Kristian Kristiansen ➜ www.academia.edu/41587006/The...
Chronology of the Maikop Culture - Mariya Ivanova ➜ www.academia.edu/2543641/The_...
The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus - Wang et al ➜ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...
Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard - David Anthony ➜ www.academia.edu/39985565/Arc...
Excavations of Soyugbulaq Kurgans of Azerbaijan - Najaf Museyibli ➜ archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/...
Diet and subsistence in Bronze Age pastoral communities from the southern Russian steppes and the North Caucasus - Corina Knipper and Sabine Reinhold ➜ journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
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Пікірлер: 454

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Hardly anything about the Maykop Culture is uncontested by archeologists. There is disagreement even on the dating of the culture and on where cultural and technological innovations began. Some say the first kurgan burials were found in the Caucasus and spread to the steppe. What the DNA of the Steppe Maykop really means is also much discussed. The timing and location of the Proto-Indo-European language is also far from resolved. What's clear though is these cultures from the Zagros to Eastern Anatolia and from Mesopotamia through the Caucasus to the steppe were connected by a complex network. Some innovations spread so quickly it's hard to know where they originated. There is hardly anything in this video that is not contradicted somewhere but I have shared some of the sources in the description - David Anthony's book The Horse, the Wheel, and Language as ever is the foundational text for the amateur steppe-fancier but there are links to some open access papers on the subject too. It's a remarkable period and just fires the imagination. This is a time when Maikop and Cucuteni-Trypillia traders likely met in Yamnaya trading towns on the Dnieper - maybe getting there by the Black Sea - and on the Don while Uruk merchants and diplomats travelled up to Maikop. What would a steppe herder think of Uruk, I wonder? What would a Mesopotamian think of a Maykop village or one of the few steppe towns on the northern shores of the Euxine? Did the snobby, urban Uruk merchants think the Maikop barbarians - decked out in Mesopotamian bling - terribly gauche? Or were they frightened by them? This video is part of my series on the peoples of the Third Millennium BC (the Maikop do count - barely!): kzfaq.info/sun/PLUyGT3KDxwC8u4jG_tOjN-8-bsHxucUxn If you've watched them, check out the Bronze Age Warfare series, you will like it too: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gsh5qsxird7RoHk.html

@thejmoneyshow 3 жыл бұрын

so epic haha

@tobyplumlee748 3 жыл бұрын

Mr. Dan being the the Mailkops bordered with the Yamnaya culture has anyone done a genetic analysis and comparison to see if the to groups were actually genetically the same people who culturally drifted do to environmental factors? The other factor being the borders were actually not just culture differences but genetic. I suspect the Maicop were intermediate with yamnaya dna as well as other cultures surrounding them or a completely different people with some shared ancestry .

@tobyplumlee748 3 жыл бұрын

The human figures remind me more of a "middle eastern" facial features though some of the images are crude and I'm not an expert. Maybe a genetic blend with the caucasians and Mesopotamia or a predated peoples who have shared dna with the 2 groups. Thier proximity to the Yamnaya would also suggest they also partially shared some ancestry before and after these cultures emerged though seemingly different genetically and certainly culturally!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

The Yamnaya had some Caucasus ancestry yes but they were a genetically distinct people to the Maikop. As for the features of the figurines they are heavily stylised but they are distinctly Mesopotamian produced and of Mesopotamian people.

@timwrigley102 3 жыл бұрын

Is there any known connection between the cultural practice of ritual regicide*, and fatal arsenic poisoning through early bronze age arsenic-bronze production? * As discussed in Joseph Campbell's, Masks of God: Primitive Mythology.

@ogmaweb9829 2 жыл бұрын

So we got a people of great Smiths, living in the moutains and mining precious materials... Wait were those Dwarves ???

@jeanninerossouw5921 Жыл бұрын

The local legends call the the kages. A clan of dwarves that lived in the mountains and controlled the trade through the area until georgi, a local hero defeated them

@kaldqallarkho5238 Жыл бұрын

They are ancestors of circassians, chechens, dagestanians. The caucasian peoples.

@robertg.arbuckle6838 9 ай бұрын

Stunted by the arsenic, and lead and mercury.

@bronzantilium7699 2 жыл бұрын

“Bronze Age Kings of the Caucasus”...that’s gonna be the name of my rock band.

@johnlathamsprinkle8667 3 жыл бұрын

I really appreciate the videos you're making: I'm a historian of the Caucasus by profession, so it makes me very happy to see such a high-quality video to inform people about this sadly neglected part of the ancient world. I'd also very much recommend Antonio Sagona's 'The Archaeology of the Caucasus' as a source, if you don't have it already. Any chance of a video on the Koban Culture in the future?

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I'm delighted you enjoyed it. I hope you weren't cringing too much at inaccuracies. My intention is to create a brief and simple narrative from the complicated history. Thank you for the recommendation. I will hopefully make more videos on the region eventually but not for a little while yet. It will give me a chance to read up on it at least. Cheers.

@elizabethford7263 3 жыл бұрын

I'd love more research material about the Caucasus. They stand out through history as this critical link between cultures but it is so hard to find information on them.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

John's suggestion Antonio Sagona's The Archaeology of the Caucasus is excellent (but I haven't quite finished it yet). I might be wrong but I think it's from the same press as the First Farmers of Europe by Stephen Shennan which is the best thing I've read in the last year or more. They're both great because they're detailed and scholarly but well written and require no prior knowledge. One thing I took away from the first half of Sagona's book is that it's complicated and much still isn't known for sure. I liked how clear he was about that.

@johnlathamsprinkle8667 3 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory No worries! The Bronze Age isn't my area of specialism but this seemed pretty good to me. My understanding is that there's a lot of argument between scholars about just how much influence Mesopotamian cultures had on the Maikop Culture, and archaeologists have been arguing about this since the 1890s when Veselovskii first published his results. But what you say is certainly a position lots of archaeologists have argued for. If you're interested in the Bronze Age Caucasus, there is a seminar tomorrow on cool rock art from Azerbaijan: you can register for it at ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAsdO-vrjMtGtZ-ZIr3zSNKL622JtKWL82X . You're also absolutely right about how complicated the evidence from the Caucasus is! I study the medieval period and even then there are massive questions about really basic things like how people defined ethnic identity.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. What an amazing part of the world to study. When I did Classics I was always fascinated by Colchis, this mysterious, mystical outpost of civilisation surrounded by strange eastern barbarism. It's been great to find out more about the reality of it as I got older but it's still so complicated that it remains mostly blank space to me. I'll get there in the end though.

@TJ11692 3 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad Tom Rowsel recommended this channel

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Me too!

@sillyname6808 3 жыл бұрын

This channel is going to blow up. The visual and information quality is crazy good!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much, let's hope so.

@Kakohoguya5768 Жыл бұрын

I was born in maykop, a week before the date this vid was posted. That’s a gift for sure

@sasstemir 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this video from grateful Circassian, sending you my best wishes in 2022 from Caucasus mountains, sir. It's peaceful beautiful night here today, and it's inspiring to think about these amazing people who lived in my homeland so many years ago. Definitely gonna learn more about this topic

@alpachino7659 Жыл бұрын

Adyghe wey wey!!!

@akaking7499 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for this video. I'm Georgian and love bronze age history but can barely find proper sources and detailed descriptions of my peoples past. I feel like it's a giant unsolved mystery which is ignored by my own people not to mention the rest of the world. Would love to see a video on Kura-araxis culture as well! Or the dozens of Megalithic city ruins scattered throughout the Caucasus.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and for your suggestions.

@hoperules8874 2 жыл бұрын

Agreed! Fascinating!

@Saylonn Жыл бұрын

Am yles J Haplogroupebi ar evaseba Amis info evropel Ojaxshi shevateslet mtelma kizikma

@akaking7499 Жыл бұрын

@@Saylonn ზოგადად რასაც ვაკვირდები ინდო ევროპელების იქით არავინ არ ინტერესდება კაცობრიობის ისტორიაზე. იუთუბში განსაკუთრებით, ყველა მარტო არიანელების მიგრაციაზე ბაზრობს

@Saylonn Жыл бұрын

@@akaking7499 Hand to Hand combat ar Sheudzliat, Ra mouvidat n sarmatielebs aghm kavkasiashi? Kalebi aaxies da kacebi daxoces

@dennisrydgren 3 жыл бұрын

A comment for the algorithm- great job! 🇸🇪

@thegoodsoma7749 3 жыл бұрын

This makes me long to be in nature and work with my hands. These ppl get it!

@notgoddhoward5972 3 жыл бұрын

So glad I found this channel, once in while youtube actually recommends something really good.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I'm glad you found it too.

@wanderingsoul1189 3 жыл бұрын

Hello from Pakistan. I appreciate the effort you've invested in making such a remarkable history stuff. Excellent!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Hello, thanks for watching, glad you're enjoying the channel.

@MagnusItland 3 жыл бұрын

Another great video! It seems you keep digging up underrated cultures from the time around the Copper Age, like you're laying down pieces of a puzzle that most of us can't see yet. It has been clear to me for a while that the usual few cultures found in classic history books are at best the skeleton of our civilization, that the reality is far richer and more complex. Seeing someone who is far ahead of me in that understanding is quite inspiring!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. I'm just relaying what the academics have written! I agree with you than the reality is far richer and more complex. There are so many distinct cultures and peoples interacting even just on the steppe over a thousand years that it takes a while to get to grips with. I'm happy people seem to be enjoying the videos about them and I'll keep on making them until they don't any more.

@hscollier 2 жыл бұрын

Very well said. I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve worked in Near Eastern archaeology (Tel Akko in the 80’s), and the Mississippian Culture archaeology (Angel Mounds in the 2000’s) and these videos are brilliantly done and fill in a lot of significant gaps that usually get left out.

@VargVikernes1488 3 жыл бұрын

This channel is so underrated

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I hope it becomes correctly rated eventually.

@dimitriantanov3150 3 жыл бұрын

The ancient Greeks colonized a region of northern Georgia called Abkhazia, starting ~1100 BC, but traces of much earlier pre-colonial contact exists in the form of small excavated settlements. The fall of the Maykop culture may not have been a fall at all, but one that transitioned from mountainous overland trade to the south, to working with costal trade networks. I like your pointing out that materials very to the Bronze age's existence came from the Caucuses.

@dimitriantanov3150 3 жыл бұрын

Also the hording of wealth is interesting, from mining culture to mining business. The more people mine, the cheaper the material gets, which hurts the miners. So hoarding wealth to produce artificial scarcity would be useful, and a surplus would also occur as a matter of inter-tribe price collusion on the materials being mined.

@GioChilaia 2 жыл бұрын

the region you talk about ( btw that name was given at a much later date ) was part of kingdom of Colchis( western proto-Georgian kingdom ) long before any colonists :) ... Ancient Greeks just co-founded coastal cities ( like modern day Batumi, Poti, Sokhumi e.t.c.. ) for trading purposes( mainly gold export ) ...

@piotrberman6363 Жыл бұрын

Without long distance trade network of Mesopotamia, the ability of making bronze weapons and tools would vanish or drop heavily, so instead larger states with complex organization, peasants, miners, artisans, warriors you would get individual clans, and no magnificent kurgan and artifacts. So "civilization" would be gone and village level culture could continue. Perhaps like in dark age Greece, bards would recite epics about the ancestors...

@hailheaven4372 Жыл бұрын

Wagons would have been more useful in the South of the Caucasus because of the desert environment in Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau. So not only wagons but Indo-European languages entered th4 Steppe through the Caucasus from the SOUTH

@Teapoid Жыл бұрын

The name “Maykop” remind me of the ruins in Crimea named “Mangup”. It was the capital of the Crimean Goths, the last Gothic people who did not go extinct til the 18th century whilst most others were extinct by the 10th century.

@Mysucculentchinesemeal 2 жыл бұрын

I have never heard of the Nuragic culture before. I didn’t take as much history in college as i should’ve so your videos always give me something new and interesting to look into.

@tsitsinoponjavidze1721 5 ай бұрын

Thanks I just want to say first time I listened truly nicely presented history and culture of Caucasus people respect you and your work

@fat_alsgaming 2 жыл бұрын

it amazes me of all the groups of people that existed so long ago. it’s more interesting to me how this isn’t talked about more, keep up the great work i’m really enjoying all your videos

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@chubbymoth5810 3 жыл бұрын

I would imagine sea trade to have played a far more important role than often imagined, even at a much earlier date in human history. A French man proved in the early 50's you can cross the Atlantic in a dinghy without food, living on fish and drinking sea water. That latter part was eye opening, just don't wait until you are already dehydrated. Point is that early man can have had a much better grasp of how to use the resources at sea than later ones and be less vulnerable than those at sea. Australians have been walking about quite a while as well.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah early sea faring is rather under examined because of the lack of evidence but we know our ancestors were making sea crossings in the deep past. Even homo erectus seems to have deliberately crossed straits, out of the sight of land, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Incredible to imagine it.

@Laotzu.Goldbug 2 жыл бұрын

Are you thinking of Thor Heyerdahl? He made it from North Africa to the Caribbean in his reed boat

@ver_idem Жыл бұрын

@@Laotzu.Goldbug It was The Ra expedition, first the Kon Tiki,and he was never alone.

@Laotzu.Goldbug Жыл бұрын

@@ver_idem yes I was thinking of Ra II. I'm not sure who the Frenchman being referred to in the original comment was though.

@Carloshache Жыл бұрын

The map of the Maykop culture overlaps very well with the traditional lands of the Circassian (or Adyghe) peoples before they were subjugated by the Russian empire in the Circassian genocide / expulsion. Genetic studies from 2018 also points to a genetic relationship between the Maykop people and modern Circassians. The Circassian languages (the Northwest Caucasian language family) are an ancient language family that is very distinctly non-Indoeuropean and has probably existed since the stone age in the same place. The mountaineous terrain of the Caucasus has helped people to preserve a few non-Indoeuropean isolated languages families that exist today. This linguistic geography give us a distinct clue to which kind of languages were spoken in all of Europe before the Indo-European invasion - probably there was a diversity of several languages that was not related to each other that would seem quite exotic to a modern European.

@commonpepe2270 2 жыл бұрын

1:01 LMAO the zoom in on that facial expression

@tobyplumlee748 3 жыл бұрын

Another excellent video! Thank you! Great job!

@blaircolquhoun7780 2 жыл бұрын

Again, I wish Ilearned more about these cultures in college I'm learning more from you than I did in Dr. Charles Lasher's History 101 at Notre Dame College in Manchester, New Hampshire between September and December 1980, Thank you.

@lindahouston5635 Жыл бұрын

Excellent video! Thanks!

@60079regulatorylaw 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing these videos. Im learning so much.

@OffRampTourist Жыл бұрын

Another wonderful video. Will be rewatching for sure.

@Sarke2 2 жыл бұрын

Magnificent video, thank you :)

@steveholmes3471 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your hardwork, really enjoyed every programme you've made.

@Hallands. 2 жыл бұрын

This really got me going! Such unknown cultures large ignored by mainstream European history - as far as I know, at least - yet seemingly key to understanding several aspects of our fundamental history better. You may have struck gold with this. I know I’m ready to expand my knowledge further if you delve deeper. Thanks for a spellbinding upload!

@Flozone1 2 жыл бұрын

What you said about the end of the Uruk period sounds really fascinating. What do we know about this time. I have never heard that the Kura-Araxes actually invaded northern Mesopotamia. For the origins of Sumerian many say that indeed there is no sign of a replacement of population or an immigration of another group, but then Sumerian has some affinities with the languages of the Caucasus, albeit small and due to the time scale of everything very fickle. Sumerian might also just have been already indigenous or migrated from the east, there was a similar shift between the Proto-Elamite culture and the Old Elamite culture. The theme of the end of the Uruk period also seems to repeat itself a thousand years later with the end of the Akkadian Empire and the invasion of the Gutians, once again trade into far away lands like Meluhha ends. Then after recovering again a thousand years later there was the Bronze Age collapse. In this way a period of far reaching trade is cut by a period of collapse.

@cruisepaige Жыл бұрын

This was SO SO SO GOOD!

@guillervz 2 жыл бұрын

This is top quality content. I enjoyed every second of it!

@cruisepaige Жыл бұрын

I love ancient history! Thank you!!!!

@pelewads 3 жыл бұрын

New to your channel. I LOVE that you include DNA evidence.

@funkyfiss 2 жыл бұрын

Another great video! Bravo!!

@thefisherking78 Жыл бұрын

Came back to listen to this all over again because why not 😁 great content

@dragonflydroneservices1021 Жыл бұрын

Excellent. Gratitude… and Merry Xmas

@M.M.83-U 7 ай бұрын

This is extremely interesting. Thanks.

@someonesdad5986 2 ай бұрын

Great video!

@joshpullman1690 Жыл бұрын

I really appreciate how much you frame your videos in the uncertainty of anthropology/archaeology. We have scattered incomplete evidence on nearly all fronts and hypotheses are all subject to change. You shy away from definite language and I applaud you. Keep up the good work brother.

@garrgravarr 3 жыл бұрын

Excellent video, as always. It's good to see people starting to wake up to how good this channel is.

@hailheaven4372 Жыл бұрын

"To defeat a medusa like monster that escaped into the mountains".... LMAO!!!

@HistoryBro 3 жыл бұрын

Love these vids. Thank you for all the hard work you've done on them.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you Bro, I appreciate it!

@elizabethford7263 3 жыл бұрын

Every time you put up a new video, my reading list gets longer! It's these intermediary cultures that fascinates me - they serve as "the missing link" in the spread of material goods and their ideological correlates. Interesting info about arsenical bronze- that's news to me but answers the question of how bronze became so widespread before the reliable trade routes with tin- producing areas were created.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

I had a line originally in the video where I said to us they're peripheral or serve as a link but of course to them they were at the centre of their own world. Exploiting the exotic wealthy strangers coming up from the south and the wild peoples to the north for their own ends, safe on their hilltops and terraces.

@elizabethford7263 3 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory the point about farming on the hilltops made me stop and think, but perhaps defense was more important than ease of agricultural access.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah there's not been a huge amount of work done on the settlements. For a hundred years everyone has wanted to excavate the kurgans. Even archeologists want to find the treasure. It's possible though that they did that thing many mountain folk do and they moved with the seasons between high and low pastures. So the high villages might have been occupied in summer only. Usually when you look at ancient peoples - lots of pigs means they were sedentary and no pigs means some level of transhumance because you can't really herd pigs like sheep and cattle. And the Maikop didn't tend to have many pigs. But there's just not enough to go on to know for sure. They were growing grain too so who knows.

@bumblebeebob 3 жыл бұрын

Amazing you have less than 6500 subscribers! Less than 5 minutes intro this one l liked subbed for all notices. Great job! And thanks to KZfaq's algorithms today!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, welcome to the channel, we're glad you found us. Cheers.

@hscollier 2 жыл бұрын

Fascinating subject matter that is presented brilliantly. Very, very well done. Thank you!

@JohnVander70 3 жыл бұрын

Love the work you’re doing.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@donbrown2391 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful stuff brother.

@circleddot6127 2 жыл бұрын

Great content!

@grandmastersreaction1267 3 жыл бұрын

Fantastic video. Thank you!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching.

@djpaasie 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for making these videos!!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching.

@ghostdog5441 2 жыл бұрын

Your videos got me interested in your books. Thanks for the dedication to detail

@eacalvert 3 жыл бұрын

I just randomly had this show up in my recommendations from YT and I'm so happy it did! 😁 Amazing video. Can't wait to binge

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

I'm happy you found us, welcome to the channel.

@pamelahomeyer748 3 жыл бұрын

This is a wonderful video thank you so much for taking the time to do this

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, I'm glad you like the channel.

@aimee-lynndonovan6077 2 жыл бұрын

Very good easy to understand info

@chrisbricky7331 3 жыл бұрын

Great presentation and thanks for sharing. Chris

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Chris.

@cindyterrell9227 2 жыл бұрын

Brilliant 👏 👏 👏 I've been researching for decades, and the information is all right here, it's coming so fast now, it's incomprehensible. BRAVO Sir. You have a new 4ever follower. Lol

@johnryan8645 2 жыл бұрын

You just opened a set of answers to questions I’ve had for a long time. Of course now there are new questions, but totally great channel!!!

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@anthonyholiman9144 3 жыл бұрын

I really look forward to these videos. I am currently reading Thunderer, and love the series. Keep up the good work.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

I'm so pleased you're enjoying the stories and the videos, that's ideal. Cheers.

@manfredconnor3194 2 жыл бұрын

Love the visuals in your pieces.

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you.

@user-yc8sg4mi4v 3 жыл бұрын

It's so cool to see quality videos on such underrated and fascinating topics. Thank you!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, it's great to know you enjoyed it.

@daniell1483 2 жыл бұрын

Can't get enough of these videos on early civilizations! I'd love to see some sort of annotated map of these early societies or something similar.

@cruisepaige Жыл бұрын

Great idea! You could do it based on these videos.

@olinayoung6287 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Watched it twice 😊!!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Glad you liked it. Check out the others on the channel if you haven't already.

@savvygood 3 жыл бұрын

Just subscribed! What a pleasant voice to listen to on my walks!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much, welcome to the channel, Savannah.

@JuliahistoryLover 3 жыл бұрын

This is so cool, thank you!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching, glad you liked the video. Check out the others on the channel if you haven't already.

@senator1295 3 жыл бұрын

well done; all vids

@thoughtfox12 3 жыл бұрын

Another good one mate. Incredible that artefacts of such precise resemblance to real objects and animals from so long ago. It seems like the bronze age had a kind of literal interpretation of objects for representation in art, which we don't see again until the Renaissance or so. (Thoroughly uneducated opinion here)

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah the explosion in artistic ability in Mesopotamia came from their society being able to support generations of professional artists. Egyptian art too and Minoan were amazing. Seems like the possibilities opened up by metal working really *fired* the imagination.

@thoughtfox12 3 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory badum tsss

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Don't try this at home, I'm a professional.

@ghanova 2 жыл бұрын

Very informative. Information dense. Somethings i didn't know. Thank you.

@klementtaralevich7798 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much - what a luck to find such a good content!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching, welcome to the channel!

@obadiah_vandal 3 жыл бұрын

I only found this channel recently. Very glad I did! Great content. I'll have to get a copy of your book soon.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, I'm glad you found the channel too, welcome.

@j.philipjimenez3395 Жыл бұрын

What an extraordinary channel!

@thetribeofdjembe 2 жыл бұрын

Dan Thank You. Great information

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching.

@ayaavalon6213 3 жыл бұрын

Love this thank u 🙏

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching.

@thomaszaccone3960 2 жыл бұрын

These are awesome. Thank you!!

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you like them, thanks. Let me know if there's a specific culture you'd like to see in future. Cheers.

@thomaszaccone3960 2 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory Did you ever do one on Cossack culture?

@TheGreenmangrove Жыл бұрын

valuable document.

@basilbrushbooshieboosh5302 2 жыл бұрын

Great work here Dan. Your style is so relatable and respectful, and, very importantly, not pushing a particular theory or conclusive analysis when the evidence just isn't in. First saw your vids about a fortnight ago and I'm hooked on you man. Haven't ever seen your books second-hand in my travels but I'll keep an eye out for your name as I think I'd absolutely love them. Question: Were horses known to have been used by any other peoples or cultures before this time period where they seem so integral already to the Maikop? Also, with the peoples of Mesopotamia and wider environs embroiled in cultural and factional spats for a long time previous to the Maikop period, why do you think there wasn't more migration by the southern cultures north and west to greener pastures, say, to beyond the Carpathians? ie. not too far via the water highway? Do you think these areas were defended against migrations somehow? Or that it well could have occurred in a trickle fashion? Or otherwise? Would love to hear your thoughts? Thanks so much for the time and effort you put into these great productions. Cheers mate Michael Barrett

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Michael, I appreciate it. The exact time and place of horse domestication is unknown. It may have been by the Sredny Stog culture which was on the western end of the steppe around the Dnieper. Do you mean why didn't mesopotamians migrate into the steppe and eastern Europe? They had no need to, their own homeland was the place their culture was adapted to, and they had no ability to, they could only really survive where they were by managing the water to grow crops. The later migrations by steppe people were facilitated by their already-mobile culture and the geography and climate of Europe.

@ionelghiorghita688 Жыл бұрын

About the Carpathian mountains culture you should check the Cucuteni Trypillian culture, much older than the Caucasian one. It's even considerate posibil to be disappeared spreading around the Black sea. In this particularly case Wikipedia seems to cover pretty well the subject.

@911Madmonkey 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent work! Your channel is really helping me understand this wonderful but less examined time better. I hope we get more archeological evidence in the future!

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much. I hope so too.

@ariomannosyemo9090 3 жыл бұрын

Keep it up man. You're killin' it!

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks bro, you've been encouraging me since the very start and I really appreciate it.

@GM4ThePeople 2 жыл бұрын

According to Google Maps, you don't want to walk from Babylon to Maikop. You hike up to Trebizond, then hop on a ship to cross the Black Sea. Thanks, Trebizond!

@eardwulf785 Жыл бұрын

I noticed that many of the depictions of grave goods were sketched rather than photographed. I found this interesting because it reminded me of a book that was bought for me when I was a youngster. It was an edition of the Men At Arms series titled The Scythians. The book was printed when the Cold War interfered with east/west cooperation in academia. I recall reading the subtext of sketched images of Scythian bling and the author explaining that it wasn't possible for Western archaeolists to visit the sites of burial mounds in the Soviet Union only 'very old' drawings were available. Another fascinating video btw. Thankyou.

@taybak8446 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this very informative and well presented video. You obviously are a sincere and hard working person. I really do enjoy your well informed fact based videos.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching!

@paulking54 2 жыл бұрын

Came across your channel in the last few months and am enjoying it immensely. Very watchable and well put together, good blending of formats and alot of enthusiasm. I recon a 60 cm blade probably constitutes a shot sword, claim of oldest sword maybe right.

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you very much Paul.

@anthonybuckman702 3 жыл бұрын

Great content and presentation mate. Subscribed

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, welcome to the channel.

@KrisHughes Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your research and not putting forward a single theory as 'the one'! It's refreshing.

@padraigmcgrath3876 2 жыл бұрын

I love your videos. Really well researched. There seems to have been a real shift in focus in recent years. 20 years ago, most lay-people who were interested in archaeology and prehistory were usually focused on iron-age Mesopotamia. But now there seems to be a new level of interest in the neolithic and bronze age.

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, I appreciate that. You're right, there's been a lot of work in these areas in the last 20 years - archeogenetics especially.

@padraigmcgrath3876 2 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory Even though the new interest in archeogenetics might be partially driven by certain contemporary impulses which are, shall we say, a bit unsavoury (qua contemporary ethno-politics and resurgent ethno-nationalism). I remember reading a book by an American archaeologist about 20 years ago - "Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind's First Three Million Years" by Robert Wenke. I remember him saying that the academic convention was for ancient or prehistoric peoples to be classified ONLY by language, as we simply didn't have enough useful knowledge regarding their genetics. But I realize that, since then, new techniques have been developed regarding the tracing of genetic markers and specific mutations as a way of estimating when different pre-historic populations diverged.

@30035XD 5 ай бұрын

Happy new year Dan!

@jay5775 3 жыл бұрын

I have been away from the internet for a couple of days and saw that a new video has been uploaded to this channel which made my day. I have been waiting for a channel that covered topics of this nature (aside from Survive the Jive) and here it is. This stuff is right in my wheelhouse. Recently picked up the novella prequel and Gods of Bronze part 1. I completed the prequel a couple days ago and currently on Chapter 2 of Bronze 1. Highly addictive by the way. Would like to make some suggestions if I may. Explore the early days of the Ancient Anatolians, maybe even explore the prehistoric structures and settlements there, (i.e. Gobekli Tepe, Nevali Cori, Catolhoyuk etc.). You could expand to the Mediterranean structures as I think they are all connected, even though the timeframes are quite expansive, such as the Temples of Malta, Giants Tombs of Sardinia. I believe all these structures are related even to the Western European structures such as New Grange and Stonehenge. I believe they were all built by the descendants of the Ancient Anatolians that expanded across Europe between 7500 and 5500 BP. Also I would like to see some exploration into the lives of the various hunter gatherer people that inhabited Europe prior to the arrive of the Anatolians and the Yamnaya. Much Speculation would be required but so what. Just more freedom for the author right? The fiction stuff is great but you might put out some nonfiction stuff as well. I would certainly be a buyer. I could go on and on but that's enough I suppose. We also need to get many more subs for this cannel. I'll do what I can to promote thats for sure.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome, so glad you're enjoying the series. Thanks for your suggestions.

@editorrbr2107 3 жыл бұрын

I just stumbled across your channel, and I want you to know this is very much my jam. And I am very interested in picking up some of your books now

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, glad you found us. I hope you enjoy the stories.

@jimmypat6572 3 жыл бұрын

I would love to learn more about the relationship hemp and other medicinal herbs may have played in religious and commercial lives of these prehistoric peoples. Great work btw! Your videos are vital to piecing the story of prehistory together for an independent researcher such as myself. The sources you decide to use are also first class

@jimmypat6572 3 жыл бұрын

@@user-ms4cm4qf5j Herodotus mentions a few times about the Scythian (Indo-Aryans) inhalation of cannabis seed for instance. Also, throughout medieval history nomadic peoples on the steppe continued to use cannabis in form of hashish even after conversion to Islam. Although there isn’t any definite evidence, a pagan spirituality with rituals involving a little reefer ain’t that far fetched

@jimmypat6572 3 жыл бұрын

@@user-ms4cm4qf5j it was a hotbox

@Mrcool12684 2 жыл бұрын

DUDE!!! Another bad ass video! Im telling ya I want you to get rich so all you need to do is make videos! Im serious, you may not think so, but hands down one of the best KZfaqrs. But, I am a sucker for Early and actually ALL Bronze age stuff. But man, please keep kickin Ass

@anitapollard1627 2 жыл бұрын

Love your work! Great video! New subscriber here, from small town southern Alberta 🤗❤

@DanDavisHistory 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, welcome to the channel.

@Sid-lk2gq 2 жыл бұрын

thanks for this vid, id never heard of the Maykop

@kevinrice7635 Жыл бұрын

Good vid kid 👌 stay healthy and Good Luck 👍

@andersschmich8600 3 жыл бұрын

One of the funniest lines I have read in any academic text has to come from "The Horse, The Wheel, and Language", to paraphrase, 'what did the Maikop chieftains want from the steppe, could it have been drugs?'.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

lol yeah. Imagine braving 2,000 km of dangerous mountain chieftains and pirates just to score some ganja.

@andersschmich8600 3 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory I mean I guess people still do lol. Out of curiosity, have you ever read Barry Cuneliff's "Europe Between the Oceans"? I liked it overall, but it came out before a lot of the more recent genetic evidence, and it felt too broad in scope to be truly strong in any one area.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Cunliffe has been the superstar British prehistorian all my life but I haven't read that one, no.

@bozo5632 3 жыл бұрын

@@DanDavisHistory Yeah, I remember the late 80's.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Lol

@longinzaczek5857 Жыл бұрын

The first known picture of the wagon (on ceramics) was found in Poland close to Cracov in Bronocice (3500 BC or earlier because C14 datating could underestimate the age of neotithic artifacts about 500 years or more, as we know from comparing with dendrochrological datating). Ceramics is a funnelbaker type. This is of course no poof that first wagons were invented in Poland, but we can assume that wagons were invented somewhere in Cucuteni-Tripillia culture or in some neighbouring cultures.

@kkupsky6321 Жыл бұрын

Yer great man. All good speculation. Keep em coming and I’ll have a think. Also one day I will learn English.

@memyselfi0120 3 жыл бұрын

So it can be ascertained that many of these innovations have their earliest origins in the Caucasus and adjacent regions before later on reaching the Steppes. With people we know today as Caucasian Hunter-Gatherers. Truly fascinating stuff.

@DanDavisHistory 3 жыл бұрын

Not necessarily no. Many of the innovations appear in the archaeological record at basically the same time so no one knows where they originated. Eg the ard (the first plough) appears in the near east and northern Europe at the same time (within dating error margins). Where did they originate? No way to say for sure.