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This study, the first of this kind, reconstructs the technical chaîne operatoire of thin‐walled jointless gold bead production in the Maykop culture on the basis of trace‐wear analysis, experimental research and comparative analysis, using gold beads from the Early Bronze Age dolmen (c. 3200–2900 bc) in kurgan 2 at Tsarskaya (discovered in 1898). The results of the study demonstrate that such beads were produced from a perforated disc‐shaped blank by pressure (with intermittent annealing) within a hemispherical depression in a shaping block (presumably made from stone or bone) and subsequent abrasive treatment of the surface. Most probably, this technique was a regional expression of Near Eastern jewellery traditions that emerged within the urbanized centres of Upper Mesopotamia in the early fourth millennium bc and spread out, through the Caucasus, into the southern boundaries of the Eurasian steppe.

The paper presents the results of structural studies of model niello compositions reproducing historical niello inlays on encolpion crosses from the Suzdal Opolye. The specifics of the formation of inlay phases at different stages of its melting are analyzed. Comparison of the modeling results and historical niello shows that the microstructural features of archaeological samples correspond to niello production by melting.

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