(One of) the oldest gold necklace(s) in Europe was found in Adigea in 1982. It was part of a hoard of very fine gold objects that belong to the Maikop Culture (thought to be an ancient civilization established by the ancestors of the Circassians), found in a kurgan (burial mound) in the village of Novosvobodnaya, and dated to the third millennium BC (some five thousand years ago).
In 2003 the necklace was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of New York to be featured in the exhibition "Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus", May 8–August 17, 2003. The necklace is presently kept at the National Museum of Adigea.