Attila Kagan of the Huns from the kind of Velsung

The emergence and migration of Indo-Aryan tribes

Yamnaya culture

The yamnaya culture (more precisely, the ancient pit of cultural and historical community) is an archaeological culture of the late Bronze Age – the Early Bronze Age (3600—2300 BC). It occupied the territory from the South Urals in the east to the Dniester in the west, from Ciscaucasia in the south to the Middle Volga in the north. The Yamnaya culture was mainly nomadic, with elements of hoe farming near rivers and in some hillforts. Hoes at the same time were made of bones (horns). Ceramic yamnaya culture is becoming more perfect. And blackened dishes appear, although, possibly, they are also milky (the film is formed due to milk)

Yamnaya men created wheeled carts (carts). The earliest finds in Eastern Europe of the remains of four-wheeled carts were found in the barbed burials of the pit culture (for example, the “Watchtower” on the Dnieper, the burial ground near the village of Yassky in the Odessa region, the Shumayevsky burial ground in Orenburg, etc.). A characteristic feature of the pit culture is the burial of the dead in pits under the mounds in a supine position with bent knees. The bodies showered with ocher. Burials in the mounds were multiple and often made at different times. Burials of animals (cows, pigs, sheep, goats and horses) were also found. In the steppe strip from the Danube River in the west to the headwaters of the Manych River in the east, there are approximately 160 graves of the pit culture with the remains of wheeled vehicles (wheels, carts), as well as their clay models and the remains of drawings. The oldest of the finds are dated on a calibrated scale to the 32th century BC. e.

Four-wheeled carts were discovered on the banks of the Yalpukh River in the south-west of Moldova, near the village of Mayaki on the left bank of the Lower Dniester, near the village of Sofievka on the Ingulets River, in another burial on Ingule. The remains of a two-wheeled cart come from the pit burial of the Watchtower grave near the Dnieper city. Another wagon was found in the Pervokonstantinovka burial ground near Kakhovka, and the remains of a two-wheeled wagon were found in the village of Akkermen in the Melitopol region. One wheel was found in a pit burial near the city of Rostov, in the burial of a mound 7 of the burial ground Gerasimovka I, Shumaevo II in the Urals. 3 wheels were found in Shumaevo OK II / 2, Abundant I 3/1 – 4 wheel simulations. Both wheels of a two-wheeled wooden arba from the Watchtower grave of the pit culture near the Dnieper city (III millennium BC) were made of a solid piece of wood, cut longitudinally, with round holes for the axle and thick hubs.

In the Samara region, a burial place was found for two people of antiquity 3,800 years old. The bodies are laid next to each other, face to face. As analysis of the genetic material showed, both people died from a plague stick, which had a genetic type similar to Justinian’s plague, and had the ability to live in fleas and thus be transmitted rapidly from person to person. Given that the plague stick from Samara is the oldest example of such a mutation in the plague, scientists have confirmed that massive population migration from the Yamnaya culture reached Europe, resulting in the culture of cord ceramics, and, in Central Asia and Altai, the Afanasyev culture. Analyzes of the remains of other European cultures – Srubnaya, Sintashtinsky, Potapovskaya and Andronovskaya – confirm that the plague stick has genetically linked lines to the one found near the village of Mikhailovsky.These cultures are an example of the reverse migration carried out by the farmers of these crops from Europe, up to Central Asia. The yamnaya culture originates from the Khvalynsk culture in the middle reaches of the Volga and from the Srednestogov culture in the middle reaches of the Dnieper, and it is also genetically called the funnel-shaped cup culture. Yamnaya culture gives way to Poltava. In the west, the pit culture is replaced by a catacomb culture. In the east there are Andronovo and carcass cultures. Kemi-Obinsky culture of Crimea is a derivative of the Yamnaya culture.

And in the Yamnaya culture there is already a rite of neutralization of the dead. Paired pit burial Tamar-Utkul VIII. The upper skeleton is abundantly sprinkled with ocher, the lower one is dissected and placed at the feet. Speaking about the dismemberment of the dead among the Yamnaya tribes, one should also mention something similar to the custom of demembration. The rite of demember, in its basic understanding, means the deliberate displacement of the bones of the human skeleton from its original position and placing them either in disorder or in the order directly opposite to the original position in which the deceased was at the time of burial. Not taking into account the cases when the dissected skeletons play an accompanying role in undisturbed bones, it can be reliably judged that the de-migration noted in the burials of the yamnaya culture of the region is a sign of a certain social stratum of society in the early Bronze Age.

However, the fact that to the east of the Dniester the yamnaya burial places with the use of reingumation is much less common than on the territory of the Prut-Dniester interfluve. This observation, to a certain extent, can serve as evidence that the demembration and the custom of laying the bones of a buried “package” is a narrowly local sign for the pit culture of the Dniester-Danube region.

No traces of the archaeological influence of the yamnaya culture in South Asia, including Tajikistan, were found. Linguistic studies also suggest that the languages of the Indo-Iranian group could come to South Asia not 3000 – 2500 BC, and later – between 2300—1200. BC e. These findings triggered a new search for a source for languages that were distributed during that period. As a result, the study showed that there was no mass migration of steppe nomads to South Asia from the pit culture in the early Bronze Age and the like; however possible. there was a migration from the steppe cultures in the late Bronze Age. Ymnaya were mined for metal in the Kargaly mining and metallurgical center.

Catacomb culture

The Catacomb cultural and historical community is an ethnocultural association of the Middle Bronze Age (XXV – XX centuries BC), spread in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from the Urals and the North Caucasus to the lower Danube. It was originally identified as an archaeological culture in 1901—1903. V.A. Gorodtsov.

Later, researchers identified local options that were identified as independent archaeological cultures. The concept of “catacomb cultural and historical community” was introduced into scientific circulation. It is represented by the monuments of the following catacomb cultures:

– old katakombnoy (XXV – XXIII centuries. BC.),

– Donetsk (XXIII – XX centuries BC),

– Middle Don (XXVIII – XXVII – XX centuries BC),

– inhulian (XXVIII – XX centuries BC).

The pioneer of the catacomb culture is V. A. Gorodtsov, who in the years 1901—1903 in the process of studying the barrow antiquities of the Seversky Donets drew attention to the burials in the catacombs – a specific funeral structure consisting of a vertical well (entrance pit), dromos (passage in the form of a corridor) and burial chamber (burial place). In accordance with the design features of the burial structure, the culture allocated by him was called catacomb. Catacomb graves are known in the same region and much later, both in the Sarmatian time and in the graves of the Salt-Maetsk culture. The very structure of the grave, consisting of a dromos and a burial chamber, often with a dome, has parallels in the famous grave of King Hinze in Germany, and probably with the construction of the famous domed tombs of Hellas. The most southern monuments are known in the steppes of Crimea, and the most northern – near Kursk and Yelets. Catacomb settlements are known on the Don (near Rostov), Kibikinskoye near Lugansk, Ternovskoye near Kamyshin on the Volga, etc. Later, researchers turned their attention to the heterogeneity of the catacomb monuments in different territories, which contributed to the identification of a number in the 50—60s of the XX century. local options. With the accumulation of archaeological material, prerequisites were created for understanding local variants as independent archaeological cultures of a single catacomb cultural and historical community, which was ultimately done in the early 1970s by researchers L.S. Klein and O.G. Shaposhnikova.

The problem of the origin of the catacomb culture (later the catacomb cultural and historical community) was posed at the beginning of the 20th century by V.A. Gorodtsov, almost immediately after the discovery of the burial mounds in the catacombs on the Seversky Donets, but still remains debatable. Researchers discuss autochthonous and migration theories of the origin of tribes of the catacomb community.Adherents of the autochthonous theory believe that the emergence of a catacomb community should be associated with the further development of the local pit population. Proponents of the migration theory suggest that the catacomb tribes genetically go back to the Yamnaya, but arise under the strong migration influence of the populations of the Ciscaucasia. The type of economy of the carriers of the catacomb cultural and historical community was determined by the environmental conditions of the steppe and forest-steppe zones. So, in the steppe pastoral or cattle breeding of the nomadic type, which was based on the breeding of cattle and small cattle, took root. In the forest-steppe, a model of shepherd or stall cattle breeding is prevailing with the predominance of cattle and pigs in the herd. For the catacomb cultural and historical community, tribal villages and low (up to 1 m) burial mounds without cremation are characteristic. Catacomb funeral device, ritual ceramic incense burners, ornament in the form of a cord stamp, flat-bottomed goblets, crouched corpse on one side. In the burials there are wooden carts. Ceramic implements carry elements of the culture of spherical amphoras and cord ceramics in Central and Eastern Europe.

Temporal lobed rings Blackened tableware with a spiral ornament

The ceramics are also blackened, with a relief pattern, often spiral-shaped, which brings them closer to the Trypillian ones, but people of the catacomb culture didn’t apply the dishes, but squeezed it out. This brings the ceramics of the catacomb culture closer to the same Middle Hellenic one.

Minoyan ceramics of Crete.

Catacomb pottery differs from the primitive and uniform in the form of dishes of ancient yamnaya culture. Known flat-bottomed pots with convex sides and a narrowed neck, the surface of which is decorated with ornaments printed with prints of twisted rope, comb teeth or just a sharp object. The motifs of the ornament are triangles, zigzags, but circles and spirals are more common, reflecting the cosmic representations of ancient farmers about the solar deity and mysterious plant principles that turn grains into stems, which in turn give rise to many of the same grains.

In the territory of Donbass there was a metallurgical center. This is also confirmed by the finds in Donetsk catacomb burials of stone beater, which were used to crush ore before washing and smelting. In the inventory of the catacomb culture, objects from bronze are presented: leaf-shaped knives, axes with eyes, awls and bronze jewelry, but most of the implements were still made of stone and bone. In the Dmitrov mound No. 6 in the Zaporizhzhya region, at the entrance to the burial chamber, a wooden catacombs cart was found with a fully preserved wheel 5 thousand years old. A two-wheeled wagon with a preserved wheel 0.6 m in diameter is known from the Tyagunova Mogila catacomb burial in the Zaporizhzhya village of Maryevka. In the burial complex of Ulan IV of the West Manych catacomb culture in the Rostov Region, a four-wheeled wagon made in the XXIII century BC was discovered. e.

Skulls of the catacomb stage are distinguished by brachycrania and a higher arch than in the pit culture. Male skulls are characterized by a high mesocrane skull, highly profiled broad face, wide cheekbones, high transference, very large protrusion of the nasal bones. In the Dnieper steppe there are three craniological options:

– brachycranic – does not find analogues of the Bronze Age.

– mesocrane – reveals a distant resemblance to the skulls of the Afanasyev culture of Altai.

– dolichocranial – similar to the culture groups of Noua and Srubnaya.

If we talk about the catacomb culture, apparently, the rite of neutralization of the dead, the dismemberment of dead bodies to neutralize their harm to the living, was not only inherited from the pits, but also received further development. So, among the catacomb tribes, the custom of decapitation (separation of the head), which can be considered on the example of the Middle Don catacomic culture, has spread.

Findings of burials with separated skulls are recorded throughout the distribution area of the Middle Don catacomb culture from the Seversky Donets to the Don-Volga interfluve (Khoper River).On the territory of the Middle Don, among more than 400 burials of the Middle Don catacomb culture, five burials with skeletons are known, in which the separation of the skull of the buried is reliably recorded.

All considered burials were accompanied by ocher, which was located both in separate burial places and completely covered the skeleton of the buried. In each burial, ocher, as it were, emphasizes the special ritual significance of the objects it accompanies. This type of “special burials” is characterized by a variety of accompanying equipment. The set of equipment in each burial is individual, but a common feature for all burials is its originality. Almost all decapitated burials were accompanied by animal bones. In addition, two fortunetelling bones are a particularly interesting find. According to some researchers, the “dice”, but rather the fortunetellers, that is, the buried was a representative of the priestly group. “Bones with signs” or dice, namely fortunetelling bones, originally had cult character, were the prerogative of a certain class associated with the performance of priestly functions. Among the cult objects is the flute, as well as the bone hairpin (Vlasovka 12/3). The dead already have artificial deformation of the skulls. According to A.T. Sinyuka, all burials where a burial ritual of burial was used, indicate the high social status of the deceased. Only prominent representatives of society and their immediate circle could claim burial places under the mound. But even from this series of burials, according to special signs, decapitated burials stand out. Researchers believe that it is possible to assert with sufficient confidence that decapitated burials are not specifics of a particular culture of the catacomb community, but most likely have a supercultural character, reflecting the complex social structure of tribes carrying catacomb traditions. Found the burial of a teenage girl. Stuffed with boulders. Weighing hundreds of kilograms, which speaks of considerable fear inspired by such a young creature. But faith in the “evil” deceased seems obvious and proven.

Srubnaya culture

The cultural-historical community is an ethnocultural association of the late Bronze Age (XVIII – XII centuries BC, according to other estimates – XVI – XII centuries BC. Some scholars, like S. Berestnev I. that the timber culture existed before IX BC, common in the steppe and forest-steppe bands of Eastern Europe between the Dnieper and the Urals, with individual monuments in Western Siberia and the North Caucasus, was originally identified as a culture in 1901—1903 by Russian archaeologist V. A. Gorodtsov, but in the 1970s N. Ya. Merpert and E.N. Chernykh drew attention to local differences within culture and introduced into scientific use the concept of “carcass cultural-historical community.” It is represented by the monuments of Pokrovskaya (XVIII – XV centuries BC) and Berezhnovsky-Mayevskaya (XVII – XII centuries BC) timber cultures, which are settlements, necropolises, workshops, mines, treasures and single finds. Dwellings – dugouts, half dugouts and land. Necropolises are represented by barrows and soil burial grounds. In the kurgan stratigraphy, the carcass burial sites occupy an upper position in relation to the graves of the pit and catacomb communities. The ceremony included the burial of the deceased in pits or wooden log cabins in a bent position, on the left side, of the hands in front of the face. Cases of cremation are also known. Funeral equipment is represented by jagged and canned vessels, less commonly metal products.Changes in climatic conditions, depletion of natural resources and overpopulation led to a sharp reduction in the population and cultural transformation of the tribes of the Srubnaya community. The pioneer of the carcass culture is V. A. Gorodtsov, who in the years 1901—1903, in the process of studying the barrow antiquities of the Seversky Donets, turned his attention to curved burials in wooden frames – log houses. In accordance with the design features of the burial structure, the culture he allocated was called the carcass. The concept of the origin of culture from the Poltavkin monuments of the Volga region and its migration at a late stage was developed in the mid-1950s by O. A. Krivtsova-Grakova. In the 1970s, N. Ya. Merpert and E.N. Chernykh turned their attention to local differences within the logging culture, but the identification of individual local variants or cultures, in their opinion, was problematic at that time. Later, in the course of scientific research, a number of researchers turned their attention to the anthropological, chronological and cultural differences of the steppe and forest-steppe monuments, which confirmed the hypothesis of local differences in the environment of the Srubnaya culture. N. Ya. Merpert and E.N. Chernykh put into scientific use the concept of “felling cultural-historical community”, which reflects its cultural heterogeneity. In the mid-1970s, N.K. Kachalova identified the Berezhnovsky type of monuments based on the materials of the Lower Volga, and I.F. materials of the Mayevsky burial ground (Dnepropetrovsk) – Mayevsky type of monument]. In the 1990s, N. M. Malov and O. V. Kuzmina, on the basis of materials from the Pokrovsky burial ground, single out a separate Pokrov culture. The common features of the funeral rite of the Berezhnovsky and Mayev types of monuments allowed V.V. Otroshchenko to combine both types into a separate Berezhnov-Mayev culture as part of the carcass cultural and historical community of the Late Bronze Age. Yu. M. Brovender singled out the Stepanovsky type of monuments in the environment of the Berezhnov-Mayev carcass culture. Thus, among the carcass cultural-historical community of the Late Bronze Age, the Pokrov and Berezhnov-Mayev carcass cultures and the Stepan type of monuments are distinguished, which reflects its cultural heterogeneity and formation features. The problem of the origin of the log house culture (later the log house cultural and historical community) was posed by V.A. Gorodtsov in 1907, almost immediately after the discovery of burial mounds in log cabins on Seversky Donets. The researcher formed the migration concept of origin, which was finalized in the mid-1950s by O. A. Krivtsova-Grakova. The researcher believed that the carcass culture was formed in the Volga region on the basis of the Poltava culture of the Middle Bronze Age. One of the variants of this hypothesis is the concept of the Volga-Ural cultural genesis of V. S. Bochkarev. Migration theory has not received absolute support in the scientific community. N. N. Cherednichenko spoke in favor of the autochthonous origin of the carcass culture. In his opinion, all local variants of the carcass culture are synchronous, and there was no single center of culture origin, and the formation of each variant should be explained based on the specifics of the local archaeological situation. V.V. Otroshchenko developed in the 1990s a concept for the development of a felling cultural and historical community from the Sintashta, Don-Volga Abashev, Babin cultures and Potapov type monuments of the Middle Volga region in the process of their ethnocultural interactions. In accordance with it, the researcher identified among the community of Pokrovsky and Berezhnovo-Mayevskaya log cabling, which, in his opinion, developed on a different basis. Pokrovskaya carcass culture develops in the forest-steppe interfluve of the Don and Volga due to the political and cultural influences of Sintashta culture bearers on the Late Abashev population, from where it spreads to other regions.

Protoberezhnovsky monuments are common in the Lower Volga region, where, according to the researcher, the Novokumak ethnic component that came from the east is superimposed on the Late Catacomb population.Later, the tribes of the Pokrovsky carcass culture advance on the Left Bank of the Seversky Donets, where they are fully assimilated by the carriers of the Babin culture. As a result of the assimilation of the Pokrov population by Babin tribes, the Berezhnovo-Mayev log-house culture is formed. Pokrovskaya carcass culture (XVIII – XV centuries BC) is widespread in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from the Seversky Donets to the Volga. Separate monuments are presented in the Urals. An eponymous monument is the Pokrovsky burial ground in the Saratov Volga region, which was investigated by P.S. Rykov in the 1920s near the city of Pokrovsk (now Engels). Highlighted in the early 1990s by N. M. Malov and O. V. Kuzmina as a cover culture. It was formed on the basis of the Don-Volga Abashev culture with the direct influence of the Sintashta and Potapov type monuments of the Middle Volga. Monuments are represented by settlements, burial grounds, treasures, mines, workshops and occasional finds. The settlements were located in close proximity to the rivers on small elevations. The most studied settlements are Usovo Lake, Mosolovka, Kapitanovo, Yanokhino, Scars and Prokazino.

Dwellings of that time, terrestrial, dugouts and half-dugouts of a frame-pillar construction with a gable or tent-shaped roof. The walls are made of turf, logs, rarely made of stone. In large buildings, the residential part is most often isolated from the auxiliary. Inside the dwellings were one or more foci, pits, sometimes a well. Funeral monuments are represented by barrows and soil burial grounds. They are located mainly on terraces or hills along river banks, less often on watersheds. The burial mounds of the Pokrov culture include a small number of embankments, from 2 to 15. Single mounds and huge necropolises are rare.

A mound embankment was erected after the last burial. The number of burials in the mound varies from 1 to 100. The deceased were buried in sub-rectangular pits, sometimes in log cabins in a crouched position on the left side, in an adoration position, with their heads to the north. Vessels act as funerary equipment, less often – weapons and jewelry. In the graves are also fixed animal bones – the remains of meat food. The most studied burial grounds are Pokrovsky, Staroyabalaklinsky and Novopavlovsky. The ceramic culture complex is represented mainly by pointed pots with geometric patterns. Tools and weapons made of stone are represented by a variety of axes and maces, arrowheads, scrapers, hammers, knives, anvils, ore graters and abrasives. Jewelry is also known – faience beads, grooved temporal pendants and bracelets.Bone products are widespread: psalms, awls, veneers, punctures, needles, knitting needles, arrowheads. Metal tools are represented by axes, sickles, telescopes and chisels, punctures, cuttings with a wide rhombic crosshair and daggers with a pristine handle. Jewelry made of bronze, antimony and gold is also widespread: rings, temporal lobed rings, plaques, spiral-shaped bracelets and open bracelets with a spiral ending. In general, the spiral-shaped ornament was widespread. The basis of the economy of the carriers of the Pokrov culture was stall and distant cattle breeding. The population of the Pokrov log-house culture ethnically represents the Indo-Iranian ethnic group and had certain signs of the Indo-Aryan ethnic group at an early stage of its development.

The Berezhnov-Mayev log-house culture (XVII – XII centuries BC) is widespread in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from Ingulets to the Volga. The eponymous monuments are the Berezhnovsky burial mound in the Volga region and the Mayevsky burial ground near the city of Dnepropetrovsk. In the 70s of the XX century N.K. Kachalova was allocated Berezhnovsky type of monuments, and I.F. Kovaleva – Mayevsky. The general features of the funeral rite allowed V.V. Otroshchenko to combine both types into a separate Berezhnov-Mayev culture as part of the felling cultural-historical community. Yu. M. Brovender singles out the Stepan type of monuments among her. It was formed on the basis of the Babin and Pokrovskaya log cabin crops. Monuments are represented by settlements, mounds and soil burial grounds, mines, workshops, treasures and random finds. The settlements were located in close proximity to the rivers on small elevations. The dwellings are represented by dugouts, half dugouts and ground buildings with stone foundations of walls. For heating homes used foci. Funeral monuments are represented by barrows and soil burial grounds. Mound necropolises are located mainly on terraces or elevations along river banks, less often – on watersheds. A small number of embankments are included, usually with several fillings. The construction of long barrows was practiced. The deceased were buried mainly in sub-rectangular pits, sometimes stone crates, in log cabins in a crouched position on the left side, head to the east. Cremation is also known. Soil cemeteries of the Berezhnovo-Mayev culture are located mainly on the edges of the indigenous coasts, the first floodplain terraces and on small natural elevations in the floodplain – in the immediate vicinity of the rivers and their synchronous settlements. Burials are represented by inhumations and cremations. Burials according to the rite of inhumation took place in sub-rectangular pits and stone boxes. Burials in log cabins on the territory of soil burial grounds were not recorded. The deceased were in a crouched position on their left side, head to the east. Cremations are represented by burials in urn vessels and in small soil pits. Vessels act as funerary equipment, metal products are less common.

Ceramics is represented by cans, pot-like and jagged vessels with geometric patterns in the form of horizontal and inclined lines, flutes, zigzags, Christmas trees and other geometric shapes.Sometimes on vessels, mainly in their upper part, string ornament and various signs in the form of crosses, solar signs, rectangles, schematic anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images are found. Already at a later time, a swastika and meander pattern begins to be depicted. A number of researchers see them as primitive pictographic writing. The content of these signs has not yet been deciphered. In burials there is also wooden cult ware, sometimes with bronze shackles. Tools and weapons made of stone are represented by a variety of axes and maces, scrapers, hammers, knives, anvils, ore graters and abrasives. Bone products are widespread: psalms, awls, veneers, punctures, needles, knitting needles, arrowheads. Metal tools are represented by axes, sickles, telescopes and chisels, punctures, needles, cuttings knives with highlighted crosshairs and daggers with an annular emphasis.

Metal jewelry is also widespread: rings, temporal lobed rings, wire pendants, spiral bracelets, and open bracelets with a double volute. Voluta, appears in the form of hairpins and images. The basis of the economy was stall and cattle breeding, which complemented agriculture. Ethnically, the carriers of the Berezhnovo-Mayev culture represent the Iranian-speaking group of the Indo-European language family. Recently, a scientific discussion has been actively conducted regarding the upper chronological limit of the felling cultural-historical community.. Berestnev S. I. in his work “Felling culture of the Forest-Steppe Left Bank of Ukraine” extends its existence until the 9th – 8th centuries BC, that is, the Cimmerian – Scythian culture replaces the felling culture.