The
Andronovo culture, or
Sintashta-Petrovka culture is a collection of similar local
Bronze AgeThe Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere...
cultures that flourished
ca. 2300–1000 BCE in western
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
and the west
Asiatic steppeThe Asian Steppe is the Asian part of the Eurasian Steppe. Some scholars wrongly use the term "Asian Steppe" to describe the vast region of steppes of Eurasia. The Pontic Steppe of western Russia and of Ukraine and the steppes of the Hungarian plain are all in Eastern Europe. The Asian Steppe...
. It is probably better termed an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The name derives from the village of Andronovo , where in 1914, several graves were discovered, with skeletons in crouched positions, buried with richly decorated pottery.
At least four sub-cultures have been since distinguished, during which the culture expands towards the south and the east:
- Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (Southern Urals, northern Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
, 2200–1600 BCE,
- the Sintashta
The Sintashta fortified settlement in the southern Urals is dated to ca. 2000–1600 BC. It was excavated between 1968 and 1986 and gave its name to the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. The site is located in Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, ca. ....
fortification of ca. 1800 BCE in Chelyabinsk OblastChelyabinsk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Chelyabinsk. Population: 3,603,339 ; -Time zone:...
;
- the Petrovka settlement
The Petrovka fortified settlement, namesake of the 2nd millennium BC Sintashta-Petrovka culture lies at the Ishim River, near the modern village of Petrovka, Kazakhstan ....
fortified settlement in Kazakhstan;
- the nearby Arkaim
Arkaim is an archaeological site situated in the Southern Urals steppe, north-to-northwest of Amurskiy, and south-to-southeast of Alexandronvskiy, two villages in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, just to the north from the Kazakhstani border....
settlement dated to the 17th century;
- Alakul (2100–1400 BCE) between Oxus and Jaxartes, Kyzylkum desert;
- Alekseyevka (1300–1100 BCE "final Bronze") in eastern Kazakhstan, contacts with Namazga VI in Turkmenia
- Fedorovo (1500–1300 BCE) in southern Siberia (earliest evidence of cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic chemical compounds in the form of gases and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high temperatures and vaporization....
and fire cultWorship or deification of fire is known from various religions. Fire has been an important part of human culture since the Lower Paleolithic...
)
- Beshkent-Vakhsh
-External links:*http://www.fallingrain.com/world/TI/2/Vakhsh.html...
(1000–800 BCE)
The geographical extent of the culture is vast and difficult to delineate exactly. On its western fringes, it overlaps with the approximately contemporaneous, but distinct,
Srubna cultureThe Srubna culture , was a Late Bronze Age culture. It is a successor to the Yamna culture, the Catacomb culture and the Abashevo culture....
in the Volga-
UralThe Ural , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi...
interfluvial. To the east, it reaches into the
MinusinskMinusinsk is a historic town and administrative center of the Minusinsky District in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Southern Siberia, Russia. Population: 72,561 ; 69,000 ; 44,500 ....
depression, overlapping with the area of the earlier
Afanasevo cultureAfanasevo culture, 3500—2500 BC, an archaeological culture of the late copper and early Bronze Age.It became known from excavations in the Minusinsk area of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, southern Siberia, but the culture was also widespread in western Mongolia, northern Xinjiang, and eastern and...
. Additional sites are scattered as far south as the Koppet Dag (
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
), the
PamirPamir may refer to:* Pamir Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia* Pamir languages, a group of languages spoken in this area* Pamir , an ill-fated German sailing ship* Pamir River, later becoming the Amu Darya...
(
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
) and the
Tian ShanThe Tian Shan , also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia...
(
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
). The northern boundary vaguely corresponds to the beginning of the
TaigaTaiga is a biome characterized by coniferous forests. Covering most of inland Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Finland, inland Norway, Highland Scotland and Russia , as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States , northern...
. In the Volga basin, interaction with the Srubna culture was the most intense and prolonged, and Federovo style pottery is found as far west as
VolgogradVolgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River and has a population of 1.011 millon people...
.
Towards the middle of the 2nd millennium, the Andronovo cultures begin to move intensively eastwards. They mined deposits of
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
ore in the Altai Mountains and lived in villages of as many as ten sunken log cabin houses measuring up to 30m by 60m in size. Burials were made in stone
cistA cist or kist , from the , is a small stone-built coffin-like box or ossuary used to hold the bodies of the dead. Examples can be found all over the world....
s or stone enclosures with buried timber chambers.
In other respects, the economy was pastoral, based on horses and cattle, but also sheep and goats, with some agriculture in clear evidence.
Andronovo and Indo-Iranians
The Andronovo culture is strongly associated with the
Indo-IraniansIndo-Iranian peoples are a linguistic group consisting of the Indo-Aryan, Dardic, Iranian, and Nuristani peoples; that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages.-Origin:...
and is often credited with the invention of the spoke-wheeled
chariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
around 2000 BCE.
SintashtaThe Sintashta fortified settlement in the southern Urals is dated to ca. 2000–1600 BC. It was excavated between 1968 and 1986 and gave its name to the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. The site is located in Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, ca. ....
is a site on the upper
Ural RiverThe Ural , known as Yaik before 1775, is a river flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. It arises in the southern Ural Mountains and ends at the Caspian Sea. Its total length is 1,511 mi...
. It is famed for its grave-offerings, particularly
chariotThe chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
burials. These inhumations were in kurgans and included all or parts of animals (horse and dog) deposited into the
barrowA tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world...
. Sintashta is often pointed to as the premier proto-
Indo-IranianIndo-Iranian peoples are a linguistic group consisting of the Indo-Aryan, Dardic, Iranian, and Nuristani peoples; that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages.-Origin:...
site, and that the language spoken was still in the Proto-Indo-Iranian stage. There are similar sites "in the Volga-Ural steppe".
The identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian has been challenged by scholars who point to the absence of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe south of the Oxus River. Sarianidi (as cited in ) states that "direct archaeological data from Bactria and Margiana show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases".
Based on its use by Indo-Aryans in Mitanni and Vedic India, its prior absence in the Near East and Harappan India, and its 16th–17th century BCE attestation at the Andronovo site of
SintashtaThe Sintashta fortified settlement in the southern Urals is dated to ca. 2000–1600 BC. It was excavated between 1968 and 1986 and gave its name to the Sintashta-Petrovka culture. The site is located in Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia, ca. ....
, Kuzmina (1994) argues that the chariot corroborates the identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian. Klejn (1974) and Brentjes (1981) find the Andronovo culture much too late for an Indo-Iranian identification since chariot-wielding Aryans appear in
MitanniMitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC...
by the 15th to 16th century BCE. However, dated a
chariot burialChariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his chariot, usually including his horses and other possessions....
at Krivoye Lake to around 2000 BCE.
Mallory (as cited in ) admits the extraordinary difficulty of making a case for expansions from Andronovo to northern India, and that attempts to link the Indo-Aryans to such sites as the Beshkent and Vakhsh cultures "only gets the Indo-Iranian to Central Asia, but not as far as the seats of the Medes, Persians or Indo-Aryans".
An alternative possibility for the language of Andronovo may be Burušaski (now spoken in Kašmīr) or Ĥapirti (ʕelamitic), anciently spoken in Ĥuzistan.
Since older words of Indo Iranian have been taken over in Uralian and Proto-Yeneseian, occupation by some other languages (also lost ones) cannot be ruled out altogether, at least for part of the Andronovo area: i.e., Uralic and Yeneseian.
Successors
The Sintashta-Petrovka culture is succeeded by the Fedorovo (1400–1200 BCE) and Alekseyevka (1200–1000 BCE) cultures, still considered as part of the Andronovo horizon.
In southern Siberia and Kazakhstan, the Andronovo culture was succeeded by the
Karasuk cultureThe Karasuk culture describes a group of Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea or the Volga River to the upper Yenisei catchment, ca. 1500-800 BC, subsequent to the Afanasevo culture. The remains are minimal and entirely of the mortuary variety. At least 2000 burials are known. The...
(1500–800 BCE), which is sometimes asserted to be non-Indo-European, and at other times to be specifically proto-Iranian. On its western border, it is succeeded by the
Srubna cultureThe Srubna culture , was a Late Bronze Age culture. It is a successor to the Yamna culture, the Catacomb culture and the Abashevo culture....
, which partly derives from the
Abashevo cultureAbashevo culture is a later Bronze Age archaeological culture found in the valleys of the Volga and Kama River north of the Samara bend and into the southern Ural Mountains. It receives its name from a village of Abashevo in Chuvashia. Artifacts are kurgans and remnants of settlements.The economy...
. The earliest historical peoples associated with the area are the
CimmeriansThe Cimmerians or Kimmerians were ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.According to Herodotus, they originally inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea, in what is now Ukraine and Russia, in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Although Herodotus's view was widely...
and
SakaThe Saka were a Scythian tribe, rendered in Greek as , in Chinese as , and in Sanskrit as , referring to those Scythians who founded the Indo-Scythian kingdom in the 2nd century BC.-Classical accounts:Modern historical accounts of the Indo-Scythian wars often assume that the Scythian...
/Scythians, appearing in
AssyriaAssyria was a civilization centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n records after the decline of the Alekseyevka culture, migrating into the
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
from ca. the 9th century BCE (see also Ukrainian stone stela), and across the
CaucasusThe Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region between at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain ....
into
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
and Assyria in the late 8th century BCE, and possibly also west into Europe as the
ThraciansThe ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes who spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
(see
Thraco-CimmerianThraco-Cimmerian is a historiographical and archaeological term, composed of the names of the Thracians and the Cimmerians. It refers to 8th to 7th century BC cultures that are linked in Eastern Central Europe and in the area north of the Black Sea....
), and the
SigynnaeThe Sigynnae were an obscure people of antiquity. They are variously located by ancient authors.According to Herodotus , they dwelt beyond the Danube, and their frontiers extended almost as far as the Eneti on the Adriatic. Their horses were small and flat-nosed with shaggy long hair, five fingers...
, located by
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
beyond the Danube, north of the Thracians, and by
StraboStrabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born in a wealthy family from Amaseia in Pontus , which had recently become part of the Roman Empire.. He studied under various geographers and philosophers; first in Nysa, later in Rome...
near the
Caspian SeaThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
. Both Herodotus and Strabo identify them as Iranian.
Ancient DNA
Out of 10 human male remains asigned to the Andronovo horizon from the Krasnoyarsk region, 9 possessed the R1a Y-chromosome haplogroup and one
Haplogroup C (Y-DNA)In human genetics, Haplogroup C is a Y-chromosome haplogroup, defined by UEPs M130/RPS4Y711, M216, P184, P255, P260, which are all SNP mutations. It is a sibling clade of Haplogroup F, within the more ancient grouping of Haplogroup CF...
(xC3). mtDNA haplogroups of nine individuals assigned to the same Andronovo horizon and region were as follows: U4 (2 individuals), U2e, U5a1, Z, T1, T4, H, and K2b.
90 % of the bronze age period mtDNA haplogroups were of west Eurasian origin and the study determined that at least 60 % of the individuals overall (out of the 26 bronze and iron age human remains' samples of the study that could be tested) had light hair and blue or green eyes. .
A 2004 study also established that, during the bronze/iron age period, the majority of the population of
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
(part of the Andronovo culture during bronze age), was of west Eurasian origin (with mtDNA haplogroups such as U, H, HV, T, I and W), and that prior to the thirteenth-seventh century BC, all Kazakh samples belonged to European lineages.
See also
- BMAC
- Indo-Iranians
Indo-Iranian peoples are a linguistic group consisting of the Indo-Aryan, Dardic, Iranian, and Nuristani peoples; that is, speakers of Indo-Iranian languages.-Origin:...
- Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword denoting variously*in historical or dated usage,**the Indo-Iranian languages and their speakers, viz. the Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers,...
- Soma
Soma , or Haoma , from Proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma-, was a ritual drink of importance among the early Indo-Iranians, and the later Vedic and greater Persian cultures. It is frequently mentioned in the Rigveda, whose Soma Mandala contains many hymns praising its energizing qualities...
- Chariot
The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open,...
, Chariot burialChariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his chariot, usually including his horses and other possessions....
- Kurgan hypothesis
The Kurgan hypothesis is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language...
External links