Glazkov culture is an

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

of possibly proto- Tungusic tribes in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(18th-13th centuries BCE), spread in the Baikal area. The Glazkov culture came to Siberia from the south, displacing

Yukagir Yukagir (russian: Юкагир; sah, Дьүкээгир, ''Cükeegir'') is a rural locality (a '' selo''), the only inhabited locality and the administrative center of Yukagirsky National (Nomadic) Rural Okrug of Ust-Yansky District in the Sak ...

tribes. Glazkovs is a conditional name for the group of the ancient tribes inhabiting Siberia in the 2nd millennium BCE (Glazkov time) the headwaters of Angara river.Gumilev L.N., ''"History of Hun People"'', Moscow, 'Science', Ch.2, http://gumilevica.kulichki.net/HPH/hph02.htm (In Russian) Glazkov culture is named after a suburb of the city

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and mn, Эрхүү, ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 617,473 as of the 2010 Census, Irkutsk is ...

, where it was first found.

Areal

Archeologists distinguish in the 2nd millennium BCE Southern Siberia two synchronous independent cultures: Glazkov in the east and the

Andronovo culture The Andronovo culture (russian: Андроновская культура, translit=Andronovskaya kul'tura) is a collection of similar local Late Bronze Age cultures that flourished 2000–1450 BC,Grigoriev, Stanislav, (2021)"Andronovo ...

in the west. "In the Baikal territory lived a Glazkov group of related tribes, most likely the ancestors of modern Evenks, Evens or

Yukagirs The Yukaghirs, or Yukagirs ( (), russian: юкаги́ры) are a Siberian ethnic group people in the Russian Far East, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. Geographic distribution The Tundra Yukaghirs live in the Lower Kolyma region ...

. Their culture was very close to the culture of the inhabitants of the upper

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's List of longest rivers, tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, Northeastern China (Inne ...

and Northern

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

, and of

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

to the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...

and

Ordos Loop The Ordos Plateau, also known as the Ordos Basin or simply the Ordos, is a highland sedimentary basin in northwest China with an elevation of , and consisting mostly of land enclosed by the Ordos Loop, a large northerly rectangular bend of the Y ...

. It is possible, hence, that all this extensive area was populated by peoples culturally related with the hunter and fisher tribes of Neolith and Early Bronze... probably speaking related tribal languages". Later the carriers of the southern part Glazkov culture tribes converged with some ancestors of the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

, and intermixed with them. In the 18th century BCE the elements of the

seized Minusinsk depression and almost encountered the Glazkovs on the Yenisei. Glazkovs and Andronovs played a secondary role in the 2nd millennium BCE Southern Siberia. Sayano-Altai mountains, Minusinsk depression and Tuva were occupied by Dinlins. Dinlin type "is characterized by the following attributes: average height, frequently tall, a stout and strong constitution, an oblong face, white skin with rosy cheeks, blond hair, a straight protruding nose, frequently eagle-type, light eyes".

Culture

The elements of Glazkov material culture are stitched birch bark boat, dishes of birch bark and wood, portable cradles, a sawhorse-like contraption for carrying load on the back, composite bow, short strong spear with a massive long tip, three-component divaricating dress that allows to dry by the fire without having to completely undress. Glazkov Tunguses had copper knives, bronze fishing hooks, and ceramics.

Burials

Glazkov burials brought new funeral traditions, the deceased are oriented down river, instead of geographical direction, crouched position, and intentionally broken artifacts, likely to protect the living from the danger presented by a deceased. The end of the Glazkov time in the southern portion of Baikal eastern area is brought by influx of people from the

Tuva Tuva (; russian: Тува́) or Tyva ( tyv, Тыва), officially the Republic of Tuva (russian: Респу́блика Тыва́, r=Respublika Tyva, p=rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə tɨˈva; tyv, Тыва Республика, translit=Tyva Respublika ...

and north-western

, who brought a distinctive tradition of stone

kurgans A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...

with fences (''chereksurs''), which resulted in a formation in the Central Asian steppes of a ''

Slab Grave culture The Slab-Grave culture is an archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Mongols.Tumen D., "Anthropology of Archaeological Populations from Northeast Asipage 25,27 The ethnogenesis of modern Mongolian people is linked to the ...

'' that became an eastern wing of a huge nomadic world in

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

, which produced in the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE a bright civilization known as Scythian-Siberian World.

Related cultures

Glazkov culture had clearly expressed variations, bringing about a number of hypotheses about ethno-cultural situation in the Baikal area, all of them concurring that all population groups are of the animal husbandry type. These cultures are ''Daur'', ''Slab Grave Culture'', and ''Palace Type'' burials, seen by some researchers as the earliest predecessor of the Slab Grave Culture

Economy

Hunting, fishery and gathering.

Paleogenetics

All 4 tested Early Bronze Age individuals from the Ust-Ida burial site belonged to the Y-DNA haplogroup Q-YP4004 under Q1a2. Two earlier Late Neolithic burials from the same area yielded Y-haplogroups Q1a2 and N1c1.Peter de Barros Damgaard et al
Supplementary Materials for «The first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze Age steppe expansions into Asia»
(p. 78).

References

(In Russian)
Ancient history
(In Russian) *Debets G.F. ''"Paleoanthropology of the USSR"'', Moscow-Leningrad, 1948 (In Russian) * Okladnikov A.P. ''"Neolith and the Bronze Age of Baikal"'', Part 3, Moscow-Leningrad, 1955 (In Russian)
Gumilev L.N., ''"History of Hun People"''
(In Russian)