The Srubnaya culture (russian: Срубная культура, Srubnaya kul'tura, ua, Зрубна культура, Zrubna kul'tura), also known as Timber-grave culture, was a
Late Bronze Age 1850–1450 BC culture
[Parpola, Asko, (2012)]
"Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language families in the light of archaeology: Revised and integrated ‘total’ correlations"
in Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, Helsinki, p. 140. in the eastern part of
Pontic–Caspian steppe
The Pontic–Caspian steppe, formed by the Caspian steppe and the Pontic steppe, is the steppeland stretching from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea. It extends ...
. It is a successor of the
Yamna culture,
Catacomb culture
The Catacomb culture (russian: Катакомбная культура, Katakombnaya kul'tura, uk, Катакомбна культура, Katakombna kul'tura) was a Bronze Age culture which flourished on the Pontic steppe in 2500–1950 BC.Parp ...
and
Poltavka culture. It is co-ordinate and probably closely related to 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 ...
, its eastern neighbor. Whether the Srubnaya culture originated in the east, west, or was a local development, is disputed among archaeologists.
The Srubnaya culture is generally associated with archaic
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
speakers. The name comes from Russian сруб (''srub''), "timber framework", from the way graves were constructed
Distribution
The Srubnaya culture occupied the area along and above the north shore of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
from the
Dnieper
}
The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...
eastwards along the northern base of the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
to the area abutting the north shore of the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
, west of the
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...
. Historical testimony indicate that the Srubnaya culture was succeeded by the
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...
.
Characteristics
![Srubna culture04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Srubna_culture04.jpg)
The Srubnaya culture is named for its use of timber constructions within its burial pits. Its cemeteries consisted of five to ten kurgans. Burials included the skulls and forelegs of animals and ritual hearths. Stone cists were occasionally employed. Srubnaya settlements consisted of semi-subterranean and two-roomed houses. The presence of bronze sickles, grinding stones, domestic cattle, sheep and pigs indicate that the Srubnaya engaged in both agriculture and stockbreeding.
Language
The Srubnaya culture is generally considered to have been
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
. Its area, which coincides with the presence of Iranian
hydronyms, has been suggested as a staging region from which the Iranian peoples migrated across the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...
into the
Iranian Plateau.
Genetics
Mathieson et al. (2015) surveyed 14 individuals of the Srubnaya culture. Six men from 5 different cemeteries belonged to the Y-chromosome haplogroup
R1a1
Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to southern Siberia and South Asia.
While R1a originated c. 22,000 to 2 ...
. Extractions of
mtDNA from fourteen individuals were determined to represent five samples of
haplogroup H, four samples of haplogroup
U5, two samples of
T1, one sample of
T2, one sample of
K1b, one of
J2b and one of
I1a.
A 2017 genetic study published in
Scientific Reports
''Scientific Reports'' is a peer-reviewed open-access scientific mega journal published by Nature Portfolio, covering all areas of the natural sciences. The journal was established in 2011. The journal states that their aim is to assess solely th ...
found that the Scythians shared similar mitochondrial lineages with the Srubnaya culture. The authors of the study suggested that the Srubnaya culture was ancestral to the Scythians.
In 2018, a genetic study of the earlier Srubnaya culture, and later peoples of the
Scythian cultures, including the
Cimmerians, Scythians,
Sarmatians, was published in
Science Advances. Six males from two sites ascribed to the Srubnaya culture were analysed, and were all found to possess
haplogroup R1a1a1. Cimmerian, Sarmatian and Scythian males were however found have mostly
haplogroup R1b1a1a2
Haplogroup R-M269 is the sub-clade of human Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b that is defined by the SNP marker M269. According to ISOGG 2020 it is phylogenetically classified as R1b1a1b. It underwent intensive research and was previously classified ...
, although one Sarmatian male carried haplogroup R1a1a1. The authors of the study suggested that rather than being ancestral to the Scythians, the Srubnaya shared with them a common origin from the earlier
Yamnaya culture.
In a genetic study published in
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
in 2018, the remains of twelve individuals ascribed to the Srubnaya culture was analyzed. Of the six samples of
Y-DNA extracted, three belonged to
R1a1a1b2 or subclades of it, one belonged to
R1, one belonged to
R1a1
Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to southern Siberia and South Asia.
While R1a originated c. 22,000 to 2 ...
, and one belonged to
R1a1a
Haplogroup R1a, or haplogroup R-M420, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region in Eurasia, extending from Scandinavia and Central Europe to southern Siberia and South Asia.
While R1a originated c. 22,000 to 2 ...
. With regards to
mtDNA, five samples belonged to subclades of
U, five belonged to subclades of
H, and two belonged to subclades of
T. People of the Srubnaya culture were found to be closely related to people of the
Corded Ware culture, the
Sintashta culture,
Potapovka culture
Potapovka culture (russian: Потаповская культура, Potapovskaya kul'tura) was a Bronze Age culture which flourished on the middle Volga in 2100—1800 BC.
The Potapovka culture emerged out of the Poltavka culture with infl ...
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 ...
. These were found to harbor mixed ancestry from the
Yamnaya culture and peoples of the Central European
Middle Neolithic. The genetic data suggested that these cultures were ultimately derived of a remigration of Central European peoples with
steppe ancestry back into the steppe.
Notes
References
Bibliography
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External links
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Archaeological cultures of Eastern Europe
Bronze Age cultures of Europe
Archaeological cultures in Russia
Archaeological cultures in Ukraine
Iranian archaeological cultures
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