The Samara Bend (''Samarskaya Luka''; ) is a large hairpin bend of the middle

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchme ...

to the east where it meets the

Samara River The Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə) is a river in Russia and a left-bank tributary of the Volga. It flows into the larger river at the city of Samara. Its largest tributary is the Bolshoy Kinel. It is long, and its drainage basin ...

. It is situated in the Samara region of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. As the Volga enters its middle course it reaches the Zhiguli Mountains. The Samara Bend is formed as the river circles these hills. The Samara Bend National Park, one of the first in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

, was established in 1984. Some pockets of the park's territory are among the northernmost points of the Great European Steppe. The Samara Bend is noted for a remarkable succession of archaeological cultures from 7000 BC to 4000 BC. These sites have revealed Europe's earliest pottery ( Elshanka culture), the world's oldest

horse burial Horse burial is the practice of burying a horse as part of the ritual of human burial, and is found among many Indo-European speaking peoples and others, including Chinese and Turkic peoples. The act indicates the high value placed on horses in ...

and signs of horse worship (the Syezzheye cemetery of Samara culture), and the earliest

kurgan 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 As ...

s associated with

Proto-Indo-Europeans The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction. Knowledge of them comes chiefly from ...

(e.g., Krivoluchye assigned to Khvalynsk culture

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis ...

. ''The Prehistory of Eastern Europe''. Part 1 (1956). P. 55.).

References

{{Authority control Geography of Russia Geography of Samara Oblast Volga River

See also

References