Bulan-Koba culture

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Bulan-Koba Culture
Geographical rangeAltai Mountains
Dates2nd century BCE to 5th century CE
Major sitesSary-Bel, Ust-Edigen, Bulan-Koba
Preceded byPazyryk culture
Followed byFirst Turkic Khaganate, Kok-Pash culture

The Bulan-Koba culture (2nd century BCE to 5th century CE) is an archaeological culture in the

Xiongnu Empire, Xianbei state and Rouran Khaganate. this culture was replaced by Turkic burial traditions in Altai [3]

Archaeology

V.V. Radlov was the first to scientifically study the monuments of the Bulan-Koba culture in 1865 with excavations near the village Katanda and near the village Berel. absence of settlements in this culture points to a nomadic lifestyle.[4] The burial tradition of Bulan-Koba culture consists of oval shaped mounds over stone cists and sacrificed horses were buried along with the deceased in most of the adult burials [5] The Bulan-Koba bearers erected cenotaphs for warriors who died in distant battles.[6] The Bulan-Koba culture was a part of Xiongnu, Xianbei and Rouran political unions and received material influence from all aforementioned cultural cores. The burial practices of the Bulan-Koba culture greatly influenced the following Turkic burial traditions of the first Turkic Khaganate.[7]

Genetics and Anthropology

Analysis of skeletal remains suggests that the Bulan-Koba culture bearers were anthropologically mainly of Europoid stock,[8] similar to preceding Iron age Eastern Scythians and different from Mongoloid groups such as Slab Grave and Xiongnu. At the end of the period of this culture, the Bulan-Koba people engaged in heavy clashes with foreign peoples.[9]

A genetic study published in Nature in 2015 examined the remains of three Bulan-Koba samples,[10] the three Y-DNA samples extracted belonged to Q1a-M25/YP844 (samples RISE600 and RISE601[11] from Verkh-Uimon site dated to 350-450 CE) and J2a-PH358 (sample RISE602[12] from Sary-Bel site dated to 200 BCE to 100 CE) and three mtDNA belonged to K2a5, M8a1 and C4+152.[13] the autosomal composition of the Bulan-Koba samples resemble preceding Iron age Eastern Scythians (50% RUS_Sintashta_MLBA, 40% RUS_Baikal_EBA, 10% BMAC) with few gene flow from Xiongnu and Slab Grave.

References

  1. ^ Konstantinov et al. 2018.
  2. ^ Konstantinov et al. 2018, page 13.
  3. ^ Konstantinov et al. 2018, page 9 :"The tradition of erecting of the Bulan-Koba type monuments preserved up to the early Middle Ages, i.e. before the Türkic time.".
  4. ^ Tishkin 2019, page 287.
  5. ^ Konstantinov et al. 2018, page 11.
  6. ^ Tishkin 2019, pages 290-291.
  7. ^ Konstantinov et al. 2018, page 11: "The cemetery contains burials of men with horses, which in many ways are similar to the Bulan-Koby type objects.".
  8. ^ Pozdnyakov & Chikisheva 2021.
  9. ^ Svetlana, Matrenin & Soenov 2018, "Between the late 3rd century AD and the 5th century AD, following the disintegration of the Xianbei Empire and the rise of intergroup clashes, the Bulan-Koba people became also involved in military clashes with foreign tribes.".
  10. ^ Allentoft et al. 2015.
  11. ^ Family Tree DNA, https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/Q-YP844/tree.
  12. ^ Family Tree DNA, https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/J-PH358/tree.
  13. ^ Allentoft et al. 2015, Supplementary Table 14.

Sources