Sintashta culture
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The Sintashta culture
Origin
Because of the difficulty of identifying the remains of Sintashta sites beneath those of later settlements, the culture was only distinguished in the 1990s from the Andronovo culture.[22] It was then recognised as a distinct entity, forming part of the "Andronovo horizon". Koryakova (1998) concluded from their archaeological findings that the Sintashta culture originated from the interaction of the two precursors Poltavka culture and Abashevo culture. Allentoft et al. (2015) concluded from their genetic results that the Sintashta culture should have emerged from an eastward migration of peoples from the Corded Ware culture.[23] In addition, Narasimshan et al. (2019) cautiously cite that "morphological data has been interpreted as suggesting that both Fedorovka and Alakul’ skeletons are similar to Sintashta groups, which in turn may reflect admixture of Neolithic forest HGs and steppe pastoralists, descendants of the Catacomb and Poltavka cultures".[24]
Sintashta emerged during a period of climatic change that saw the already arid Kazakh steppe region become even colder and drier. The marshy lowlands around the
Its immediate predecessor in the Ural-Tobol steppe was the
Sintashta
Chronology
Radiocarbon dating indicates that the Sintashta culture dates to between c. 2200 and 1750 BCE,[27][2][28] roughly contemporary with the associated Abashevo and Petrovka cultures.[29][30][31] Some authors date the Petrovka culture slightly later, from c. 1900 BCE.[30][32][33]
In Cis-Urals, burial sites Berezovaya and Tanabergen II showed Sintashta culture established there c. 2290–1750 BCE (68.2% probability),[34][35] and the earliest values of this culture, in Trans-Urals, at the burial sites Sintashta II and Kamenny Ambar-5 (Kurgan 2) are c. 2200–2000 BCE.[3]
Chariots appear in southern Trans-Urals region in middle and late phases of the culture, c. 2050-1750 BC.[36]
Blöcher et al. (2023) consider Sintashta-Petrovka period came to an end in Trans-Urals c. 1900–1800 BCE.[37]
Society
Sintashta settlements are estimated to have a population of between 200 and 700 individuals[38] with economies that "heavily exploited domesticated cattle, sheep, and goats alongside horses with occasional hunting of wild fauna".[39]
Linguistic identity
Anthony (2007) assumes that probably the people of the Sintashta culture spoke "Common-Indo-Iranian". This identification is based primarily on similarities between sections of the
There is linguistic evidence of interaction between
From the Sintashta culture the Indo-Iranian followed the
Warfare
The preceding Abashevo culture was already marked by endemic intertribal warfare;[46] intensified by ecological stress and competition for resources in the Sintashta period. This drove the construction of fortifications on an unprecedented scale and innovations in military technique such as the invention of the war chariot. Increased competition between tribal groups may also explain the extravagant sacrifices seen in Sintashta burials, as rivals sought to outdo one another in acts of conspicuous consumption analogous to the North American potlatch tradition.[25]
Sintashta artefact types such as spearheads, trilobed arrowheads, chisels, and large shaft-hole axes were taken east.[47] Many Sintashta graves are furnished with weapons, although the composite bow associated later with chariotry does not appear. Higher-status grave goods include chariots, as well as axes, mace-heads, spearheads, and cheek-pieces. Sintashta sites have produced finds of horn and bone, interpreted as furniture (grips, arrow rests, bow ends, string loops) of bows; there is no indication that the bending parts of these bows included anything other than wood.[48] Arrowheads are also found, made of stone or bone rather than metal. These arrows are short, 50–70 cm long, and the bows themselves may have been correspondingly short.[48]
Sintashta culture, and the chariot, are also strongly associated with the ancestors of modern domestic horses, the DOM2 population. DOM2 horses originated from the Western Eurasia steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don, but not in Anatolia, during the late fourth and early third millennia BCE. Their genes may show selection for easier domestication and stronger backs.[49]
Metal production
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The Sintashta culture - earliest chariots, fortified settlements and bronze metallurgy. Ivan Semyan |
The Sintashta economy came to revolve around copper metallurgy. Copper ores from nearby mines (such as Vorovskaya Yama) were taken to Sintashta settlements to be processed into copper and arsenical bronze. This occurred on an industrial scale: all the excavated buildings at the Sintashta sites of Sintashta, Arkaim and Ust'e contained the remains of smelting ovens and slag.[25] Around 10% of graves, mostly adult male, contained artifacts related to bronze metallurgy (molds, ceramic nozzles, ore and slag remains, metal bars and drops). However, these metal-production related grave goods rarely co-occur with higher-status grave goods. This likely means that those who engaged in metal production were not at the top of the social-hierarchy, even though being buried at a cemetery evidences some sort of higher status.[50]
Much of Sintashta metal was destined for export to the cities of the
Gallery
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Excavation and partial building reconstruction at Arkaim
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View of the Arkaim site and surrounding landscape
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Sintashta ceramics and horse bridle cheekpieces
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Sintashta culture artefacts
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Sintashta culture artefacts
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Arkaim and Sintashta settlement ground plans
Genetics
Estimates based on DATES (Distribution of Ancestry Tracts of Evolutionary Signals) suggest that genetic characteristics typical of the Sintashta culture formed by c. 3200 BCE.[64]
Horse genetics
The dispersal of the DOM2 genetic lineage, believed to be the ancestor of all modern
See also
- Sintashta
- Arkaim
- Petrovka settlement
- Country of Towns
- Multi-cordoned ware culture
- Cimmerians
- Karasuk culture
- Andronovo culture
Notes
- ^ /sɪnˈtɑːʃtə/; Russian: Синташтинская культура, romanized: Sintashtínskaya kultúra, pronounced [sʲɪntɐʂˈtʲinskəjə kʊlʲˈturə]
References
- ^ Lindner 2020, p. 362: "The publication of new radiocarbon data series from selected burial sites in the South-eastern Urals has helped to establish a much more accurate chronology for the late Middle Bronze Age Sintashta-Petrovka complex".
- ^ a b Epimakhov, Zazovskaya & Alaeva 2023, p. 6: "The earliest values in the series refer to the Sintashta culture (Sintashta II [the early phase], Kamenny Ambar-5 [Kurgan 2])—2200–2000 calBC".
- ^ Lindner 2020, p. 362: "[A] much more accurate chronology for the late Middle Bronze Age Sintashta-Petrovka complex".
- ^ Mathieson 2015, Supplementary material: "Sintashta and Andronovo populations had an affinity to more western populations from central and northern Europe like the Corded Ware and associated cultures. [...] the Srubnaya/Sintashta/Andronovo group resembled Late Neolithic/Bronze Age populations from mainland Europe.".
- ^ Chintalapati, Patterson & Moorjani 2022, p. 13: "[T]he CWC expanded to the east to form the archaeological complexes of Sintashta, Srubnaya, Andronovo, and the BA cultures of Kazakhstan.".
- ^ Rowlett, Ralph M. "Research Directions in Early Indo-European Archaeology." (1990): 415-418.
- ^ Heggarty, Paul. "Prehistory by Bayesian phylogenetics? The state of the art on Indo-European origins." Antiquity 88.340 (2014): 566-577.
- ^ Mallory & Mair 2008, p. 261.
- ^ a b Anthony 2007, pp. 408–411
- ^ Lubotsky 2023, p. 259, "There is growing consensus among both archaeologists and linguists that the Sintashta–Petrovka culture (2100–1900 BCE) in the Southern Trans-Urals was inhabited by the speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian".
- ^ Schmitt 1987: "The name Aryan is the self designation of the peoples of Ancient India and Ancient Iran who spoke Aryan languages, in contrast to the 'non-Aryan' peoples of those 'Aryan' countries."
- ^ Anthony 2007, p. 408.
- S2CID 254743380.
- ISBN 9789638046260.
- ^ Anthony 2007, p. 402, "Eight radiocarbon dates have been obtained from five Sintashta culture graves containing the impressions of spoked wheels, including three at Sintashta (SM cemetery, gr. 5, 19, 28), one at Krivoe Ozero (k. 9, gr. 1), and one at Kammeny Ambar 5 (k. 2, gr. 8). Three of these (3760 ± 120 BP, 3740 ± 50 BP, and 3700 ± 60 BP), with probability distributions that fall predominantly before 2000 BCE, suggest that the earliest chariots probably appeared in the steppes before 2000 BCE (table 15.1 [p. 376]).".
- ISBN 978-615-5766-30-5
- ^ Hanks & Linduff 2009.
- ^ Semyan, Ivan, and Spyros Bakas, (2021). "Archaeological Experiment on Reconstruction of the 'Compound' Bow of the Sintashta Bronze Age Culture from the Stepnoe Cemetery", in EXARC Journal Issue 2021/2, Introduction.
- ^ Koryakova 1998a.
- ^ a b c d Allentoft et al. 2015.
- ^ Narasimhan et al. 2019, Supplementary Information, p. 62: "Morphological data has been interpreted as suggesting that both Fedorovka and Alakul' skeletons are similar to Sintashta groups, which in turn may reflect admixture of Neolithic forest HGs and steppe pastoralists, descendants of the Catacomb and Poltavka cultures.".
- ^ a b c Anthony 2007, pp. 390–391
- ^ a b Anthony 2007, pp. 386–388.
- ^ Chernykh 2009, p. 136, "[T]he Sintashta culture provides 44 dates, the Abashevo 22 dates, and Petrovka 9, [...] the range of probability (68%), [...] the Abashevo-Sintashta chronological range [is] between the twenty-second and the eighteenth-seventeenth centuries BCE".
- ^ Grigoriev 2021, p. 27: "[I]f the entire sampling of Sintashta dates falls within the range of 2200–1650 BC (with the presence of clearly unreliable earlier dates), which, in general, corresponds to the Abashevo dates (Chernykh, 2007, p. 86), when using mainly AMS dates, we get a more correct interval of 2010–1770 BC (Molodin et al., 2014, p. 140)".
- ^ Chernykh 2009, pp. 128–133.
- ^ a b Grigoriev 2021.
- ^ Degtyareva & Kuzminykh 2022, Abstract: "Recently introduced in the scientific discourse 27 AMS 14C dates (settlement of Stepnoe and burial grounds of Stepnoe 1, 7 and 25) established an earlier interval of the Petrovka series — 2133–1631 BCE and point to the [synchronicity] of the cultures at the northern periphery of the Sintashta area in the local microregion of the Southern Trans-Urals".
- ^ Lindner 2020, p. 364, "Indeed, a new radiocarbon series has confirmed the position of the Petrovka stage in the nineteenth to eighteenth centuries BC (Krause et al. 2019). Recent research at the enclosed settlement of Kamennyj Ambar in the Karagajly Ajat River valley (Chelyabinsk Oblast) supports this stratigraphic evidence, based on the existence of different occupation phases....".
- ^ Kuzminykh et al. 2023, p. 53: "Tools and weapons made of copper and bronze from the Petrovka Culture of the Northern Kazakhstan of the 19th–18th centuries BC are presented, originating mainly from sites complexes explored in the 70–80s 20th century G.B. Zdanovich and S. I. Zdanovich".
- ^ Tkachev 2020, point 28: "[A] graph was constructed with a wide dating range of 2290–1750 BCE [68.2%, 1-sigma], 2480–1430 BCE [95.4%, 2-sigma]. It is noteworthy that the early trail of this interval is formed by dates from the burial ground at Mount Berezovaya and the Tanabergen II burial: 7/23 (Le-8840). The late group is formed by dates from Tanabergen II burials: 7/22, 30, 36 (Le-9675, Le-8841, Le-8842)".
- ^ Tkachev 2020, Fig. 5.
- ^ Lindner 2020, p. 367.
- ^ Blöcher et al. 2023, Supplementary Information: "Following the abandonment of the fortified settlements of the Sintashta-Petrovka period (ca. 1,900/1,800 BC), so-called 'open row house' or 'pit house settlements' emerged [at the Trans-Urals] in the Late Bronze Age" (p. 3).
- ^ Ventresca Miller, Alicia R., et al., (2020 b). "Ecosystems Engineering Among Ancient Pastoralists in Northern Central Asia", in Frontiers in Earth Science, Volume 8, Article 168, 2 June 2020, p. 6: "...Middle Bronze Age (2400–1800 cal BCE) people, often referred to as Sintashta, constructed nucleated settlements, with population estimates ranging from 200 to 700 individuals..."
- ^ Ventresca Miller, A. R., et al., (2020 a). "Close management of sheep in ancient Central Asia: evidence for foddering, transhumance, and extended lambing seasons during the Bronze and Iron Ages", in STAR, Science & Technology of Archaeological Research, p. 2.
- ^ Allentoft et al. 2015, Supplementary Information, p. 5: "There are many similarities between Sintasthta/Androvono rituals and those described in the Rig Veda and such similarities even extend as far as to the Nordic Bronze Age.".
- ^ "Early Indo-Iranic loans in Uralic: Sounds and strata" (PDF). Martin Joachim Kümmel, Seminar for Indo-European Studies.
- ^ Kuzmina 2007, p. 222.
- ^ Anthony 2007.
- ^ a b Beckwith 2009.
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- ^ Anthony 2007, pp. 383–384
- ^ Rawson, Jessica (Autumn 2015). "Steppe Weapons in Ancient China and the Role of Hand-to-hand Combat". The National Palace Museum Research Quarterly. 33 (1): 49: See reference 33 – E. N. Chernykh, Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR, The Early Metal Age, 225, fig. 78.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ ISBN 978-1-4073-0822-7.
- ^ Librado, P., Khan, N., Fages, A. et al. The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes. Nature 598, 634–640 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04018-9
- ^ "Metal-Production, Mortuary Ritual, and Social Identity: The Evidence of Sintashta Burials, Southern Urals". Retrieved 2022-11-02.
- ^ Anthony 2007, p. 391.
- ^ Anthony 2007, pp. 435–418.
- ^ Gibbons, Ann (10 June 2015). "Nomadic herders left a strong genetic mark on Europeans and Asians". Science. AAAS.
- PMID 31488661.
- PMID 30713341.
- ^ Mathieson 2015.
- ^ Narasimhan et al. 2019, p. 7: "Our analysis of 50 individuals from the Sintashta culture cemetery of Kamennyi Ambar 5 reveals multiple groups of outliers that we directly radiocarbon dated to be contemporaries of the main cluster but that were also genetically distinctive, indicating that this was a cosmopolitan site".
- ^ Chintalapati, Patterson & Moorjani 2022.
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- Chernykh, Evgenii N. (2009). "Formation of the Eurasian Steppe Belt Cultures: Viewed through the Lens of Archaeometallurgy and Radiocarbon Dating". In Hanks, Bryan K.; Linduff, Katheryn M. (eds.). Social Complexity in Prehistoric Eurasia: Monuments, Metals, and Mobility. Cambridge University Press. pp. 115–145. ISBN 978-0-511-60537-6.
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- Lubotsky, Alexander (2023). "Indo-European and Indo-Iranian Wagon Terminology and the Date of the Indo-Iranian Split". In Willerslev, Eske; Kroonen, Guus; Kristiansen, Kristian (eds.). The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited: Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–262. ISBN 978-1-009-26175-3. Retrieved 2023-11-16.
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Further reading
- Vasil'ev, I. B., P. F. Kuznetsov, and A. P. Semenova. "Potapovo Burial Ground of the Indo-Iranic Tribes on the Volga" (1994).