Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 4, Europe

steppe, and feather grass dominated the open steppe, making the open steppe the best place for pasturing. In Siberia, the climate was continental but cool, with pine forests dominating. The presence and processing of minerals was of great importance, especially copper fields in the Urals and Kazakhstan and tin in eastern Kazakhstan, which was the center of its extraction in the Bronze Age.

Settlements

Settlements are situated on the banks of small rivers and consist of several houses. The settlements of pure Fedorovo stratum are not well known; there are numerous of multistratum settlements. These houses tend to be large (c. 200 sq m) square semisubterranean structures of timber-frame construction with two-sloped or pyramidical roofs. They have entryways and stone hearths. They likely housed one large extended family. Each family was largely independent and could satisfy its own necessities. There are no signs of social stratification or of property difference in the houses and settlements.

The optimal climatic conditions caused an explosion of population. The population increase is evidenced by the large number of Fedorovo settlements and their spreading across a large area.

Economy

The economy of the Fedorovo subtradition was mixed agriculture and cattle breeding, with settled cattle breeding for meat and milk being the most important. Cattle, sheep and goats, horses, and dogs were raised. Hunting of animals was of little importance, although in the east bird hunting and fishing were done.

Ceramics are the main diagnostic feature of the Fedorovo subtradition and are represented by pots with round shoulders without a rib, made from coiled clay tempered with sand and grit. There are flat dishes in the Urals, and in Siberia there are square vessels. Pots are decorated along three zones (shoulder, neck, body) with rich geometrical designs, made with a small-toothed comb. The decorations include swastikas, zigzags, herring-bone, meanders, triangles, and combinations of broken bands.

The development of metal processing, especially metallurgy, was of great importance because the western Altai was an exporter of tin during the Bronze Age. The ore fields were of several forms: (I) big round openings,

(2) long channels, (3) deep vertical mines, and (4) closed galleries. They used bronze to make celts, spears, knives,

Andronovo 11

and sickles in two-pieces moulds with cores. The metal of eastern Kazakhstan was exported in large amounts. It was exported to the Urals and farther to the west up to Volga and the Dnieper, to the east and north into Siberia (for hunters and fishers), and to the south to central Asia, from whence they got vessels made on a pottery wheel.

The division of labor was based on age and sex. Women made ceramics and clothing (dresses from woolen cloth, using linen and diagonal weaving methods, knitted peaked caps, leather caps and boots). Men's occupations were metallurgy and metal processing. The idea of the division of metallurgists into a clan is not supported by materials.

Sociopolitical Organization

The topography of burials reflects the clan-tribe structure of Fedorovo society, the basis of which was the large patriarchal family. In graves with men and women, men lay in dominant position on the left, women on the right (in the Yenisei, women are on the left behind their husbands). The graves of mothers and children as well as pottery tradition (which transmitted from mother to daughter) suggest that there was endogamy and matrilocal marriage. There are no signs of social and political difference in the settlements, but stratification of burials suggests that there were leaders, perhaps elders or big men. There are some large barrows with complex central tombs that would have required collective labor to build, and these may have been the graves of leaders. There are no signs of hereditary power. The absence of fortifications suggests that during the Fedorovo epoch the political situation on the steppe was stable. Mixed Fedorovo-Alakul monuments reflect the integration of these groups, and the Fedorovo monuments reflect the strong influence on the hunters and fishers of the Urals and Siberia by Andronovians.

Religion and Expressive Culture

The ancestor cult was of great importance to the religious system of the Fedorovians. Cemeteries include several tombs (from 10-150), in a variety of forms: (1) ground barrows; (2) barrows with round or square enclosures made from rows of flat stone plates; (3) barrows with vertical stone slabs ringing them; and (4) stone fences. In the center of most barrows, there is a big grave, often enclosed in a wooden timber or stone box. In the Urals and Siberia, cremation dominates, but in other regions, inhumation is most common. Most interments have their heads directed to the west or southwest and are

12Andronovo

flexed on their left side. In the western part of the region, both inhumations and cremations are accompanied by two vessels. In the Urals, there are also dishes with ashes. There are beads in women's graves; in Siberia, temple rings are common in graves; and in other regions, earrings are found interred with the dead. Dog burials have also been found. Sacrifices were of great importance, and horse, ox, and ram ribs are found in burials.

Fedorovian religion was naturalistic. The cults are the sun and the fire (cremation, hearths). The art is represented by rich geometrical ornaments on ceramics, small zoomorphic objects and ornaments, and petroglyphs depicting cult animals (horse, ram, camel, sunlike persons, battle of chariots, dances).

References

Akishev, K. A., ed. (1977). IstorUa Kazakhskoi SSR, I (History of Kazakhstan); Alma-Ata: Kazakh Academy of Science.

Avanesova, N. A. (1991). Kuftura pastusheskikh plemen epokhi bronzy Aziatskoi chasti SSSR (po metallicheskim izdeliiam)

Chernikov, S. S. (1949). Drevniaia metallurgiia i gornoe delo Zapadnovo Altaia [Ancient Metallurgy and mining of the Western Altais]. Alma-Ata: Kazakh Academy of Science.

Chernikov, S. S. (1960). Vostochnyi Kazakhstan v epokhy bronzy [Eastern Kazakhstan in the Bronze Age]. Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSP [Materials and research in Soviet archeology] 88. Moscow-Leningrad.

Chernych, E. N. Kuzminyh S. V. (1989). Drevneishaia metallurgiia Severnoi Evrazii [Ancient metallurgy in Northern Eurasia]. Moscow: Nauka.

Griaznov, M. P. (1969). Southern Siberia. Geneva: Sagel ackoeologia Souadi.

Kadyrbaev, M. K., and A. N. Marjashev (1977). Naskal'nye izobrazheniia khrebta Karatai [The Petrogtiphs of the Karatai range].

Alma-Ata: Kasakh Academy of Science.

Kiselev, S. V. (1951). Drevniaia istoriia Juzhnoi Sibiri [Ancient History of southern Siberia]. Moscow: Nauka.

Komarova, M. N. (1962). "Otnosite1'naia khronologiia pamiatnikov andronovskoi kUl'tury" ["Relative Chronology of Monuments of Andronovo Culture"]. Arkheologicheskii sbornik Gosudarstvennovo Ermitazha (Archeological Anthology of the National Hermitage Museum) 5: 50-75.

Korochkova, O. N., V. I. Stefanov, and S. A. Dneprov (1983). "Kurgany fedorovskovo tipa mogil'nika Urefty" ["Burial Mounds of the Fedorovo Type of Urefty graves"]. Sovetskaia arkheologiia [Soviet Archeology] I: 155-166.

Korochkova, O. N., and V. I. Stefanov (1983). "Poseleniya fedorovskoi kul'tury" [Settlements of the Fedorovo Culture]. In Bronzovyi vek stepnoi polosy Uralo-Irtyshskovo mezhdurech'ia [Bronze age of the Ural-Irtysh Interregion]. 143-151.

Kosarev, M. F. (1981). Bronzovyi vek Zapadnoi Sibiri [Bronze age in western Siberia]. Moscow: Nauka.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1985). "Classification and Periodization of Andronovo Cultural Community Sites." International Association for the Study of the Cultures of Central Asia, I,iformation Bulletin 9: 23-46.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli indoarii? [Where did the IndoAryans come from?]. Moscow: Nauka.

Kuzmina, E. E., and N. M. Vinogradova (1966). "Contacts between the Steppe and Agricultural Tribes of Central Asia." Anthropology and Archaeology of Eurasia 34: 29-54.

Maximenkov, G. A. (1978). Andronovskaia kul'tura na Enisee [Andronovo Culture on the Yenisei River]. Leningrad: Nauka.

Malutina, T. S. (1991). "stratigraficheskaia pozitsiia materialov fedorovskoi kul'tury na mnogosloinykh poceleniiakh Kazakhstanskikh stepei" ["Stratigraphical Position of Fedorovo Culture Position on the Multistratum Settlements in Kazakn Steppes"]

(Ancient East-European Forest/Steppe Zone), 141-162.

Margulan, A. H., K. A. Akishev et al. (1966). Drevniaia kul'tyra Tsentral'novo Kazakhstana [Ancient Culture of Central Kazakhstan].

Alma-Ata: Kazakhai Academy of Science(Nauka). Matyushchenko, V. I. (1978). Andronovskaia kul'tura na Verkhnei Obi

[Andronovo Culture on the upper Ob' River]. Iz istorii Sibiri [From the history of Siberia] Issue II.

Molodin, V. I. (1985). Baraba v epokhu bronzy [Baraba in the Bronze Age]. Novosibirsk: Nauka, Siberian Department.

Novozhenov, V. A. (1994). Naskal'nye izobrazheniia povozok Srednei i Tsentral'noi Asii [Petroglyphs with Vehicles in Middle and Central Asia]. Almaty: Institute of Archaeology.

Salnikov, K. V. (1940). "Andronovskii kurgannyi mogul'nik u sela Fedorovo" (Andronovo necropolis at Fedorovo village). Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and Research in Soviet Archeology]. I: 53-68.

Salnikov, K. V. (1967). Ocherki drevnei istorii Juzhnogo Urala [Essay of Ancient History of the Southern Ural Region]. Moscow: Nauka.

Samashev, Z. S. (1992). Naskal'nye izobrazheniia Verkhnego Pritobol'ia [Peroglyphs of Outer Pritohol'ia]. Almaty: Gylym.

Sher, A. J. (1980). Petroglify Srednei i Tsentral'noi Azii [Petroglyphs in Middle and Central Asia]. Moscow: Nauka

Sorokin, V. S. ed. (1966). Andronovskaia kul'tura. Pamiatniki zapadnykh oblastei [Andronovo-culture: Monuments of Western Ohlasts]. [Collection of archeological sources]. Issue V 3-2 Moscow: Nauka.

Tkachev, A. A. (1991). "Kul'tura naceleniia Tsentral'novo Kazakhstana v epokhu razvitoi bronzy" [Culture of Settlements in Central Kazakhstan in the Late Bronze Age]. Ph.D. diss., Moscow.

Zdanovich, G. B. (1988). Bronzovyi vek Uralo-Kazakhstanskikh stepei [Bronze Age Uralo-Kazakh Steppes]. Sverdlovsk: Ural university.

Kozhumberdy

TIME PERIOD: 3500-3250 B.P. Follows the SintashtaPetrovka subtradition, precedes the Alexeevka subtradition.

LOCATION: The steppe zone of southeast Urals (Oksk), western Kazakhstan. Kozhumberdy tribes advanced to Khoresm about 3,350 years ago.

Alakul-type ceramics with ribbed shoulders, and Fedorovo-type with round and with geometrical ornamentation on the rim and

shoulder; bronze knives (oneor two-blade), axes, spears, earrings; square semisubterranean houses of timber-frame construction; burials in barrows with stone slabs in the stone boxes with flexed inhumations on the left side, head directed west or southwest, with two vessels on the head.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

The steppe had a continental climate in the optimum stage that was warm and moderately humid. Birch, linden, cedar, and pine predominated, with feather-grass as the major steppe species. Wolf, fox, rabbit, roe, wild boar, and beaver formed the fauna of the steppe. The rich fields of copper in Orsk and the Mugcodjar region were important.

Settlements

Settlements are situated along the banks of small rivers, concentrating in the regions of ancient ore fields. Settlements consists of two to six houses. The houses are large semisubterranean structures of timber-frame construction. Roofs are two sloped or pyramidial. They have an entrance way and a central hearths. There may also be small ditches for copper working and firing ceramics.

The populations of the subtradition are Europeans of Andronovian-type: people are of strong build, with massive skulls and noses that jut out, more related to the people ofPovoljye. Average life duration was 30-33 years and more. There are few infant burials, so it is impossible to find out infant mortality (probably 50 percent).

The moderate climate allowed for a population explosion, as is evidenced by the large number of settlements and burials.

Economy

The economy of the subtradition was mixed agriculture and cattle breeding. The foundation of the economy was settled home-attached cattle breeding for meat and milk.

Cows, sheep, horses, camels, and dogs were raised. During the winter, the cattle stayed in stalls. Taking into consideration the proportion of animals by weight, one can say that 60-70 percent of the meat diet was beef;

Andronovo 13

20-30 percent horse meat, 10 percent mutton. Nearby pastures (within 25 km of a settlement) were exhausted in 25 years, and settlements had to move 50 km or more, which causes archaeological strata to be thin and possibly promoted the transition to the seminomadic life style, caused in part by the population pressure on the environment.

Ceramics, which are the main diagnostic artifacts of the Kozhumberdy subtradition, are represented by flatbottom pots with ribbed shoulder or rounded shoulder. Ceramics are decorated on the rim and shoulder with geometric designs. The decorations include meander, herring bone, zigzags, triangles, swastikas, and combinations of broken bands. Ceramics and funeral ceremonies of the subtradition reflect the traits of the Alakul and Fedorovo subtraditions. The process of integration between the Alakulians and the Fedorovians took place in different places of the Andronovian area and led to the appearance of mixed subtraditions, such as Atasu in central Kazakhstan, Amangeldy in northern Kazakhstan, Tautary in southern Kazakhstan, and Semirechye, Kirgizstan, and Mejdurechye in central Asia.

Transportation kept developing in the Kozhumberdy epoch. Round and rectangular cheek-pieces were made from horn and bone. Metallurgy and metal processing were developed. The ore fields took several forms: (1) big round openings, (2) long caverns and (3) closed mines. Axes, spears, sickles, and knives were made from bronze in two-piece moulds. Personal ornaments made from bronze or gold included rings, bracelets, and beads, with which boots and dresses were decorated. Metal was exported as ore or goods to the west (Povolzhye up to the Dnieper, the production of metallurgists formed one-third of all Povolzhye production. Some metal was exported to the south/Chorasmia). There was a division of labor based on age and sex. Pottery, spinning, and weaving were women's occupations; metallurgy and metal processing were men's. Evidence of metal processing is found in all settlements, even far from ore fields.

Sociopolitical Organization

The topography of the settlement and burials related to them suggests a clan or tribal organization of society, the basis of which was the extended family (30-50 people), living in a big house and including several nuclear families. In every house, the family was capable of satisfying its own necessities, including metal processing and cattle breeding. There are no signs of wealth differences or social stratification in the houses and

14Andronovo

settlements. The settlement and its necropolis reflect one patriarchal clan; related monuments that are situated along one small river and form one micro region, possibly belonged to a single genus. The territory of Kozhumberdy probably corresponds to a tribe. The tribe was patriarchal. In the burial of couples, the man is on his left side. There are no reasons to think that the women in the grave are slaves, because the burial of married couples is well known in ancient times; in particular, the Scythians had this tradition. The burial of mothers with children and the unity of pottery traditions, passing from mother to daughter, suggest that there was endogamy and matrilocal marriage. Although there are no signs of wealth differences in the settlements, the differences in burial construction points to the existence of social stratification. Small stone fences with two vessels in the grave represent the burials of ordinary people, and these are concentrated around several barrows with monumental stone rings and large amounts of grave good, such as knives and gold, which represent the burial of elites. Assumption that there is evidence of hereditary power in the burials has no ground. The absence of fortifications and few weapons suggest a stable political situation on the steppe.

Religion and Expressive Culture

The cult of ancestors was of great importance. Burials include several forms, including barrows with a ring of vertical stone slabs, stone rings, or fences. In the center of the fence, there is a stone box of vertical stone plates. Interments are done with the head turned to the west or southwest, flexed, and on the left side, with two vessels. Women were buried after having been dressed in ceremonial garments with temple rings, bracelets, beads, dresses, and boots. Sacrifices were of great importance during the interments, and burials contain ribs, heads and roofs of horses, sheep, and oxen. The sacrifice of horses, sheep, and oxen, also accompanied the building of a house or a settlement. Art is represented by different geometrical ornaments.

References

Alexeev, V. P. (1967). "Antropologiia andronovskoi kul'tury"' [Anthropology of Andronovo Culture]. Sovetskaia arkheologiia (Soviet Archeology) I: 22-26.

Avanesova, N. A. (1991). Kul'tura pastusheskikh plemen epokhi bronzy Aziatskoi chasti SSSR (po metallicheskim izdeliiam) [Culture of pastoralist tribes of the bronze age in Asiatic parts of the USSR

(by metal artifacts)]. Tashkent: Uzbek Academy of Science.

Chernych, E. N. (1970). Drevneishaia metallurgiia Urala i Povolzh'ia [Ancient Metallurgy in the Ural and Volga regions]. Moscow:

Nauka.

Griaznov, M. P. (1927). "Pogrebeniia bronzovoi epokhi v Zapadnom Kazakhstane" [Burials from the bronze age in western Kazakhstan]. Kazaki 2: 172-215.

Itina, M. A. (1977). Istoriia stepnykh plemen luzhnovo Priararia [History of the Steppe tribes of Southern Pre-Uralia].

Moscow: Nauka.

Krivtsova-Grakova, O. A. (1948). "Alekseevskoe poselenie i mogil'nik"' [Alekseevka Settlements and necropolis]. Transations of Gosudarstvennovo istoricheskovo muzeia [Transactions of National Historical Museum] 17: 59-172.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1962). "Novyi tip andronovskovo zhilishcha v Orenburgskoi oblasti" [New Type of Andronovo Dwellings in Orenburg Oblast]. Voprocy arkheologii Urala [Questions in Ural archeology] 2: 9-15.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1964). "Andronovskoe poselenie i mogil'nik Shandasha"'. [Andronovo Settlement and necropolis Shandasha]. Kratkie coobshcheniia Instituta Arkheologii [Short Reports of the Archeological Institute], Issue 98

Kuzmina, E. E. (1963). "Periodizatsiia mogil'nikov Elenovskovo mikrorainoa andronovskoi Kultury" [Periodization of necropolis of the Elenovska Microregion of Andronovo culture]. Pamiatniki kamennovo i bronzovovo veka Evrazii (Monuments of the stone and bronze ages in Eurasia), 121-140.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1969). Raskopki mogil'nika Kozhumberdy [Excavations of necropolis in Kozhumberdy] Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii (Short Reports of the Archeological Institute), Issue 115: 124-132.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1974). "0 nekotorykh voprosakh andronovskoi demografii" [About a Few Questions on Andronovo Demography].

Izvestiia Sibierskovo otdeleniia Akademii nauk SSSR [News of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences] 2: 102-106.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli indoarii? [Where did the IndoAryans Come From?]. Moscow: Nauka.

Salnikov, K. V. (1967). Ocherki drevnei istorii luzhnovo Urala

[Sketch of the Ancient History of the Southern Ural Region]. Moscow: Nauka.

Sorokin, V. S. (1959). "Novye arkheologicheskie dannye k voprosu 0 razvitii drevnei sem'i"' (New Archeological Data for Questions about the Development of Ancient Family). Sovetskaia arkheologiia [Soviet Archeology] 4: 10--18.

Sorokin, V. S., ed. (1960). Andronovskaia kuftura: Pamiatniki zapadnykh oblastei [Andronovo Culture. Monuments of Western Regions]. Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Collection of Archeological Sources] B2-3 Moscow.

Sorokin, V. S. (1962). Zhilishcha poseleniia Tasty-Butak [Settlements of Tasty-Butak] Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii Akademii nauk SSSR [Short Report of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences] Issue 91,51-60.

Sorokin, V. S. (1962). "Mogil'nik bronzovoi epokhi v Zapadnom Kazakhstane" (Grave Sites of the Bronze age in Western Kazakhstan). Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and Research in Soviet Archeology] 120. Nauka.

Tsalkin, V. I. (1973). "Fauna iz raskopok andronovskikh pamiatnikov v Priural'e" [Fauna from Excavations of Andronovo Monuments in Pre-Uralia]. Osnovnye problemy teriologii [Basic Problems of Teryology] Nauka.

Zdanovich, G. B. (1988). Bronzovyi vek Uralo-Kazakhstanskikh stepei

[Bronze Age of the Uralo-Kazakh Steppes]. Sverdlovsk: Ural University.

Sintashta-Petrovka

TIME PERIOD: 3700-3500 B.P., according to the traditional chronological scale, or 4000-3800 B.P., according to radiocarbon dates. Stratigraphically follows Pit grave and Catacomb traditions, and is formed as a result of migration and assimilation of different traditions of eastern Europe. Precedes and genetically connected with Alakul subtradition.

LOCATION: Forest and forest steppe of south Urals; western and northern Kazakhstan, moves into central Kazakhstan and central Asia.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIALS ATTRIBUTES: Flat-bottom pots,

biconic sharp-rib pots, decorated along two zones with geometric designs; copper two-blade knives, axes, spears, earrings, pendants; square, round, oval settlements and protocities, defended by moats and fortifications; houses of framework construction with signs of metal processing. Burials include ground barrows with one or two big graves with wood timber, and sometimes with outlying graves with embankments; inhumation flexed on the left side, sometimes on the right side, rarely on the back. In the barrows, there are burials of chariots, pair of horses, dogs, heads and noofs of horse, bull or sheep, weapons, and ceramic vessels.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

Forest and forest steppe during the period of climatic warming. There was an advancement of the grasslands into the forest steppe and the spread of deciduous forests. The copper fields were of great importance, near which all the settlements are situated; each of them has signs of intensive metal processing.

Settlement Patterns

The settlements are usually situated on highlands along the banks of small rivers. Fortifications and settlement layout are planned. The scheme of the settlements varies between round, oval, and square with a central plaza. The settlements are encircled with deep moats and fortification of two lines of walls. The walls are of framework construction, made of wood, earth,

Andronovo 15

sometimes stone. Square houses adjoin the fortification walls and are covered with a common roof. In the houses, wells and hearths, both for cooking and twochambered and ditch-shaped for metallurgy, have been discovered. There are no signs of wealth divisions or social stratification. The existence of villages near prototowns has not been confirmed. The scarcity of burials does not correspond to the area of settlement and supposed high density of population.

Economy

The economy of Sintashta-Petrovka was based on mixed agriculture and cattle breeding, with homeattached cattle breeding dominant. Dogs and cattle were bred. The breeding of horses became important after the chariot had been invented. Ceramics, which are the main diagnostic feature of the subtradition, include flat-bottom and ribbed and biconical forms. They were constructed from local clay tempered with shell and mica. The pots are decorated along two zones over and under the rib, sometimes near or on the bottom with geometrical ornament, made along a straight net-marked flat, sometimes large denticulate stamp. The decorations are zigzag herring-bone, triangular, pyramidal, swastika, meander, waves, steeked on rolls and cones. In the Sintashta complex, largely ornamented vessels, relative to the vessels of latecatacomb and Abashero traditions, are represented. The Petrovka ceramic complex is more standard. It is developed in the Alakul subtradition.

The important innovation of the Sintashta period is the invention of the chariot. In Sintashta burials, the oldest chariots and horses with horn or bone cheekpieces with central hole and thorns have been found. Metallurgy, including copper processing and bronze production from an alloy with arsenic, is widely spread. The chariot warrior was armed with axes, spears, knives, hooks, bows, maces, and lashes. Copper decorations are also represented by round pendants, bracelets, rings,

and beads.

A division of labor by age and sex is noted. Metallurgy is of great importance; its signs are found in all settlements, but there is no evidence that metallurgists were separated into a special group or that there was specialization among the metallurgists. Some metal was exported to ore-poor regions such as the Volga and the Don. Searching for new resources of raw materials, Petrovka metallurgists opened up the ore fields of central Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where a settlement with combined local and ceramics agricultural

16Andronovo

sarazm brought from a neighboring settlement was discovered.

Sociopolitical Organization

In the Ural region, a group of fortified settlements is arranged about 40 km from one another (a day's march for the army). This is so-called town land, forming the core of the Sintashta subtradition, which had a wellorganized military structure. The settlements, with similar houses and signs of metal processing in every house, reflect egalitarian lifestyles. Although there do not appear to be wealth differences, an elite group must have been organizing metal producing and the construction of defensive works. Burials appear to demonstrate social stratification of the society, for in every cemetery there are big barrows with a central grave of a chariot warrior.

Fortification, different types of weapons, the presence of chariots, and burials of warriors with damaged skulls reflect the military structure of the society. The wars between representatives of different traditions (Abashevo, late Catatcomb, Poltavka) were over ore fields and metallurgy production goods. The combination of originally distinct West European populations led to the Sintashta farming tradition, which is the basis of further development of the Andronovo tradition.

Religion and Expressive Culture

The cult of ancestors was very important. Burials consist of earthen barrows with one to two big central graves with wood edging on the walls, and sometimes internal timber covered with logs and clay. The dead lay on the left side, sometimes on the right side, often with the head to the north. Horses and chariots are put near the dead. On the floors and compartment, sacrifices of horses, oxen, sheep, and sometimes dogs and wild boars took place. Outlying graves are also present, their building accompanied with enclosures. The ceremonial interments of vessels, skulls ritual, and legs of horse, oxen, and sheep under house floors and in the ditch when building a house and settlement Art is represented by geometrical ornaments and architecture reflect the animal cult and the role of animal sacrifices in the religious system. The round shape of barrows and settlements probably reflects cosmological ideas and perhaps the sun cult.

References

Anthony, D., and N. Vinogradov (1995). "Birth of the Chariot." Archaeology March-April: 36--41.

Avanesova, N. (1996). "Pasteurs et agriculteurs de la vallee du Zeravshan au debut de I'age du bronze." In Sarazm (Tadjikistan): Ceramique, ed. B. Lyonnet. Paris: 117-131.

Botalov, S. G., S. A. Grigorjev, and G. B. Zdanovitch (1996). "Pogrebal'nye kompleksy epokhi bronzy Bol'shekaraganskogo mogil'nika" [Burial Complexes of the Bronze Age Bolshe Karagon necropolis]. Materialy po arkheologii i etnografii luzhnogo Urala [Materials in Archeology and Ethnography in the Southern Ural region]: 64--88.

Epimahov, A. V. (1996). "Kurgannyi mogil'nik Solntse II--Nekropol' ukreplennovo poseleniia Ust'e epokhi srednei bronzy" ["-Necro- polis of the Fortified Ust'e Settlement the Middle Bronze Age"].

22-42.

Gening, V. F., G. B. Zdanivich, and V. V. Gening (1992). Sintashta Cheliabinsk: South-Uralian Press.

Grigorjev, S. A. (1994). "Drevniaia metallurgiia Juzhnogo Urala" [Ancient metallurgy in the southern Urals region]. Ph.D. diss., Moscow.

Kostjukov, V. P., A. V. Epimahov, and D. V. Nelin (1995). "Novyi pamiatnik srednei bronzy v Juzhnom Zaural'e" [New Monument from the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Transuralia]. Drevnie indoiranskie kul'tury Volgo-Urala [Ancient Indo-Iranian culture of the Volga-Ural area]. Samara, 156-207.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1980). "Eshchjo raz 0 diskovidnykh psaliiakh Evraziiskikh stepei" [Once more about disk-type cheek-pieces of the Eurasian steppes] Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii AN SSSR, [Short Report of the Archeological Institute AN USSR,

Issue 161]: 8-21.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli Indoarit? [Where Did the IndoAryans Come From?]. Moscow: Nauka.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). "Horses, Chariots, and Indo-Iranians." South Asian Archaeology. I: 403-412.

Smirnov, K. F., and E. E. Kuzmina (1977). Proiskhozhdenie indoirantsev v svete noveishikh arkheologicheskikh otkrytii [Origins of the Indo-Iranians in light of new archeological findings]. Moscow:

Nauka.

Tkachev, V. V. (1998). "K probleme proiskhozhdeniia petrovskoi kul'tury" ["On the Problems of the Petrovkii culture origin"].

Arkheologicheskie pamiatniki Orenburzh'ia [Archeological Monuments of Orenburg] Orenburg, 38-56.

Vinogradov, N. B. (1995). "Khronologiia, soderzhanie i kul'turnaia prinadlezhnost' pamiatnikov sintashtinskovo tipa v Juzhnom Zaural'e" ["Chronology, Maintenance and Cultural Belonging to Monuments of the Sintashta Type in Southern Transuralia"].

Istoricheskie nauki [Historical Science], 17-25.

Zdanovich, G. B., ed. (1996). Arkaim. Cheliabinsk: Kamenny Poyas Press.

Zdanovich, G. B. (1997). "Arkaim-kul'turnyi kompleks epokhi srednei bronzy luzhnovo Zaural'ia" ["Arkaim-Cultural Complex in the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Transuralia"]. [Russian Archeology] 2: 47--68.

Zdanovich, D. G. (1997). Sintashtinskoe obshchestvo: sotsial'nye osnovy kvazigorodskoi kuftury luzhnovo Zaurafia epokhi srednei bronzy [Sintashta Society: Social Foundations of the Quasiurban Culture in Southern Transuralia in the bronze age]. Cheliabinsk: Cheliabinsk University.

SITES

Alakul

TIME PERIOD: 3500-3400 B.P.

LOCATION: On the shore of Lake Alakul in the Shchuchan region of the Kurgan province.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

The Alakul cemetery is situated 200 m from lake Alakul in the forest steppe zone of Zauralye with rich chernozem (black earth) soils. The site is covered with grass and birch woods.

Physical Features

The necropolis that is the classical monument of Alakul is situated in an area 650 m by 200 m, which included 66 more kurgans (burial mounds). In the barrows, there are one to two big graves in the center. The walls of the graves are edged with logs in one to two lines and covered with logs. The skull and legs of oxen and sheep and the skulls of two horses each in front of the other are put on the floor. In the central graves, couples (men and women) are buried, with their heads pointed to the south. Men are flexed on left side, women on right side. Around the central graves are smaller graves of infants and teens. In the children's graves, one vessel has been found in each. In other burials, despite ancient looting, four to five vessels and other goods were found.

Cultural Aspects

Ceramic vessels made with a mixture of talc ore were flat-bottomed and had a zif on the shoulder. They were decorated by incising and stamping with geometric designs, often zigzags and triangles. Women wore boots and wool dresses. The skirt, cuff, and collar were decorated with bronze and beads; the decorations were temple rings, bracelets, crossand hole-shaped pendants, diadems, dogs and fox teeth, and pierced shells.

Pair of horses, stone axes, and bronze maces found in the graves point to the development of the art of war. The bones of horses, oxen, and sheep and the burials of dogs

Andronovo 17

reflect the role of cattle breeding. The division of labor by age and sex is rather obvious, as is social stratification: elite burials form about 8 percent of the whole, and 80 percent of all the dead were infants, reflecting high infant mortality. Excavations of the larger mounds revealed ceremonial complexes including skull and legs of horses in the center, interments of infants, four pits with ocher and coal, nine vessels, stone knife-shaped objects and scrapers. The ceramics and interment preserved some patterns of the Sintashta-Petrovka subtradition, with which Alakul was connected genetically. The pottery, building traditions, and interment ceremonies are developed in the Alexeevka subtradition.

References

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli indoarii? [Where Did the IndoAryans come from?). Moscow: Nauka.

Salnikov, K. V. (1951). "Bronzovyi vek luzhnovo Zaural'ia" [Bronze Age of Southern Transuralia) Materialy i issledovaniia po archeologii SSSR [Materials and Research in Soviet Archeology) 21: 94-151.

Salnikov, K. V. (1952). "Kurgany na ozere Alakul" [Burial Mounds at Alakul' lake). Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and Research in Soviet Archeology) 24: 51-71.

Salnikov, K. V. (1967). Ocherki drevnei istorii luzhnovo Urala. [Outline of Ancient History of the Southern Ural Region). Moscow: Nauka.

Sorokin, V. S. (1966). Andronovskaia kuftura. Pamiatniki zapadnykh oblastei. [Andronovo Culture: Monuments in western Regions). Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov. [Collection of archeological sources) Issue V 3-2. Moscow: Nauka.

Alexeevka I

TIME PERIOD: 3300 (3250)-3100 B.P.

LOCATION: On the left bank of the Tobol flver III Kustanay province in Transurals.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

Steppe zone of the forest steppe. Along the river, there is a dune 6-7 high. Most of the dune is stable, but the part along the bank is eroding.

Physical Features

Along the bank for a distance of 1 km there are burials; a settlement is adjacent to the east (the size of the settlements west to east - >130 m, north to south

18 Andronovo

- > I00 m), protected by hills on the northern part. At least eight houses were found. They are semisubterranean with floor area from 150-350 sq m. The floors are roughly 0.5 m below the ground surface, and there are numerous postholes. Along the walls are wooden and earth plank beds. In every house, there are hearths--one for kitchen made from clay and often others with stone pavements and ash pits, which were used for metal processing and keeping the house warm. To keep cattle, wattle fences were built.

Cultural Aspects

The economy was mixed. Wheat, wheat-processing equipment, and sickles are evidence of agriculture. The herd included 55 percent sheep, 28 percent cattle, and 17 percent horse, along with Bactrian camel and two types of dogs. Andronovian cattle have East European origins. The large number of sheep is charecteristic to late -Andronovo cattle breeding. Metal production was of great importance. Crucibles, slag, and founding moulds have been found. Metallic goods include knives, sickles, celts, daggers, awls, and personal ornaments. There are also stone and bone goods. Ceramics include the vessels of the late Alakul and Alexeevka subtraditions. Krivtsova considered both complexes were synchronous, but Yevdokimov suggested stratigraphic difference. Late Alakul pots differ from classic ones because of their lengthened proportions and richer ornamentation. The vessels of the Alexeevka subtradition are of lengthened proportion, with narrow neck and round shoulder. Along the shoulders, they are decorated with flat stamping or incising. The decorations are zigzags, crosses, oblique incisions, and punctates. The peculiar sign of Alexeevka ceramics is ornamentation along the shoulders with sticked on rolls.

The stone constructions of burial mounds were destroyed in the 18th century; 22 graves are small oval pits. The dead lay flexed on the left side, with the head directed to the east. At the head are two vessels. A vessel with sticked on roll found in the burial is evidence of sychnonicity of the settlement and grave. Pits with coal, sheep-bones, wheat grains, and ceramic vessels are evidence of the role of sacrifices and ancestor cults played in the society. Among burials, there are women's graves with rich decorations: bronze beads, rings, bracelets, earrings, and torque. It is impossible to judge the social status of the dead. The women could be members of the elite, just married, or engaged. The houses in the settlement do not reveal evidence of the social stratification of the society.

References

Evdokimov, V. V. (1975). "Novye raskopki Alekseevskovo poseleniia" [New Excavations of Alekseevka Settlement]. Sovetskaia arkheologiia [Soviet Archeology] 4: 163-172.

Krivtsova-Grakova, O. A. (1948). Alekseevskoe poselenie i mogifnik [Alekseevka Settlement and necropolis]. Trydy Gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeia [Transactions of National Historical Museum]

Issue no. 17. Moscow: 59-172.

Kuzmina, E. E. (1994). Otkuda prishli indearit? [Where Did the IndoAryans Come From?] Moscow: Nauka.

Sorokin, V. S. (1966). (Ed.) Andronovskaia kul'tura. Pamiatniki zapadnykh oblastei [Andronovo Culture: Monuments in western Regions]. Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov [Collection of archeological sources] Issue V 3-2 Moscow-Leningrad: Nauka.

Tsalkin, V. I. (1964). "Nekotorye itogi izucheniia kostnykh ostatkov zhivotnykh iz raskopok arkheologicheskikh pamiatnikov pozdnevo bronzovovo veka" ["A Few Results of a Study of Bone Remains of Animals from Archeological Excavations of Late Bronze Age Monuments"). Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii Akademii nauk SSSR [Short Report from the Archeological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences) 101: 24-30.

SITES

Atasu

TIME PERIOD: 3400-3100 B.P.

LOCATION: The upper reaches of the Atasu river of Jezkasgan province in central Kazakhstan.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

The settlement and burials at Atasu are the characteristic monuments of the Atasu subtradition in central Kazakhstan. They reflect a crossing of the Alakul and Fedorovo subtraditions. The complex is situated in the Kazakh plateau. This is a region of low mountains and dry steppes with feather grass and wormwood vegetation. The area of settlement is roughly 15,000 sq m. It is situated on the bank of a tributary of the Atasu river, near the place where rivers flow together. It is surrounded by mountains. The burials are separated from the settlement by mountains. There are rich ore deposits in nearby mountains.

Physical Features

Twenty-seven buildings were found in the settlement, and their stratigraphy has been established. The

latest are round surface structures with a floor area of 80-100 sq m (yurt type), and dating to the Alexeevka subtradition (3300-3100 B.P.) and including Alexeevkatype ceramics. Earlier houses are large rectangular semisubterranean houses with a floor area of 150-260 sq m. The walls of these houses are fixed with a double line of big stone plates; the roofs are borne on poles, and there is an entrance ramp. In the center, there are hearths of various forms: rectangular stone, round, or two-cham- bered, connected with a ditch paved with plates, which are used for metal processing. Rectangular workshops have also been found. These are smaller than dwellings and contain very big copper-founding furnaces. Copper slag, pieces of ore, copper moulds, and crucibles have also been found.

Cultural Aspects

Metalurgy was the basis of the Atasu economy. The metal was exported in large amounts, but there are no signs of separation of metallurgists into a group or of craft specialization. The bones of cattle, horse, and camel are evidence of developed cattle breeding. Stone, horn hoes, and bronze sickles are evidence of agriculture.

Pottery was also very important. The shapes and decorative patterns of the Alakul and Fedorovo subtraditions are combined in the ceramics. The vessels are flat bottomed, and the shoulders are rounded or have a rib. The decoration is applied by a smooth stamp or toothed comb on the rim, neck and shoulder, and occasionally, the bottom. There is a combination of isosceles and oblique triangles, flags, triangular scallops, or complicated meander across a straight or oblique net made up of traited bands. Stone and bronze double-edged arrowheads have been discovered, as have molds for casting of the arrowheads and decorations.

In the population's ideology, the ritual of sacrifice was of importance (in the dwellings there are discoveries of the remains of calves, goats, and vessels), as was a cult of the dead. Graves occupy 2 ha and contain 78 structures; made up of vertical slabs were round burial mounds 6-10 m in diameter or rectangular fences. Often occurring with annexes, burial mounds could have diameters to 20 m with heights to I m, with slab fences around the foundation. The body lay in a stone box arranged with the head toward the west, usually on the left side. Pairs of burials can be men and women facing each other or mothers and children. Child graves often are found in annexes. In graves are found vessels and ocher; in women's graves, bronze beads, round earrings, rings, or shells. At one burial mound, in a ground pit, a cremation, ocher, and ceramics were found. The cera-

Andronovo 19

mics were analogous to clay ware buried with inhumations and cremations and in earlier Atasu settlement complexes, which allowed synchronization of both rites. The Biritualism of the graves and various complex ceramics, are characteristic to those from other monuments of the Atasu subtradition, and reflected the crossing of the Fedorovo and Alakul in their processes of formation.

Art is represented by geometrically ornamented ceramics. This subtradition may also be responsible for a few groups of petroglyphs, which cannot be easily dated in relation to other Andronovo petroglyphs.

References

Ahinzhanov, S. M., L. A. Makarova, and T. N. Nurumov (1992). K istorii skotovodstva i okhoty v Kazakhstane [History of Pastoralism and Hunting in Kazakhstan]. Alma-Ata: Gylym.

Alexeev, V. P., and E. F. Kuznetzova (1983). "Kenkazgan----drevnii mednyi rudnik v Tsentral'nom Kazakhstane" ["Kenkazgan~ Ancient Copper Mines in central Kazakhstan"]. Sovetskaia arkheologiia [Soviet Archeology] 2: 203-211.

Kadyrbaev, M. A., and Zh. Kurmankulov (1992). Kuftura drevnikh skotovodov i metallurgov Sary-Arki [Culture of Ancient Pastoralists and Metallurgists of Sary-Arkia]. Alma-Ata: Gylym.

Kuznetzova, E. F., and T. M. Teplovodskaya (1994). Drevniaia metallurgiia i goncharstvo Tsentral'novo Kazakhstana [Ancient Metallurgy and Pottery Production in Central Kazakhstan]. Alma-Ata: Gylym.

Margulan, A. H. (1979). Begazy-dandybaevskaia kuftura Tsentrafnogo Kazakhstana [The Begazy-Dandybay Culture of Central Kazakhstan].

Alma-Ata: Kesakh Academy of Science (Kanuka).

Margulan, A. H., K. A. Akishev, and M. A. Kadyrbaevet al. (1966).

Drevniaia kuftura Tsentrafnogo Kazakhstana [Ancient Culture of Central Kazakhstan]. Alma-Ata: Kesakh Academy of Science (Kanuka).

Zhauymbaev, S. U. (1984). Drevniaia metallurgiia i gornoe delo Tsentral'novo Kazakhstana [Ancient Metallurgy and Mining of Central Kazakhstan]. Ph.D. diss., Kemerovo.

Borovoe

TIME PERIOD: 3500-3400 B.P.

LOCATION: On the shore of Lake Borovoe in Kokchetav District oblast, in northern Kazakhstan.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

Classic Fedorovo burial grounds, 360 x 260 m in area are found near lake Borovoe and the pine forest

20Andronovo

(Orazbaev 1958). This area is the boundary of the steppe and the forest/steppe zone with fertile black soil, birch and pine forests, and numerous lakes (Akishev 1959: 3). Nearby are found Bronze Age mines, where gold and copper ore was mined (Chernikov 1948, 1954).

Physical Features

The area of the burial grounds is made apparent by more than 120 stone constructions from vertical slates of granite and slate rooted in the ground, often with earth embankments reaching heights of 0.1-0.7 m in the center.

Cultural Aspects

Twenty-seven excavated constructions of the Fedorovo subtradition are on average round constructions with diameters of 5-8 m, squares of 3 x 3 to 8 x 8 m, or rectangular, sometimes with annexes. In the center of each constructions is found one, or rarely, two graves (1.4-2 x 0.8-1.6 m) and two large graves (2.8 x 2), rough pits 1-1.6 m deep. Stone plates or wood covers the majority of pits. In 33 burials, the buried bodies have been cremeted. In 6 there are inhumation, the corpse is arranged on the side, with the head facing southwest. In the southwest part of the grave are one to two vessels, pottery shaped by hand from clay with a dash of mica and coal clay, polished and covered with rich geometrical ornamentation, applied on oblique net made with small-toothed comb in three zones: on the rim there are slanted triangles, around the neck there are different meander and triangular compositions, and around the shoulders there are swastikas, complex meanders, and triangular patterns, often framed by triangular scallops. There are also numerous vessels that are ornamented with channels and vertical and occasionally horizontal herring-bone (Orazbaev 1958: Tables I-III). In graves are found bronze needles, awls, decorations without signs of firing, plates, beads, pendants, rings, golden trumpet earrings, and ribbed piercings of glass. In one grave a grain grinder was discovered, and in other graves, ribs of horses and rams.

The economy of Fedorovo settlements was an agricultural/animal husbandry economy. Bronze metal working and the acquisition of gold were of large significance.

To evaluate the demographics is impossible, because of cremation and the absence of graves of children, who were buried outside the burial grounds. Judging by the facts about neighboring and related burial sites, these

population belonged to the proto-Europeoid Andronovo type and a more gracile type, similar to the Mediterranean type.

References

Akishev, K. A. (1959). "Pamiatniki stariny Severnovo Kazakhstana" ["Monuments of Old Time in Northern Kazakhstan"] In Trudy Instituta istorii, arkheologii i etnografii AN Kazakhskoi SSR [Transactions of Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography, AN Kazakh SSR], vol. 7. Alma-Ata: 3-25.

Chernikov, S. S. (1948). "Drevnee gornoe delo v raione goroda Stepniak" [Ancient Yak Mining in the Region of town Stepn].

Izvestiia Akademii nauk Kazakhskoi SSR [News of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR] 46: 13-33.

Chernikov, S. S. (1954). "Poseleniya epokhi bronzy v Severnom Kazakhstane" ["Settlements of the Bronze Age in Northern Kazakhstan"]. Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta istorii materiafnoi kuftury [Short Report of the Institute of History of Material Cultures] 53:

19-43.

Ginzburg, V. V. (1956). "Antropologicheskaia kharakteristika naseleniia Kazakhstana v epokhu bronzy" ("Anthropological Characteristics of Population in Kazakhstan in the Bronze Age"). In Trudy Insliluta istorii, arkheologii, i etnografii Akademii nauk Kazakhskoi SSR [Transactions of Institute of History, archeology, and Ethnography, Academy of Sciences, Kazakh SSR] \: 159-171.

Orazbaev, A. M. (1958). "Severnyi Kazakhstan v epokhu bronzy" ["Northern Kazakhstan in the Bronze Age"]. In Trudy Instituta istorii, archeologii i etnografii Akademii nauk Kazakhskoi SSR [Transactions of Institute of history, Archeology, and Ethnography, Academy of Sciences, Kazakh SSR] 5: 216-294.

Ustie-Solnze II

TIME PERIOD: 3700-3600 B.P. (4000-3800 B.P. by radiocarbon dating).

LOCATION: The right bank of the Nizhnii Toguzak river, in the Kartalinskii region of Cheliabinsk District.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Local Environment

On the southern Ural steppes with mixed grasses and scattered forest in the river valleys, 1.5 km from settlement on the left bank of the river is found the burial site Solnze II, synchronous with the Sintashta settlement, which have the same type of ceramics. Two km away is located the Kisenet mine, which provided a source of raw material for the settlement's residents,