25th century BC
Abashevo culture — a Bronze Age archaeological culture of the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC in the European part of Russia, from the Kaluga region to the south of Bashkortostan. The culture was named after the village of Abashevo (Chuvashia), where its burial mounds were first discovered in 1925.
Archaeological sites of the Abashevo culture have been discovered in the territories of Chuvashia (the village of Abashevo itself), Mari El, Bashkortostan, as well as Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. The westernmost site — a burial mound — was discovered in the Upper Oka basin, in the "Mikhailova Gora" area near the village of Ogub in Maloyaroslavets district, Kaluga region. A large group of burial mounds was surveyed in the Upper Volga region, near Lake Pleshcheyevo in the Pereslavl-Zalessky area. In 1939, 3 mounds from this group were excavated by P. N. Tretyakov, where Abashevo ceramics and jewelry were found. The southern range of Abashevo burial grounds covers the modern Voronezh region. In the Southern Urals, settlements of the Abashevo people have been discovered. In 1951, K. V. Salnikov investigated the Balanbash settlement, discovered back in 1934. In 1948-1950, he excavated the Malokizilskoye settlement and burial remains that yielded Abashevo material, showing analogies with Andronovo and Srubnaya artifacts. In 1951, in the Belaya River basin, K. V. Salnikov discovered a number of settlements with Balanbash-type ceramics (Unyak, Salikhovo, Akhmerovo), belonging to the late stage of the Abashevo culture. Thus, the Abashevo tribes occupied a vast territory covering the Upper and Middle Volga region, the Kama region, and the Southern Urals, encompassing the modern republics of Chuvashia, Mari El, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Perm Krai, and the Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Voronezh regions. In these areas, numerous burial mound groups have been identified; in the eastern part of the range, in the Southern Urals, late Abashevo settlements are located. The Abashevites did not occupy this entire territory as a continuous mass. The main groups of Abashevo culture sites are concentrated in the Middle Volga region — in the basins of the Ilet, Tsivil, Sviyaga rivers, and the lower reaches of the Kama.
According to some researchers, the Abashevo culture, like the Fatyanovo culture, is connected in its origin to the Middle Dnieper culture. Currently, there are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the Abashevo culture. O. N. Bader argued that the Abashevo culture was successively connected with Fatyanovo sites. Subsequently, he abandoned this point of view, believing that a genetic connection between the Balanovo and Abashevo cultures was unlikely. According to O. A. Krivtsova-Grakova, the Abashevo and Fatyanovo cultures are related not only by the similarity of vessel ornamentation but also by the method of burying the dead in pit graves covered with wooden flooring. Abashevo axes, as established by O. V. Kuzmina, are a development of Fatyanovo-type axes. A. P. Smirnov, N. F. Kalinin, K. V. Salnikov, and other archaeologists point to a genealogical connection between the Abashevites and the Balanovites. E. E. Kuzmina indicates that the Abashevo culture likely belongs to the broad circle of Corded Ware cultures. The Balanovo tribes apparently constituted one of the components in the formation of the Abashevo ethnocultural community. The coincidence of the distribution areas of Balanovo and Abashevo sites, similar tools and ornaments (copper spearheads with rolled sockets, copper temple rings, bronze beads, socketed axes, etc.), similarities in ornamentation (zonal arrangement of patterns separated by lines, common ornamental elements — rhombus, triangle, zigzag, rectangle, vertical panels descending onto vessel walls, etc.); similar features of burial rites (burials in a crouched position in pit graves), the successive development of pastoral and agricultural economies, etc. — all these parallels quite convincingly indicate genetic connections between the Abashevites and Balanovites, between whom there were close cultural ties. The Abashevo culture is a product of a specific historical era. In this complex ethnocultural formation, there are local features determined by the influence of local components in its formation.
The basis of the economy was cattle breeding, including horse breeding. Tools made of stone, copper, and bone from domestic and wild animals indicate hunting and agriculture. Settlements of the Abashevo culture have been found in the Urals and on the Don. The settlements consisted of shallowly recessed structures with two- and four-pitched roofs covered with reeds. Burial mounds have revealed burials with ornamented clay vessels and copper and silver ornaments. They knew how to make chariots. The Abashevo tribes had an extremely developed cult of fire and sun (an analogue of Zoroastrianism). In their way of life, the Abashevites were close to the tribes of the Andronovo culture. The Abashevites of the Southern Urals had close contacts with their eastern neighbors — the Andronovites. The Abashevites borrowed some patterns from the Andronovo tribes for decorating clay vessels. Such vessels have been found at the Metevtamak burial ground. At the same time, some features characteristic of the Abashevo culture passed to the Andronovites. This explains the numerous cases of finding Abashevo metal ornaments in Andronovo sites.
The burial rite, which is one of the defining features of an archaeological culture, was very stable among the Abashevites. Skeletons typically lay on their backs with bent legs. During burial, the legs were apparently pulled with the heels toward the pelvis, with the knees pointing upward. The arms were bent at the elbows, with the hands lying on the chest and pelvic bones, and sometimes placed on the shoulders, rarely extended along the body. Crouched burials on the left and right side occur (Abashevo, Vasyukovsky burial ground), as well as extended burials on the back (Abashevo, Katergino). For the most part, the deceased are oriented with their heads to the southeast and east, in isolated cases — to the northeast and northwest, with southern orientation being very rare. Burial pits are usually rectangular, averaging 1.5×0.8 m in size; large graves are rare (2×1.5 m), with pit depths ranging from 0.35 to 0.9 m to the bottom. The bottom was lined with birch bark, sometimes covered with sand or a layer of lime. The walls of burial pits were lined with wood or coated with clay (Katergino). In some cases, a rectangular wooden chamber measuring 1.75×0.75 m was inserted into an oval-shaped burial pit (Tebikasy). Coals and ash are found in the fill of burial pits, and traces of bonfires are visible under the mound embankment. Coals were taken from these memorial bonfires laid around the graves for performing the burial ritual. Fire served as a symbol of purification of the deceased during the transition to the afterlife. The graves were covered with wood and left without a mound as kurgan burials. Subsequently, a common mound was heaped over the graves. Under one mound there are one or two burials, with collective graves being rare. The height of the mounds is usually 0.8-1.2 m. On the right bank of the Volga, burial grounds include several dozen mounds (Taushkasy, Pikshiki); in the Tokhmeyevsky burial ground — 50 mounds. Aristocratic (elite) burials, such as the Kondrashkinsky mound (Voronezh region), Selezni-2 (Tambov region), and others, should be highlighted separately.
Connections:
Abashevo culture — a Bronze Age archaeological culture of the second half of the 3rd millennium BC and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC in the European part of Russia, from the Kaluga region to the south of Bashkortostan. The culture was named after the village of Abashevo (Chuvashia), where its burial mounds were first discovered in 1925.
Archaeological sites of the Abashevo culture have been discovered in the territories of Chuvashia (the village of Abashevo itself), Mari El, Bashkortostan, as well as Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. The westernmost site — a burial mound — was discovered in the Upper Oka basin, in the "Mikhailova Gora" area near the village of Ogub in Maloyaroslavets district, Kaluga region. A large group of burial mounds was surveyed in the Upper Volga region, near Lake Pleshcheyevo in the Pereslavl-Zalessky area. In 1939, 3 mounds from this group were excavated by P. N. Tretyakov, where Abashevo ceramics and jewelry were found. The southern range of Abashevo burial grounds covers the modern Voronezh region. In the Southern Urals, settlements of the Abashevo people have been discovered. In 1951, K. V. Salnikov investigated the Balanbash settlement, discovered back in 1934. In 1948-1950, he excavated the Malokizilskoye settlement and burial remains that yielded Abashevo material, showing analogies with Andronovo and Srubnaya artifacts. In 1951, in the Belaya River basin, K. V. Salnikov discovered a number of settlements with Balanbash-type ceramics (Unyak, Salikhovo, Akhmerovo), belonging to the late stage of the Abashevo culture. Thus, the Abashevo tribes occupied a vast territory covering the Upper and Middle Volga region, the Kama region, and the Southern Urals, encompassing the modern republics of Chuvashia, Mari El, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Perm Krai, and the Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Voronezh regions. In these areas, numerous burial mound groups have been identified; in the eastern part of the range, in the Southern Urals, late Abashevo settlements are located. The Abashevites did not occupy this entire territory as a continuous mass. The main groups of Abashevo culture sites are concentrated in the Middle Volga region — in the basins of the Ilet, Tsivil, Sviyaga rivers, and the lower reaches of the Kama.
According to some researchers, the Abashevo culture, like the Fatyanovo culture, is connected in its origin to the Middle Dnieper culture. Currently, there are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the Abashevo culture. O. N. Bader argued that the Abashevo culture was successively connected with Fatyanovo sites. Subsequently, he abandoned this point of view, believing that a genetic connection between the Balanovo and Abashevo cultures was unlikely. According to O. A. Krivtsova-Grakova, the Abashevo and Fatyanovo cultures are related not only by the similarity of vessel ornamentation but also by the method of burying the dead in pit graves covered with wooden flooring. Abashevo axes, as established by O. V. Kuzmina, are a development of Fatyanovo-type axes. A. P. Smirnov, N. F. Kalinin, K. V. Salnikov, and other archaeologists point to a genealogical connection between the Abashevites and the Balanovites. E. E. Kuzmina indicates that the Abashevo culture likely belongs to the broad circle of Corded Ware cultures. The Balanovo tribes apparently constituted one of the components in the formation of the Abashevo ethnocultural community. The coincidence of the distribution areas of Balanovo and Abashevo sites, similar tools and ornaments (copper spearheads with rolled sockets, copper temple rings, bronze beads, socketed axes, etc.), similarities in ornamentation (zonal arrangement of patterns separated by lines, common ornamental elements — rhombus, triangle, zigzag, rectangle, vertical panels descending onto vessel walls, etc.); similar features of burial rites (burials in a crouched position in pit graves), the successive development of pastoral and agricultural economies, etc. — all these parallels quite convincingly indicate genetic connections between the Abashevites and Balanovites, between whom there were close cultural ties. The Abashevo culture is a product of a specific historical era. In this complex ethnocultural formation, there are local features determined by the influence of local components in its formation.
The basis of the economy was cattle breeding, including horse breeding. Tools made of stone, copper, and bone from domestic and wild animals indicate hunting and agriculture. Settlements of the Abashevo culture have been found in the Urals and on the Don. The settlements consisted of shallowly recessed structures with two- and four-pitched roofs covered with reeds. Burial mounds have revealed burials with ornamented clay vessels and copper and silver ornaments. They knew how to make chariots. The Abashevo tribes had an extremely developed cult of fire and sun (an analogue of Zoroastrianism). In their way of life, the Abashevites were close to the tribes of the Andronovo culture. The Abashevites of the Southern Urals had close contacts with their eastern neighbors — the Andronovites. The Abashevites borrowed some patterns from the Andronovo tribes for decorating clay vessels. Such vessels have been found at the Metevtamak burial ground. At the same time, some features characteristic of the Abashevo culture passed to the Andronovites. This explains the numerous cases of finding Abashevo metal ornaments in Andronovo sites.
The burial rite, which is one of the defining features of an archaeological culture, was very stable among the Abashevites. Skeletons typically lay on their backs with bent legs. During burial, the legs were apparently pulled with the heels toward the pelvis, with the knees pointing upward. The arms were bent at the elbows, with the hands lying on the chest and pelvic bones, and sometimes placed on the shoulders, rarely extended along the body. Crouched burials on the left and right side occur (Abashevo, Vasyukovsky burial ground), as well as extended burials on the back (Abashevo, Katergino). For the most part, the deceased are oriented with their heads to the southeast and east, in isolated cases — to the northeast and northwest, with southern orientation being very rare. Burial pits are usually rectangular, averaging 1.5×0.8 m in size; large graves are rare (2×1.5 m), with pit depths ranging from 0.35 to 0.9 m to the bottom. The bottom was lined with birch bark, sometimes covered with sand or a layer of lime. The walls of burial pits were lined with wood or coated with clay (Katergino). In some cases, a rectangular wooden chamber measuring 1.75×0.75 m was inserted into an oval-shaped burial pit (Tebikasy). Coals and ash are found in the fill of burial pits, and traces of bonfires are visible under the mound embankment. Coals were taken from these memorial bonfires laid around the graves for performing the burial ritual. Fire served as a symbol of purification of the deceased during the transition to the afterlife. The graves were covered with wood and left without a mound as kurgan burials. Subsequently, a common mound was heaped over the graves. Under one mound there are one or two burials, with collective graves being rare. The height of the mounds is usually 0.8-1.2 m. On the right bank of the Volga, burial grounds include several dozen mounds (Taushkasy, Pikshiki); in the Tokhmeyevsky burial ground — 50 mounds. Aristocratic (elite) burials, such as the Kondrashkinsky mound (Voronezh region), Selezni-2 (Tambov region), and others, should be highlighted separately.
Connections:
- With the Abashevo culture and proto-Cimmerians and Thracians. [Khudaverdyan 2012]
- Through the presence of G2a with the Megalithic cultures of Europe.
- With the Dolmen culture.
- With Hattian megalithic structures.
3000—2000 гг. до н. э. Аркаим