Khvalynsk culture

The Chwalynsk culture (ca. 5000-4500 BC) is an archaeological culture of the mid-to- advanced Chalcolithic period. The eponymous archaeological site is located in the city Chwalynsk on the Volga in Saratov Oblast, Russia. It was preceded by the early copper- stone age Samara culture and the Late Copper Stone Age Yamnaya culture followed her.

Scope and duration

The field of Chwalynsk culture ranged from Saratov in the north to the North Caucasus in the south and from the Azov Sea in the west to the Ural River in the east.

A widely scattered data set of calibrated C-14 measurements on material from the graves of the type locality dated the finds quite safe in the period of about 5000-4500 BC

Some researchers consider the horizon Chwalynsk I for early copper- stone age, or about the same time as the Samara culture. Marija Gimbutas, however, believes that the Samara culture was earlier and that I Chwalynsk is to put in the developed Chalcolithic period. However, too few find spots of the Samara culture are known to be able to answer this question safely.

Find sites

The Chwalynsk - type locality is a cemetery of about 30 m X 26 m, which contains over 158 skeletons. Mostly there are individual graves, but graves with two to five skeletons were discovered. They lie in supine position with knees bent. Twelve of the tombs were covered with stone hills. Sacrificial sites that are similar to those in Samara, with remains of horses, cattle and sheep, were also found.

An individual grave containing a skeleton lying on ausgestreutem ocher in the supine position and the legs bent and grave goods, was discovered in 1929 in Krivoluchie. In Nalchik, a 67 m high and 30 m in diameter measuring earthen kurgan contained 121 individual graves in which the deceased rested in a supine position with legs bent on a ocher variation and were covered with stones.

Artifacts

Chwalynsk proves the further development of the kurgan. It began in Samara with individual graves or small groups that were sometimes covered with stones. When Chwalynsk culture, there are group graves that may reflect a family or local group togetherness. DNA investigation could provide answers here.

With the value and quality of grave goods reveal differences, however, there seems to be no particular emphasis on a leader, but the possible existence of such does not exclude. In the later kurgans shows that the Kurgan is exclusively reserved for the leaders and their entourage.

This trend indicates a growing difference in wealth of individuals, at the same time implies an increase in the prosperity of the whole community, and population itself. The spreading of Kurgankultur from its country of origin of the western steppe can also be associated with an increase in population. However, the reasons for this remain unclear.

It is known that metal in the Caucasus and the Urals was present. The Chwalynsk tombs contained rings and spiral rings. As ornaments exclusively ornaments are known. The stone weapons and devices exhibit a very high quality. The Krivoluchie - grave that Marija Gimbutas sees as grave a leader, contained a long flint dagger and stem tips for arrows, which are finely retouched on both sides. In addition, even a Porphyraxtkopf with bulges and a shaft hole. These artifacts include types in the period in which the metal appeared.

There is also ample evidence for jewelry: shell necklaces, stone and animal teeth, bracelets made ​​of stone or bone and trailers from tusks and teeth of bears, wolves and deer.

Durable consumer goods show no evidence of great wealth. This is likely to have existed in perishable organic goods. The surfaces of various ceramics from different cultures have imprints of organic materials, for example, woven fabrics on.

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