Andronovo culture

The Andronovo culture ( scientific Andronovo culture) is an archaeological culture of the Bronze Age South Siberia and Central Asia in the first half of the second millennium BC. Its territory stretched from the Ural River in the west to the Yenisei River in the east and included both the southern area of ​​Siberian forest steppes and the Central Asian steppes. Due to the large spatial extent they can be broken down into several regional groups, which still have important cultural properties in common. The name derives from the town of Andronovo (or Andronovo | 55 ° 53 'N, 55 ° 42' O55.88333333333355.7 ), in 1914 more equipped with ornate ceramic stool graves were found. The Andronovo culture is commonly associated with the proto- Indo-Iranian language group. Due to approximately 2000 BC dated finds of chariots with spoke wheels, the people of this culture are considered to be the inventor

Geographical location

The enormous geographic spread of this cultural group can be ascertained only roughly. In the west it overlaps between the rivers Volga and Ural with the field of nearly simultaneously occurring Srubna culture. To the east, it extends to the low level of Minusinsk and is thus part within the territory of the former occurring Afanassjewo culture. Other settlements are scattered to the south, such as in the Kopet -Dag (Turkmenistan ), in the Pamir (Tajikistan ) or in the Tian Shan ( Kyrgyzstan ). The northern border is roughly at the southern start of the Taiga.

History

In the middle of the second millennium BC, a strong eastward migration of the Andronovo culture, during which one can distinguish between at least four subcultures whose chronological appearance is only vaguely familiar:

  • Sintaschta - Petrovka - Arkaim (2200-1600 BC) in the southern Urals and northern Kazakhstan, the fortified proto- urban settlement of Sintaschta in the Chelyabinsk region by about 1800 BC,
  • The settlement Arkaim in the area, has been dated to the 17th century BC,

Culture

Characteristic of the ceramics of Andronovo culture is the ornament with Mäanderbändern, hatched triangles, zigzag ribbons and Fischgrätmustern.

It previously only mostly small settlements were found that were rarely fixed with wall and moat. The houses were mostly sunken timber post, with a strong regional variation can be observed. Economically played livestock demonstrably an important role, hunting and fishing are to a lesser extent also detectable while agriculture is indeed suggested by appropriate equipment, but so far could not be clearly demonstrated.

Regional mining areas were also operated. The tombs have quite a high diversity. As a rule, the dead were cremated or buried in a crouched position, in most areas on one or more graves, a low Kurgan was filled.

The Andronovo culture and the Indo- Iranian group

South of the Oxus, there are no burials of the Andronovo culture more, and also to the south of Bactria you will encounter no or very sparse finds. Sarianidi listed to the fact that " archaeological finds from Bactria and Margiana in spite of all leave no doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated sporadically into the territory of Bactrian - margianischen oasis culture ( BMAC ). "

Some scholars are of the opinion that you can not connect to the Indo- Aryan culture or the country Mitanni the Andronovo culture as it has evolved too late, and no traces of cultural exchange (eg Kriegerbegräbnisse or characteristic timber frames ) are detected with India or Mesopotamia. The archaeologist JP Mallory (1998) does yourself "extraordinarily difficult to draw up a thesis for the expansion of the northern regions in northern India " and remarks that the proposed migration routes ", the Indo- Iranians led only to Central Asia but not to to the Medes, the Persians, or the Indo- Aryans. "

Subsequent crops

In southern Siberia and Kazakhstan, the Andronovo culture was followed by the Karassuk culture, which is referred to both as a non- Indo- European, the other as a proto -Iranian, but it is definitely strange. On the western borders of the Andronovo culture went on in the Srubna culture that developed south of the Abashevo culture. In Assyrian archives to find the oldest records of people from the Andronovo region, including the Cimmerians and the Iranian-speaking Sakas and Scythians, who after the collapse of the Alekseevka culture from about the 9th century BC in the Ukraine, on Caucasus BC to Assyria, and possibly as Thracians and Sigynnen migrated to Anatolia, and in the late 8th century, also to South East Europe. Herodotus situates the land of Sigynnen beyond the Danube north of the Thracian countries, Strabo, near the Caspian Sea. Both refer to them as Iranians.

Absolute dating Sintashta culture Yaz culture Kunda culture Neolithic Bug-Dniester culture Dnieper–Donets culture Sredny Stog culture Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture Khvalynsk culture Botai culture Usatovo culture Poltavka culture Potapovka culture Okunev Culture Colchian culture Begazy-Dandybai culture Karasuk culture Irmen culture Aldy-Bel culture Iron Age Tasmola culture Pazyryk culture Tashtyk culture Volga River Kopet-Dag Sintashta Chelyabinsk Oblast Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex J. P. Mallory Caucasus Mountains Sigynnae Karakoram
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