Chwalynsk culture
| Prehistoric cultures of Russia | |
| Mesolithic | |
| Kunda culture | 7400-6000 BC Chr. |
| Neolithic | |
| Bug Dniester culture | 6500-5000 BC Chr. |
| Dnepr-Don culture | 5000-4000 BC Chr. |
| Sredny Stog culture | 4500-3500 BC Chr. |
| Ekaterininka culture | 4300-3700 BC Chr. |
| Fatyanovo culture | around 2500 BC Chr. |
| Copper Age | |
| North Caspian culture | |
| Spa culture | 5000-3000 BC Chr. |
| Samara culture | around 5000 BC Chr. |
| Chwalynsk culture | 5000-4500 BC Chr. |
| Botai culture | 3700-3100 BC Chr. |
| Yamnaya culture | 3600-2300 BC Chr. |
| Afanassjewo culture | 3500-2500 BC Chr. |
| Usatovo culture | 3300-3200 BC Chr. |
| Glaskovo culture | 3200-2400 BC Chr. |
| Bronze age | |
| Poltavka culture | 2700-2100 BC Chr. |
| Potapovka culture | 2500-2000 BC Chr. |
| Catacomb tomb culture | 2500-2000 BC Chr. |
| Abashevo culture | 2500-1800 BC Chr. |
| Sintashta culture | 2100-1800 BC Chr. |
| Okunew culture | around 2000 BC Chr. |
| Samus culture | around 2000 BC Chr. |
| Andronovo culture | 2000-1200 BC Chr. |
| Susgun culture | around 1700 BC Chr. |
| Srubna culture | 1600-1200 BC Chr. |
| Colchis culture | 1700-600 BC Chr. |
| Begasy Dandybai culture | around 1300 BC Chr. |
| Karassuk culture | around 1200 BC Chr. |
| Ust-mil culture | around 1200–500 BC Chr. |
| Koban culture | 1200-400 BC Chr. |
| Irmen culture | 1200-400 BC Chr. |
| Late corporate culture | around 1000 BC Chr. |
| Plate burial culture | around 1300–300 BC Chr. |
| Aldy Bel culture | 900-700 BC Chr. |
| Iron age | |
| Baitowo culture | |
| Tagar culture | 900-300 BC Chr. |
| Nosilowo group | 900-600 BC Chr. |
| Ananino culture | 800-300 BC Chr. |
| Tasmola culture | 700-300 BC Chr. |
| Gorokhovo culture | 600-200 BC Chr. |
| Sagly bashi culture | 500-300 BC Chr. |
| Jessik Beschsatyr culture | 500-300 BC Chr. |
| Pazyryk level | 500-300 BC Chr. |
| Sargat culture | 500 BC Chr. – 400 AD |
| Kulaika culture | 400 BC Chr. – 400 AD |
| Tes level | 300 BC Chr. – 100 AD |
| Shurmak culture | 200 BC Chr. – 200 AD |
| Tashtyk culture | 100–600 AD |
| Chernyakhov culture | AD 200–500 |
The Chwalynsk culture (approx. 4700 to approx. 3800 BC) is an archaeological culture of the middle to developed Copper Age . The eponymous site is located near the city of Chwalynsk on the Volga in Saratov Oblast , Russia. It was preceded by the Early Stone Age Samara culture and the Late Stone Age Jamna or pit grave culture followed it.
Spread and duration
The territory of the Chwalynsk culture stretched from Saratov in the north to the North Caucasus in the south and from the Sea of Azov in the west to the Ural River in the east.
A widely scattered data set of calibrated 14 C measurements on material from the graves of the type locality dates the finds quite reliably to the period from approx. 5000 to 4500 BC. Chr. Anthony (2007: 182) arrives at a beginning between 4700 and 4600 BC after deducting the reservoir effect. And for the late Khavynsk on the lower Volga to 3900 to 3800 BC. And does not rule out later occurrences.
Some researchers consider the Chwalynsk I horizon to be early Copper Stone Age, i.e. around the same time as the Samara culture. Marija Gimbutas , however, believes that the Samara culture was earlier and that Chwalynsk I can be traced back to the developed Copper Age. However, too few sites of the Samara culture are known to be able to answer this question with certainty.
Find places
The Chwalynsk-type locality is a burial ground of about 30m X 26m containing over 158 skeletons. Most of them are single graves, but graves with two to five skeletons have also been discovered. They were buried supine with their legs bent. Twelve of the graves were covered with stone mounds. Sacrificial sites similar to those in Samara, with remains of horses, cattle and sheep, were also found.
An individual grave containing a skeleton lying on its back and bent legs, as well as grave goods, lying on strewn ocher, was discovered in 1929 in Krivolutschje. At Nalchik , an earthen Kurgan, 67 m high and 30 m in diameter, contained 121 individual graves, in which the buried lay on their backs with bent legs on a strewn ocher and were covered with stones.
Products ( artifacts )
Chwalynsk proves the further development of the spa. It started in Samara with individual graves or small groups that were sometimes covered with stones. In the Chwalynsk culture there are group graves that may reflect a family or local group togetherness. DNA studies could provide answers here.
There are differences in the value and quality of the grave goods, but there does not seem to be any special emphasis on a leader, which does not rule out the possible existence of such a leader. In the later Kurganen it becomes apparent that the Kurgan is reserved exclusively for the leaders and their entourage.
This development points to a growing difference in the wealth of individuals, which at the same time implies an increase in the wealth of the entire community and population itself. The spread of the Kurgan culture from its country of origin in the western steppe can also be associated with an increase in population. The reasons for this remain unclear, however.
It is known that metal was present in the Caucasus and Urals. The Chwalynsk tombs contained rings and spiral rings. Only ornaments are known as decorations. The stone weapons and stone tools show a very high quality. The Krivolutschje grave, which Marija Gimbutas regards as the grave of a leader, contained a long flint dagger and shaft tips for arrows, which are finely retouched on both sides. In addition, a porphyry ax head with bulges and a shaft hole. These types of artifacts belong to the time when the metal appeared.
There is also ample evidence of jewelry: shell necklaces, stone and animal teeth, arm rings made of stone or bones and pendants made from boar tusks, as well as the teeth of bears, wolves and deer.
The consumer goods show no evidence of great wealth. This is likely to have consisted of perishable organic goods. The surfaces of ceramics often show imprints of organic materials, e.g. B. of woven fabrics.
literature
- JP Mallory : Khvalynsk Culture. In: JP Mallory, Douglas Q. Adams (Eds.): Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn, London et al. 1997, ISBN 1-88496-498-2 .
- Marija Gimbutas : The Civilization of the Goddess. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco 1991, ISBN 0-06-250368-5 .
- David W. Anthony: The horse, the wheel, and language. How Bronze-age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-0-691-05887-0 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The dates in the table are taken from the individual articles and do not always have to be reliable. Cultures in areas of other former Soviet republics were included.