Samara culture

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
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 Samara culture (around 5000 BC ) is a prehistoric , archaeological culture from the Neolithic to the early Copper Age on the central Volga . It was discovered near the village of Sesscheje (Russian: Съезжее, DIN 1460 S "ezžeje) east of Samara in 1973. In the valley of the Samara River, there are also sites of the following cultures, which are also known as Samara cultures or Samara valley cultures , but Primarily, the name Samara culture refers to the Neolithic culture of this region. Cultures of the early Copper Age were the Chwalynsk culture (approx. 5200 - at least 4500 BC) and the pit grave or Jama culture (approx. 3600 -2300 BC)

The term Copper Age / Eneolithic is similarly ambiguous for this region, since the Samara culture, the subsequent Chwalynsk culture and the even later Yamnaja culture are summarized under the term Eneolithic cultures and only developed through the additions early, middle (developed ) and late- to be concretized.

Sites of the Samara culture

In addition to the type locality, there are other sites such as Varfolomievka on the Volga, actually part of the Northern Caspian culture , which also dates back to the Early Copper Age ; it probably belongs to the time around 5500 BC. Another place of discovery is Myol'ske on the Dnepr .

Central location

The territory of the Samara culture is the forest steppe of the middle Volga . As a crossing point between east and west, north and south, many influences from different peoples must have had an impact on the Samara culture. Such a central location must also have required a certain focus on war and defense, which can be seen from the weapons found in graves.

Map of the course of the river Volga . With the contemporary place Samara .

Indo-European original home

Marija Gimbutas was the first to call this region the original home of the Urindo-European language and to hypothesize that the bearers of these cultures were original Indo-Europeans . If this hypothesis is true, the Samara culture would be of enormous importance for Indo-European studies.

Before Gimbutas, most researchers assumed a three-stage development of the Indo-European language:

  • Originated in a primeval home in the steppes
  • Spread to Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia
  • Subsidiary languages ​​emerge in remote areas

Gimbutas uses the term Kurgan for the cultures of the spreading phase. Developed Kurgane are not yet found in the Copper Age cultures, but their development history can be traced back to that point.

In the context of the Kurgan hypothesis , the area of ​​the Samara culture comes into question as a settlement area for speakers of the Indo-European language. It also fits that Indo-European has also left traces in Ural , which was probably also spoken in this area at the time. The linguist Harald Haarmann assumes that there was a language exchange between the Ur-Ural language and the Indo-European language; According to him, the original home of the Ur-Uralians was north of the Urindo-European settlement area, and thus a direct exchange was possible.

Artifacts

Ceramics

The pottery consists of egg-shaped cups with pronounced lip lips that could not stand on a flat surface, which is why makeshift constructions such as baskets or loops, for which the pronounced rim seems suitable, are adopted. Decorations were mostly motifs around the edges: lines, ribbons, zigzag or wavy lines, incised decorations , stitch decorations or comb prints. If these patterns are viewed from above, they appear like a sun motif with the vessel opening as the sun. Later developments on this topic show that the sun is actually depicted.

Graves

The graves are shallow pits for single individuals, but there would be room for two to three people. Some graves are covered with stone mounds or low earthen, very early forms of the kurgan.

Additions

Animal sacrifices found at most of the sites are characteristic . Typically, the heads and hooves of cattle , sheep and horses were placed in shallow bowls over the grave and sprinkled with ocher . Some researchers see these findings as the beginning of horse sacrifices, but this assumption is not certain. Carved figures and pendants made from bones have also been found in graves. Very controversial are the bone plates of a horse or "double ox head" which are perforated, possibly pendants or bridles.

weapons

Some graves contained well-made flint and bone daggers that were placed on the arm or head of the buried subject. This is also the case in the grave of a little boy, although weapons in children's graves only become common later. Spearheads of bones and arrowheads from flint are also among the finds .

Horses

The Samara period is not as well excavated and known as the other two. The archaeological finds are similar to those of the Dnepr-Don culture with one exception: horses.

In addition to the remains of horses in the graves, horses are also depicted on grave goods. Whether the horses have already been ridden cannot be answered, but they were definitely used as meat suppliers. A battle site with numerous horse bones is known from a later phase of the Copper Age.

It is believed that the wild horse was domesticated about 6000 years ago. The western Eurasian steppe is regarded as the starting point, and possibly the only place of domestication. However, the Przewalski horse does not seem to have been among the domesticated wild horses. The oldest archaeological findings come from Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, around 6000 to 5500 years BP.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Harald Haarmann: In the footsteps of the Indo-Europeans: From the Neolithic steppe nomads to the early advanced civilizations. CH Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-68824-9 , pp. 43-44.
  3. ↑ Vera Warmuth, Anders Eriksson, Mim Ann Bower, Graeme Barker, Elizabeth Barrett, Bryan Kent Hanks, Shuicheng Li, David Lomitashvili, Maria Ochir-Goryaeva, Grigory V. Sizonov, Vasiliy Soyonov, Andrea Manica: Reconstructing the origin and spread of horse domestication in the Eurasian steppe. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . Volume 109, No. 21, 2012, pp. 1-5, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1111122109
  4. ^ Alan K. Outram, Natalie A. Stear, Robin Bendrey, Sandra Olsen, Alexei Kasparov, Victor Zaibert, Nick Thorpe, Richard P. Evershed: The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking Science. In: Science . Vol. 323, No. 5919, 2009, pp. 1332-1335, doi : 10.1126 / science.1168594 .