Chariot graves of the Yamnaya culture

The chariot graves of the Yamnaja culture (from Russian / Ukrainian ямна 'pit'; Ямная Культура, German pit grave or ocher culture) are evidence of an Eastern European archaeological culture of the late Copper Age / Early Bronze Age in the area between the Bug / Dnister / Ural rivers in the Pontic steppe . They are dated to around 3600-2300 BC. Dated.

The archeology can look back on several decades, in numerous graves were studied from the early Bronze Age. The first car finds in graves of the Yamnaja culture were discovered in 1949 during excavations in the Kurgan "Storoževaja mogila" in the lower Dnepr region , and in 1952 in Kurgan Akkermen in the northern Azov region . In the 1960s, the research focus shifted to the lower Don - Rostov and Cominterna and to the northern Black Sea area - Otradnyj and Sofievka. In 1962, in Gerasimovka in the pre-Urals, a wheel was first discovered in a grave on the eastern periphery of the Yamnaja culture.

In the 1970-80s, the number of graves with carts and wheels, as well as cart and wheel models made of clay, increased considerably. Today the finds are assigned to three cultures:

Budschak (transliterated from Russian Budžak ) culture

Between the mouths of the Danube and the Dniester , around 20 chariot graves were examined in the 1960s-1980s, the most interesting of which were found in Bogatoe, Cholmskoe, Etulija, Jasski, Mayaki, Novoselica and Taraklija .

Starosel'je culture

The most important finds came to light in the lower Dnepr region, for example in Luk'janovskij, Pervokonstantinovka, Starosel'je and Vinogradnoe. Today about 40 chariot graves are known from this area, which are assigned to the "Starosel'je culture", which is defined as a culture with a "non-burial" tradition. It is traced back to the so-called Azov-Black Sea Line and thus to connections to the Caucasus region .

Novotitarovskaya culture

In the steppes of the Kuban region , there is a third group of burials with remains of wagons from the Early Bronze Age, where the first wagons were uncovered in graves near Novotitarovskaja from 1970. Up to 1990 a total of about 115 graves were investigated here with carts or parts of carts, which either dated to the early Bronze Age or can be synchronized with sites of the Yamnaja culture. The best preserved wagons of the "Novotitarovskaja culture" were uncovered in several Kurganen near Brjuchoveckaja, Černyševskaja, Khutor, Lebedi, Ostannij and Rogovskaja.

Further occurrences

Further east, some burials close with car remains from the Kalmyk steppe at the top Manytsch on. Finally, in 2001, two chariot graves were discovered in the pre-Urals, in the area of ​​the Volga-Ural group of the Yamnaya culture, near Sumaevo.

Archaeological assignment

EV Izbicer assigns about 70 burials to the Yamnaja culture, of which around half are in the Kuban region and the Ukraine. According to SV Ivanova and VV Cimidanov, 48 chariot graves belong to the Yamnaya culture in the Ukraine and the neighboring area, whereas VA Trifonov assigns 48 burials to the Yamnaja, Novotitarovskaya and pre-catacomb culture for the steppes in the Kuban region. VK Kul'baka and V. Kačur name 107 burials from burial times in the Ukraine , Moldova , on the Lower Don, in the eastern Azov region and in Kalmykia, in which the remains of wagons were uncovered. Today, the Yamnaja culture and its synchronous steppe cultures (Budzak, Novotitarovskaja and Starosel'je cultures) with their corresponding mixed forms can be assigned to approximately 200 chariot graves. They are located in an area that stretches from the southern Urals in the east to the Budzak steppe in the west.

Research history

The first major work on the expansion of haulage in the Pontic-Caspian steppes was published in 1974. All wagons were assigned to the Yamnaja culture and no subdivision into individual cultures was made. VA Safronov outsourced the burial tombs as an independent Kuban-Dnieper culture. However, this approach met with criticism and the above-mentioned trisection prevailed, whereby it is almost impossible to determine the exact number of sites that are exclusively attributable to the Yamnaja culture. On the other hand, the early Bronze Age can be viewed as a phase in which the spread of driving in the steppes of Eastern Europe flourished, which is reflected in the burial ritual.

Natural allocation

The steppes of Eastern Europe offered optimal conditions for nomadic cattle breeding, which was already linked to the use of vehicles in the previous cultures of the Don and Kuban (Novosvobodnaja and Maikop cultures). The steppe ground provided the low-vegetation, stable ground that required no roads. The nomads followed their herds in search of good grazing areas. NJ Merpert and VN Danilenko (1974) and VP Šilov (1975) made the first assumptions that the bearers of the Yamnaja culture were nomadic cattle breeders. Models of their economy were developed, ranging from the daily to the seasonal migration cycle. The assumption of a change between summer and winter pastures now seems to be the most likely. The ox-drawn cart in this room is one of the most important tools and an indicator of nomadic life, which, unlike the low-maintenance Mongolian ranchers, required the permanent presence of the shepherd to protect the animals.

Finds

In the graves mentioned, the number of wagon wheels is between one and eight specimens. Mostly they were deposited in the corners of the grave pit, on steps or on the cover, from where they got into the chamber when the cover collapsed. In the middle part, the fixed hub is carved out of the board. The wheel diameter is between 60 and 70 cm, the wheel thickness between four and eight cm. Landfilling of complete wagons is rare. Car parts, such as the car body, axles, drawbars or bast mats and covers, are also rarely preserved. These were placed on the edge of the burial chamber or next to it on a gallery. In one case, two wagons were deposited in a grave. The vehicles will in all cases have been four-wheeled, rather massive vehicles with a wide platform and an arched structure. In connection with a tarpaulin, the wagons served the nomadic ranchers as kibitka - a covered wagon that also served as a living tent. In the course of the early Bronze Age, the design of the wagons hardly changed, and even the wagon types of the later catacomb tomb culture show no significant differences from the earlier wagons.

Carriage construction

The wagons were reconstructed on the basis of finds from the Starosel'je and Novotitarovskaya cultures. The best preserved finds of whole wagons come from burials in the steppes of the Kuban region. The finds reveal no differences between the chariots of the Novotitarovskaya and the Yamnaja cultures; all in all, the massive chariot pulled by a team of oxen was likely to have been widespread in the Early Bronze Age.

It is noticeable, however, that wagons were often deposited in graves in the steppes of the Kuban region and between Prut and Dnestr, while they rarely ended up in graves between the Volga and Urals, on the northern Donets , in Kalmykia or the Stavropol region. This is possibly due to the fact that the groups with frequent grave dumping, namely the Budzak, Novotitarovskaja and Starosel'je cultures, were in the tradition of the Late Copper Age Maikop culture, which is characterized by older chariot burials. The groups in which the chariots rarely appear in the grave practice, on the other hand, belong to the classical Yamnaja culture, which does not belong to this tradition.

Social / sociological classification

The social significance of the chariot graves is controversial. VM Masson looks into the car graves an indication of the high status that held the dead man in the community, while EE Kuz'mina the graves of them in war nobility sees. Ivanova and Cimidanov, however, showed in an investigation of the material from the grave from the Ukraine that this hypothesis is not tenable. II Alekseeva interprets the chariot graves as burials of sacrificial priests, whereas S. Ž. Pustovalov sees the Novotitarovskaya culture with its numerous chariot graves as nothing more than a noble subculture of the North Caucasian groups. He creates a similar picture for the northwestern Black Sea area. The ratio of only 17 chariot graves to 2156 burials dating from burial times in this region suggests its exclusive importance. The ratio of chariot graves (118) to the other graves (877) is somewhat more balanced, in the Novotitarovskaja culture, which is why AN Gej and EV Izbicer do not necessarily see a high status of the dead in the chariot graves. Since, however, an enormous amount of work was required for the construction of wagon graves, the opposite could also be assumed. In addition, the addition of a cart or its parts clearly distinguishes the respective grave from the others.

The social assessment is made more difficult by the fact that it cannot be ruled out that at least some of the wagons were specially made for the funeral, as some of the wheels showed no signs of use.

literature

• A. Häusler: On the oldest history of bicycles and wagons in the northern Pontic region . In: Ethnographic-Archaeological Journal. 22, 1981, pp. 581-647.
• MA Tureckij: Chariot graves of the cultures of burial times in the steppe area of ​​Eastern Europe. In: M. Fansa, S. Burmeister (Ed.): Rad und Wagen. 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3322-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ see also: Jürgen E. Walkowitz: Logistics in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic. In: Varia Neolithica IV. 2006, ISBN 3-937517-43-X , pp. 123-151.