Srubnaya culture

The Srubnaya culture (Russian: Сру́бная культу́ра, romanized: Srubnaya kultura, lit. 'log house culture'), also known as Timber-grave culture, was a Late Bronze Age (18th–12th centuries BC) culture[1] in the eastern part of Pontic-Caspian steppe.

Srubnaya culture
Geographical rangePontic steppe
PeriodBronze Age
Datesca. 1800–1200 BC
Preceded byCatacomb culture
Followed byCimmerians and Scythians
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Name

The name comes from Russian сруб (srub), "timber framework", from the way graves were constructed. Animal parts were buried with the body.

Origins

The Srubnaya culture is a successor of the Yamna culture, Catacomb culture and Poltavka culture. It is co-ordinate and probably closely related to the Andronovo culture, its eastern neighbor.[1]

Whether the Srubnaya culture originated in the east, west, or was a local development, is disputed among archaeologists.[1]

Distribution

The Srubnaya culture occupied the area along and above the north shore of the Black Sea from the Dnieper eastwards along the northern base of the Caucasus to the area abutting the north shore of the Caspian Sea, west of the Ural Mountains.[1]

Historical testimony indicate that the Srubnaya culture was succeeded by the Cimmerians and Scythians.[1]

Characteristics

The Srubnaya culture is named for its use of timber constructions within its burial pits. Its cemeteries consisted of five to ten kurgans. Burials included the skulls and forelegs of animals and ritual hearths. Stone cists were occasionally employed in addition to stone cists.[1]

Srubnaya settlements consisted of semi-subterranean and two-roomed houses. The presence of bronze sickles, grinding stones, domestic cattle, sheep and pigs indicate that the Srubnaya engaged in both agriculture and stockbreeding.[1]

Language

The Srubnaya culture is generally considered to have been Iranian. It has been suggested as a staging area from which the Iranian peoples migrated across the Caucasus into the Iranian Plateau.[1]

Physical type

Physical remains of Srubnaya people have has revealed that they were massively built Europoids with largely dolichocephalic skulls. Skulls from the early (Pokrovskiy) phase of Srubnaya are purely dolichocephalic, and very similar to those of the earlier Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture, Abashevo culture and Sintashta culture, and the western areas of the contemporary Andronovo culture. They differ from the less dolichocephalic skulls of the Potapovka culture.[lower-alpha 1]

With the expansion of the Srubnaya culture onto the southern steppe, Srubnaya skulls become less dolichocephalic, probably through the absorption of elements from the earlier Yamnaya culture and Poltavka culture. In later phases however, dolichocephaly increases again among the Srubnaya.[lower-alpha 1]

The physical type of the Srubnaya is very similar to that of the succeeding Scythians, suggesting that the Scythians were largely descended from the Srubnaya.[lower-alpha 1]

Genetics
A reconstructed hut of the Srubnaya culture.

In a study published on 10 October 2015,[3] 14 individuals of the Srubnaya culture could be surveyed. Extractions from 100% of the males (six men from 5 different cemeteries) were determined to be of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1. Extractions of mtDNA from fourteen individuals were determined to represent five samples of haplogroup H, four samples of haplogroup U5, two samples of T1, one sample of T2, one sample of K1b, one of J2b and one of I1a. The list of 14 surveyed individuals:

  • Kurgan burials at Spiridonovka IV cemetery:
    • kurgan 1, grave 11, sample I0360, male - Y-DNA R1a1 (SRY1532.2) and mtDNA U5a1
    • kurgan 2, grave 5, sample I0361, male - Y-DNA R1a1a (M17) and mtDNA H5b
    • kurgan 1, grave 6, sample I0359, female - mtDNA U5a2a1
    • kurgan 1, grave 15, sample I0354, female - mtDNA U5a1
    • kurgan 2, grave 1, sample I0358, female - mtDNA H6a1a
  • Kurgan burials at Spiridonovka II cemetery:
    • kurgan 1, grave 1, sample I0430, male - Y-DNA R1a1a1b2a2a (Z2123) and mtDNA H3g
    • kurgan 1, grave 2, sample I0431, female - mtDNA H2b
    • kurgan 11, grave 12, sample I0421, female - mtDNA H3g
  • Kurgan burials at Barinovka I cemetery:
    • kurgan 2, grave 17, sample I0423, male - R1a1a1b2 (Z93) and mtDNA J2b1a2a
    • kurgan 2, grave 24, sample I0422, female - mtDNA type T1a1
  • Kurgan burials at Novosel’ki cemetery:
    • kurgan 6, grave 4, sample I0232, male - R1a1a1b2 (Z93), mtDNA U5a1f2
  • Kurgan burials at Uvarovka I cemetery:
    • kurgan 2, grave 1, sample I0424, male - R1a1a1b2 (Z93); mtDNA T2b4
  • Kurgan burials at Rozhdestvenno I cemetery:
    • kurgan 5 grave 7, sample I0234, female - mtDNA K1b2a
    • kurgan 4 grave 4, skeleton 2, sample I0235, female - mtDNA I1a1

Another 2017 genetic study, published in Scientific Reports, found that the Scythians shared similar mitochondrial lineages with the Srubnaya culture. The authors of the study suggested that the Srubnaya culture was ancestral to the Scythians.[4]

In 2018, a genetic study of the earlier Srubnaya culture, and later peoples of the Scythian cultures, including the Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, was published in Science Advances. Six males from two sites ascribed to the Srubnaya culture were analysed, and were all found to possess haplogroup R1a1a1. Cimmerian, Sarmatian and Scythian males were however found have mostly haplogroup R1b1a1a2, although one Sarmatian male carried haplogroup R1a1a1. The authors of the study suggested that rather than being ancestral to the Scythians, the Srubnaya shared with them a common origin from the earlier Yamnaya culture.[5]

In a genetic study published in Science in 2018, the remains of twelve individuals ascribed to the Srubnaya culture was analyzed. Of the six samples of Y-DNA extracted, three belonged to R1a1a1b2 or subclades of it, one belonged to R1, one belonged to R1a1, and one belonged to R1a1a. With regards to mtDNA, five samples belonged to subclades of U, five belonged to subclades of H, and two belonged to subclades of T. People of the Srubnaya culture were found to be closely related to people of the Corded Ware culture, the Sintashta culture, Potapovka culture and the Andronovo culture.[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3] These were found to harbor mixed ancestry from the Yamnaya culture and peoples of the Central European Middle Neolithic.[6] The genetic data suggested that these cultures were ultimately derived of a remigration of Central European peoples with steppe ancestry back into the steppe.[lower-alpha 4]

Notes
  1. "[M]assive broad-faced proto-Europoid type is a trait of post-Mariupol’ cultures, Sredniy Stog, as well as the Pit-grave culture of the Dnieper’s left bank, the Donets, and Don... During the period of the Timber-grave culture the population of the Ukraine was represented by the medium type between the dolichocephalous narrow-faced population of the Multi-roller Ware culture (Babino) and the more massive broad-faced population of the Timber-grave culture of the Volga region... The anthropological data confirm the existence of an impetus from the Volga region to the Ukraine in the formation of the Timber-grave culture. During the Belozerka stage the dolichocranial narrow-faced type became the prevalent one. A close affinity among the skulls of the Timber-grave, Belozerka, and Scythian cultures of the Pontic steppes, on the one hand, and of the same cultures of the forest-steppe region, on the other, has been shown... This proves the genetical continuity between the Iranian-speeking Scythian population and the previous Timber-grave culture population in the Ukraine... The heir of the Neolithic Dnieper-Donets and Sredniy Stog cultures was the Pit-grave culture. Its population possessed distinct Europoid features, was tall, with massive skulls... The tribes of the Abashevo culture appear in the forest-steppe zone, almost simultaneously with the Poltavka culture. The Abashevans are marked by dolichocephaly and narrow faces. This population had its roots in the Balanovo and Fatyanovo cultures on the Middle Volga, and in Central Europe... [T]he early Timber-grave culture (the Potapovka) population was the result of the mixing of different components. One type was massive, and its predecessor was the Pit-grave-Poltavka type. The second type was a dolichocephalous Europoid type genetically related to the Sintashta population... One more participant of the ethno-cultural processes in the steppes was that of the tribes of the Pokrovskiy type. They were dolichocephalous narrow-faced Europoids akin to the Abashevans and different from the Potapovkans... The majority of Timber-grave culture skulls are dolichocranic with middle-broad faces. They evidence the significant role of Pit-grave and Poltavka components in the Timber-grave culture population... One may assume a genetic connection between the populations of the Timber-grave culture of the Urals region and the Alakul’ culture of the Urals and West Kazakhstan belonging to a dolichocephalous narrow-face type with the population of the Sintashta culture... [T]he western part of the Andronovo culture population belongs to the dolichocranic type akin to that of the Timber-grave culture.[2]
  2. "We observed a main cluster of Sintashta individuals that was similar to Srubnaya, Potapovka, and Andronovo in being well modeled as a mixture of Yamnaya-related and Anatolian Neolithic (European agriculturalist-related) ancestry."[6]
  3. "Genetic analysis indicates that the individuals in our study classified as falling within the Andronovo complex are genetically similar to the main clusters of Potapovka, Sintashta, and Srubnaya in being well modeled as a mixture of Yamnaya-related and early European agriculturalist-related or Anatolian agriculturalist-related ancestry."[6]
  4. "Corded Ware, Srubnaya, Petrovka, Sintashta and Andronovo complexes, all of which harbored a mixture of Steppe_EMBA ancestry and ancestry from European Middle Neolithic agriculturalists (Europe_MN). This is consistent with previous findings showing that following westward movement of eastern European populations and mixture with local European agriculturalists, there was an eastward reflux back beyond the Urals."[6]

References
  1. Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 541–542
  2. Kuzmina 2007, pp. 383-385.
  3. Mathieson 2015.
  4. Juras, Anna (March 7, 2017). "Diverse origin of mitochondrial lineages in Iron Age Black Sea Scythians". Nature Communications. 7: 43950. doi:10.1038/srep43950. PMC 5339713. PMID 28266657.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  5. Krzewińska, Maja (October 3, 2018). "Ancient genomes suggest the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe as the source of western Iron Age nomads". Nature Communications. 4 (10): eaat4457. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aat4457. PMC 6223350. PMID 30417088.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. Narasimhan 2019.

Bibliography
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