Sredny Stog culture
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| Geographical range | Ukraine, Russia |
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| Period | Chalcolithic Europe |
| Dates | c. 4500 BC – 3500 BC |
| Preceded by | Dnieper-Donets culture |
| Followed by | Cernavodă culture, Yamnaya culture, Suvorovo culture, Novodanilovka group |
| Part of a series on |
| Indo-European topics |
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The Sredny Stog culture (Ukrainian: Середньостогівська культура) is a pre-Kurgan archaeological culture from the 5th millennium BC. It is named after the Russian term for the Dnieper river islet of today's Seredny Stih, Ukraine, where it was first located.
Distribution[]
The Sredny Stog culture was situated across the Dnieper river on both its shores, with sporadic settlements to the west and east.[1]
The Sredny Stog culture seems to have had contact with the agricultural Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the west and was a contemporary of the Khvalynsk culture, to the north-east.
Sites[]
One of the best known sites associated with this culture is Dereivka (Russian term), located on the right bank of the Omelnik, a tributary of the Dnieper, and is the most impressive site within the Sredny Stog culture complex, being about 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) in area.
Characteristics[]
The Sredny Stog people lived rather mobile lives. This was seen in their temporary settlements, particularly their dwellings, which were simple rectilinear structures.[2]
The expert has divided the chronology of Sredny Stog into two distinct phases. Phase II (ca. 4000–3500 BC) used corded ware pottery which may have originated there, and stone battle-axes of the type later associated with expanding Indo-European cultures to the West. Most notably, it has perhaps the earliest evidence of horse domestication (in phase II), with finds suggestive of cheek-pieces (). However, there is no conclusive proof that those horses were used for riding since they were mainly employed for gathering food.[3]
Burials[]
In its three largest cemeteries, Alexandria (39 individuals), Igren (17) and Dereivka (14), evidence of inhumation in flat graves (ground level pits) has been found.[4] This parallels the practise of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, and is in contrast with the later Yamna culture, which practiced tumuli burials.
In Sredny Stog culture, the deceased were laid to rest on their backs with the legs flexed. The use of ochre in the burial was practiced, as with the kurgan cultures. For this and other reasons, Yuri Rassamakin suggests that the Sredny Stog culture should be considered as an areal term, with at least four distinct cultural elements co-existing inside the same geographical area.
Language[]
In the context of the modified Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, this pre-kurgan archaeological culture could represent the Urheimat (homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language.
Physical type[]
Examination of physical remains of the Sredny Stog people has determined that they were Europoid. A similar physical type prevails among the Yamnaya, who were tall and powerfully built. People of the neighboring Khvalynsk culture were less powerfully built.[a] People of the preceding Dnieper-Donets culture were even more powerfully built than the Sredny Stog and Yamnaya.[6]
Genetics[]
Mathieson et al. (2018) included a genetic analysis of a male buried at Aleksandriya, Kupryansk (Ukraine) ca. 4000 BC.[7], ascribed to the Sredny Stog culture.[8] He was found to be carrying the paternal haplogroup R1a1a1, and the maternal haplogroup H2a1a.[7] He carried about 80% Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry and about 20% Early European Farmer (EEF) ancestry.[8] This Sredny Stog male was thought to be the first steppe individual found to have been carrying EEF ancestry. As a carrier of the 13910 allele, he was supposed to be the earliest individual ever examined who has had a genetic adaptation to lactase persistence.[9] However, the recent publication by David Reich Lab, October 2021, redated the remains of this Aleksandriya individual to 2134-1950 cal BC,[10] which could actually belong to Srubnaya culture period, as Haplotree Information Project considers this sample I6561 is from around 3650 ybp (c. 1700 BC), and belongs to Y-DNA R1a-F2597*, corresponding to R1a-Y3.[11] The WSH genetic cluster was a result of mixing between Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHGs) from Eastern Europe and Caucasian Hunter-Gatherers (CHGs). This mixing appears to have happened on the eastern Pontic–Caspian steppe starting around 5,000 BC.[8]
The WSH ancestry found in the Sredny Stog culture is similar to that of the Khvalynsk culture, among whom there was no EEF admixture. Males of the Khvalynsk culture carried primarily the paternal haplogroup R1b, although a few samples of R1a, I2a2, Q1a and J have been detected. Succeeding Yamnaya males however, have been found to have carried only R1b and I2. This is similar to the males of the Dnieper-Donets culture, who carried R and I only and were exclusively EHGs with Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) admixture. The results suggest that the Yamnaya emerged through mixing between EHG and WHG males, and EEF and CHG females. This implies that the leading clans of the Yamnaya were of EHG paternal origin.[9] On this basis, David W. Anthony argues that the Indo-European languages were originally spoken by EHGs.[12]
Successors[]
The culture ended at around 3500 BC, when the Yamna culture expanded westward replacing Sredny Stog, and coming into direct contact with the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the western Ukraine.
Notes[]
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- ^ "[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. The features of this type are somewhat moderated in the western part of the steppe... All the anthropological types of the Pit-grave culture population have indigenous roots... 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 second component were the descendants of those buried in the Eneolithic cemetery of Khvalynsk. They are less robust."[5]
References[]
- ^ J. P. Mallory, In the search of Indo-Europeans, 1989 p. 198, Distribution of the Sredny Stog and Novodanilovka sites
- ^ Bailey, Douglass (2002). Balkan Prehistory: Exclusion, Incorporation and Identity. London: Routledge. pp. 258. ISBN 0415215978.
- ^ Fortson IV, Benjamin (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Second Edition. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 48. ISBN 9781405188951.
- ^ The Journal of Indo-European studies, Vol 18, p. 18
- ^ Kuzmina 2007, pp. 383–384.
- ^ Mallory 1991, p. 201.
- ^ a b Mathieson 2018.
- ^ a b c Anthony 2019a, pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b Anthony 2019b, pp. 36–37.
- ^ David Reich Lab, (October 2021), "Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR): Downloadable genotypes of present-day and ancient DNA data", (.anno file), Sample No. 5935, individual I6561.
- ^ Haplotree Information Project (HIP). "I6561-Aleksandria", Retrieved: 31 December 2021.
- ^ Anthony 2019a, pp. 13–19.
Sources[]
- Anthony, David (Spring–Summer 2019a). "Archaeology, Genetics, and Language in the Steppes: A Comment on Bomhard". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 47 (1–2). Retrieved January 9, 2020.
- Anthony, David W. (2019b). "Ancient DNA, Mating Networks, and the Anatolian Split". In Serangeli, Matilde; Olander, Thomas (eds.). Dispersals and Diversification: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European. BRILL. pp. 21–54. ISBN 978-9004416192.
- Kuzmina, Elena E. (2007). Mallory, J. P. (ed.). The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004160545.
- Mallory, J. P. (1991). In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language Archeology and Myth. Thames & Hudson.
- J. P. Mallory, "Sredny Stog Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
- Mathieson, Iain (February 21, 2018). "The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe". Nature. Nature Research. 555 (7695): 197–203. Bibcode:2018Natur.555..197M. doi:10.1038/nature25778. PMC 6091220. PMID 29466330.
- Archaeological cultures of Eastern Europe
- Chalcolithic cultures of Europe
- Archaeological cultures in Ukraine
- Archaeological cultures in Russia
- History of Zaporizhzhia