The Berezhnov-Mayev log-house culture (XVII XII centuries BC) is widespread in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from Ingulets to the Volga. The eponymous monuments are the Berezhnovsky burial mound in the Volga region and the Mayevsky burial ground near the city of Dnepropetrovsk. In the 70s of the XX century N.K. Kachalova was allocated Berezhnovsky type of monuments, and I.F. Kovaleva Mayevsky. The general features of the funeral rite allowed V.V. Otroshchenko to combine both types into a separate Berezhnov-Mayev culture as part of the felling cultural-historical community. Yu. M. Brovender singles out the Stepan type of monuments among her. It was formed on the basis of the Babin and Pokrovskaya log cabin crops. Monuments are represented by settlements, mounds and soil burial grounds, mines, workshops, treasures and random finds. The settlements were located in close proximity to the rivers on small elevations. The dwellings are represented by dugouts, half dugouts and ground buildings with stone foundations of walls. For heating homes used foci. Funeral monuments are represented by barrows and soil burial grounds. Mound necropolises are located mainly on terraces or elevations along river banks, less often on watersheds. A small number of embankments are included, usually with several fillings. The construction of long barrows was practiced. The deceased were buried mainly in sub-rectangular pits, sometimes stone crates, in log cabins in a crouched position on the left side, head to the east. Cremation is also known. Soil cemeteries of the Berezhnovo-Mayev culture are located mainly on the edges of the indigenous coasts, the first floodplain terraces and on small natural elevations in the floodplain in the immediate vicinity of the rivers and their synchronous settlements. Burials are represented by inhumations and cremations. Burials according to the rite of inhumation took place in sub-rectangular pits and stone boxes. Burials in log cabins on the territory of soil burial grounds were not recorded. The deceased were in a crouched position on their left side, head to the east. Cremations are represented by burials in urn vessels and in small soil pits. Vessels act as funerary equipment, metal products are less common.
Ceramics is represented by cans, pot-like and jagged vessels with geometric patterns in the form of horizontal and inclined lines, flutes, zigzags, Christmas trees and other geometric shapes.Sometimes on vessels, mainly in their upper part, string ornament and various signs in the form of crosses, solar signs, rectangles, schematic anthropomorphic and zoomorphic images are found. Already at a later time, a swastika and meander pattern begins to be depicted. A number of researchers see them as primitive pictographic writing. The content of these signs has not yet been deciphered. In burials there is also wooden cult ware, sometimes with bronze shackles. Tools and weapons made of stone are represented by a variety of axes and maces, scrapers, hammers, knives, anvils, ore graters and abrasives. Bone products are widespread: psalms, awls, veneers, punctures, needles, knitting needles, arrowheads. Metal tools are represented by axes, sickles, telescopes and chisels, punctures, needles, cuttings knives with highlighted crosshairs and daggers with an annular emphasis.
Metal jewelry is also widespread: rings, temporal lobed rings, wire pendants, spiral bracelets, and open bracelets with a double volute. Voluta, appears in the form of hairpins and images. The basis of the economy was stall and cattle breeding, which complemented agriculture. Ethnically, the carriers of the Berezhnovo-Mayev culture represent the Iranian-speaking group of the Indo-European language family. Recently, a scientific discussion has been actively conducted regarding the upper chronological limit of the felling cultural-historical community.. Berestnev S. I. in his work Felling culture of the Forest-Steppe Left Bank of Ukraine extends its existence until the 9th 8th centuries BC, that is, the Cimmerian Scythian culture replaces the felling culture.
Decontamination of the dead
Gubin A.S. in his article, Non-ordinary burials of the Burial Culture of the Ural-Volga Region, writes that according to the excavations in the Ural-Volga region, and by studying the materials of excavations of the burial sites of the log-timber culture, it was possible to establish that 7 out of 30 cases were found with signs of neutralization (23, 3%). The term neutralization by Gubin means the deliberate mutilation of a corpse: cutting off the head, limbs, and other parts of the body. A burial with an absent skull was recorded at the Kachkin burial ground (burial mound No. 15 burial No. 1); here, in the burial No. 1 of burial mound No. 20, the skull was present, but was located 50 cm to the north of the shelf [5: 13]. In the solitary burial of the mound No. 37 of the Staro-Yabalaklinsky burial ground there were no arm bones, and in the teenage burial No. 1 of the mound No. 104, the skeleton, feet, and skull were absent from the bone [6: 47]. Gubin notes that the inventory was present in all burials with signs of neutralization.
Culture
The type of economy of the carriers of the log-house cultural-historical community was mainly based on stall and distant cattle breeding, which partially supplemented the agriculture among the population of the Berezhnovo-Mayev log-house culture. In the Dnieper-Donetsk interfluve, isolated grains of cultivated cereals were discovered, which indicates the presence of floodplain agriculture in the economy of the Srubny tribes. In the Ciscaucasia and Caspian steppes and semi-deserts, semi-nomadic pastoralism may have been practiced. Nevertheless, the basis of the economy of the settled log-house population of the Late Bronze Age was stall and distant cattle breeding. Cattle breeding was a priority; horses accounted for a smaller percentage in the herd. Mining and metallurgical production, which was based on the copper sandstones of the Urals (Kargalinskoye deposit) and the Donetsk Ridge (Bakhmutskoye deposit), played an important role in the economy of the demographic cultural and historical community, and ore occurrences of the Middle Volga region were also used. The basic production of metal products was mainly located in several towns of foundry metallurgists Usovo Lake (Podonechie), Mosolovka (Podonye), Lipovy Gully (Middle Volga), Gorny 1 (Cisurals).
The tools necessary for metalworking are represented by axes, hammers, hammers, ore graters, flat and grooved chisels and chisels, cut-type knives and daggers. In the late Srubnaya time, logging blacksmiths master the secret of obtaining critical iron, from which the first few products, mainly small in size and weak in manufacturing quality, are forged. There are jewelry made of gold.
The lack of written sources significantly complicates the solution of the issue of ethnicity of the tribes of the Srubnaya cultural and historical community of the Late Bronze Age. Thus, the main method for determining ethnicity is to establish a relationship between the range of the tribes of the Srubnaya community and the spread of Indo-Iranian hydronyms and toponyms. Their pre-Scythian origin was convincingly proved by the linguist V.I. Abaev. Later, N. L. Chlenova traced the Iranian hydronyms in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from the Dnieper to the Ob, which completely coincided with the distribution area of the Srub and Andronovo cultural and historical communities and proved their belonging to the Iranian-speaking group of the Indo-European language family.
According to V.V. Napolsky, borrowings in the Finno-Ugric languages indicate that native speakers of the steppe cultures of the Bronze Age spoke the language of the Indo-Aryan type.Such attribution, as evidenced by the phonetics of borrowing, has traditionally been rejected for historical reasons. East Iranian speech spread only in the steppe with the culture of roll ceramics at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Carriers of the carcass culture chronologically preceded the Scythians and Cimmerians. For this reason, the carcass culture is often regarded as an archaeological analogue of the first Iranian dialects of the Northern Black Sea region. In other words, culture bearers are predecessors of the Scythians and their kindred peoples. However, there is another point of view: the area of the Srubnaya culture is the bridgehead from which the migration of ancient Iranians to the north-west of modern Iran took place. According to this point of view, semi-nomadic cattle-breeding tribes of the Srubnaya and Andronovo cultural and historical communities represent the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family at an early stage of its development.The early and middle phases of the late Bronze Age era in Eastern Europe coincide with favorable climatic conditions mostly wet and warm weather. There is a sharp rise in the producing forms of farming. Accordingly, in the XVIII XIII centuries BC, there was a maximum population density in all regions of the East European steppe and forest-steppe. A log-cultural and historical community is born, which was destined to complete the tradition of the formation of great ethnocultural associations in Eastern Europe in the Bronze Age. The demographic explosion in the environment of the logging community, the peak of which occurs in the forest-steppe in the XVI XV centuries BC, and in the steppe in the XIV XIII centuries BC, led to the depletion of natural resources and the collapse of the log-cultural and historical community.
The lack of written sources significantly complicates the solution of the issue of ethnicity of the tribes of the Srubnaya cultural and historical community of the Late Bronze Age. Thus, the main method for determining ethnicity is to establish a relationship between the range of the tribes of the Srubnaya community and the spread of Indo-Iranian hydronyms and toponyms. Their pre-Scythian origin was convincingly proved by the linguist V.I. Abaev. Later, N. L. Chlenova traced the Iranian hydronyms in the steppe and forest-steppe zone from the Dnieper to the Ob, which completely coincided with the distribution area of the Srub and Andronovo cultural and historical communities and proved their belonging to the Iranian-speaking group of the Indo-European language family.
According to V.V. Napolsky, borrowings in the Finno-Ugric languages indicate that native speakers of the steppe cultures of the Bronze Age spoke the language of the Indo-Aryan type.Such attribution, as evidenced by the phonetics of borrowing, has traditionally been rejected for historical reasons. East Iranian speech spread only in the steppe with the culture of roll ceramics at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Carriers of the carcass culture chronologically preceded the Scythians and Cimmerians. For this reason, the carcass culture is often regarded as an archaeological analogue of the first Iranian dialects of the Northern Black Sea region. In other words, culture bearers are predecessors of the Scythians and their kindred peoples. However, there is another point of view: the area of the Srubnaya culture is the bridgehead from which the migration of ancient Iranians to the north-west of modern Iran took place. According to this point of view, semi-nomadic cattle-breeding tribes of the Srubnaya and Andronovo cultural and historical communities represent the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family at an early stage of its development.The early and middle phases of the late Bronze Age era in Eastern Europe coincide with favorable climatic conditions mostly wet and warm weather. There is a sharp rise in the producing forms of farming. Accordingly, in the XVIII XIII centuries BC, there was a maximum population density in all regions of the East European steppe and forest-steppe. A log-cultural and historical community is born, which was destined to complete the tradition of the formation of great ethnocultural associations in Eastern Europe in the Bronze Age. The demographic explosion in the environment of the logging community, the peak of which occurs in the forest-steppe in the XVI XV centuries BC, and in the steppe in the XIV XIII centuries BC, led to the depletion of natural resources and the collapse of the log-cultural and historical community.
Aridization (desiccation) of the climate at the end of the Bronze Age (11th 8th centuries BC) led to the degradation and disappearance of the carcass culture.
Changing climatic conditions for dry and cool weather, together with total overpopulation, led to disastrous consequences. The population is sharply reduced, which according to archaeological data is recorded in a decrease in the number of settlements and their cultural transformation. Carriers of the carcass cultural and historical community took a direct part in the formation of the Belozersk and Bondarikha cultures of the final stage of the Bronze Age and had a noticeable effect on the population of the forest strip of Eastern Europe in the person of the Late Pinnacle and ordered cultures.
Pozdnyakovskaya culture, swastika pattern, SHM
Abashevskaya culture
By the middle of II millennium BC. e. In the forest-steppe zop of Eastern Europe, the Abashevsk cultural and historical community formed mainly of the cattle-breeding population, the monuments of which are now known on the territory from the left bank of the Dnieper in the west (the Desna and Seym basins) to the river. Tobol in the east, and the chronological limits are determined by the second third quarter of II millennium BC. e. The study of Abashev antiquities dates back more than 100 years (Pryakhin, 1981). Abashev culture itself was first isolated only after the excavation of prof. V.F.Smolin in 1925 of the Abashevsky burial ground in the territory of Chuvashia (Smolin, 1928; Smoline, 1927). Intensive studies of the Abashev burial grounds on the territory of the Chuvash Republic and the Mari ASSR in the post-war decades (Merpert, 1961; Halikov, Lebedinskaya, Gerasimova, 1966a) gradually outlined the idea of Abashev culture in the Middle Volga region and determined the comprehension of all Abashev antiquities (Yevtyukhov, 1964;. N., 1961; Halikov, 1966).
People of Abashevskaya culture are mainly engaged in cattle-breeding with subordinate importance of agriculture. The herd was dominated by cattle with a significant role of small cattle. The latter is especially characteristic for the early stage of development of this population and for those groups of Abashevists who continued to maintain a certain mobility at a later time. Separate groups in the late Abashev time show a tendency to the development of settled cattle-breeding and farming (the appearance of significant long-term villages, the presence of pig bones in these settlements, an increase in the number of evidence of farming, etc.) a whole group of the late Abashev villages in the lower reaches of the river is especially indicative. Voronezh. There are horses in the herd of this population. In the more northern regions, on the territory of the modern Mari-Chuvash Volga region, the Abashev population was more mobile and, obviously, was more involved in pastoral cattle breeding. But I must say that in this region, and even now, people have always been engaged mainly in dairy cattle breeding, which did not make them nomads. In modern Finland, agriculture is also predominantly occupied by dairy farming, which does not make them nomads. The level of development of livestock breeding has led to wide opportunities for the use of livestock by Abashevites for transport and military purposes. The latter, in turn, not only contributed to their distribution over significant territories, but also was one of the conditions for the formation of a huge cultural and historical community. Here you need to understand the specifics of cow breeding and their needs, the abundance of water and grass, and in addition, the cow loves to sit in the water in the summer, escaping from gadfly. It was among the Abashevites, especially at the late stage of their development, that disc-shaped psalms with spikes became widespread, the most impressive are two ivory-ornamented psalms from the main burial of the mound 2 of the Old Yuryevsky burial ground in the Upper Don region. The finds of such psalms record the first appearance of chariot transport in the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe (Pryakhin, 1972, p. 238; 1976 a, p. 124; Cherednichenko, 1976, p. 147 148; Smirnov, Kuzmina, 1977, p. 42 45,) The very fact of using disk-shaped psalies in the harness of chariots was undeniably confirmed during excavations of the Sintashta burial ground in the Trans-Urals, in the burials of which it was possible to trace the remains of such chariots themselves (Gening, 1977, p. 59, 66).
This population was the first in a sufficiently large volume to begin the development of the Ural copper deposits, especially the Trans-Ural copper deposits Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye, using the copper sandstones of the Urals, as well as the Volga region (Salnikov, 1962; Chernykh, 1964; 1970, p. 27 28, 108111, etc.). Abashevsky masters developed their form of tools, weapons, and jewelry. The Abashevites are known for lamellar implements (knives, sickles, brackets) that have different functional purposes, their types of bent-axes: Kamsky, according to B. G. Tikhonov (Tikhonov, 1960, pp. 5962), narrow-billed, according to E. N. Chernykh (Chernykh, 1970, p. 58, fig. 50), Abashevsky, according to S. A. Korenevsky (Korenevsky, 1973, p. 4447, fig. 4), flat tesel axes, according to B. G. Tikhonov (Tikhonov, 1960, p. 66), type of elongated tesel axes with an expanded heel, according to E.N. Chernykh (Chernykh, 1970, p. 62), forged tip tips with an open sleeve, several varieties of knives and daggers, etc.. Abashevo masters produced petaloid plaques, rosettes, bracelets, which have not closed, often priostrennye ends, small grooved suspension and so on. D. For abashevtsev characteristic rich decoration of clothes, especially headgear, sewed small semicircular plaques wire pronizkami and other ornaments.