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84-666: The Scytho-Siberian world was an archaeological horizon that flourished across the entire Eurasian Steppe during the Iron Age , from approximately the 9th century BC to the 2nd century AD. It included the Scythian , Sauromatian and Sarmatian cultures of Eastern Europe , the Saka - Massagetae and Tasmola cultures of Central Asia , and the Aldy-Bel , Pazyryk and Tagar cultures of south Siberia . The Scythian-Siberian world

168-474: A supine position with bent knees and covered in ochre . Some kurgans contained "stratified sequences of graves". Kurgan burials may have been rare, and were perhaps reserved for special adults, who were predominantly, but not necessarily, male. Status and gender are marked by grave goods and position, and in some areas, elite individuals are buried with complete wooden wagons. Grave goods are more common in eastern Yamnaya burials, which are also characterized by

252-848: A "multi-regional origin" of the eastern Iron Age Scythians. Eastern Scythians share partial ancestry with contemporary Turkic, Mongolian, and Siberian groups in eastern Eurasia, while evidence of genetic affinity with Scythians is strongest among modern speakers of the Kipchak languages . There is increasing evidence for a partial continuity from the eastern Scythians to the Turkic-speakers of the Altai region, as well as modern Uralic and Paleosiberian peoples . Turkic-speaking Central Asians can be described as having formed from admixture between Scythian-like groups, displaying their highest genetic affinity to modern day Tajiks , and "Eastern Steppe Xiongnu " groups during

336-523: A Saka-associated sample from southeastern Kazakhstan (Konyr Tobe 300CE) displaying around 85% Sarmatian and 15% BMAC ancestry. Sarmatians are modeled to derive primarily from the preceding Western Steppe Herders of the Pontic–Caspian steppe . This section lists the findings of genetic studies of the remains excavated in western Asia and eastern Europe ascribed to one of the Scythian cultures . Initially,

420-421: A West Eurasian haplogroup. In contrast to the paternal lineages, the maternal lineages were extremely diverse. The most common lineages were variants of haplogroup C4 . Mary, et al. (2019) also determined the paternal haplogroups of 16 Siberian Scythian males of the Aldy-Bel culture . 56.2% of the haplogroups belonged to varieties of haplogroup R1a . On the other hand, 31.2% belonged to haplogroup Q1b , which

504-536: A West-to-East cline, with Eastern Scythians having higher genetic diversity. Eastern Scythians around the Altai Mountains were of multiple origins and originated from an admixture event in the Bronze Age . The Eastern Scythians genetically formed from mixture between Steppe_MLBA sources (which could be associated with different cultures such as Sintashta, Srubnaya, and Andronovo) and a specific East Eurasian source that

588-570: A break in contexts formed in the Harris matrix , which denotes a change in epoch on a given site by delineation in time of finds found within contexts . An example of a horizon is the dark earth horizon in England, which separates Roman artefacts from medieval artefacts and which may indicate the abandonment of urban areas in Roman Britain during the 2nd to 5th centuries. The term "archaeological horizon"

672-431: A higher proportion of male burials and more male-centred rituals than western areas. The Yamnaya culture had and used two-wheeled carts and four-wheeled wagons, which are thought to have been oxen-drawn at this time, and there is evidence that they rode horses. For instance, several Yamnaya skeletons exhibit specific characteristics in their bone morphology that may have been caused by long-term horseriding. The evidence

756-478: A lot of confusion in literature. Nicola Di Cosmo (1999) questions the validity of referring to the cultures of all early Eurasian nomads as "Scythian", and recommends the use of alternative terms such as Early Nomadic . By ancient authors, the term "Scythian" eventually came to be applied to a wide range of peoples "who had no relation whatever to the original Scythians", such as Huns , Goths, Turks , Avars , Khazars , and other unnamed nomads. The cultures of

840-696: A mixture of Eastern and West Eurasian lineages, with increasing East Asian admixture in the Iron Age. In Western Scythians, West Eurasian maternal lineages are 62.5-74% of the total, while East Eurasian maternal lineages are 26-37%. In a sample of Eastern Scythians from Tuva, the maternal lineages are nearly equally divided between Western and East Eurasian sources. The Scythians represent a "multitude of horse-warrior nomad" groups, which emerged from Bronze and Iron Age Central Asians ( Western Steppe Herders or "Steppe_MLBA") who admixed with an East Asian-derived population represented by Khövsgöl LBA groups, giving rise to

924-562: A population of " Caucasus hunter-gatherers " (CHG) who probably arrived from the Caucasus or Iran. Each of those two populations contributed about half the Yamnaya DNA. This admixture is referred to in archaeogenetics as Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry. Admixture between EHGs and CHGs is believed to have occurred on the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe starting around 5,000 BC, while admixture with Early European Farmers (EEF) happened in

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1008-676: A warlike life: Their competition for territory must have been fierce. The numerous weapons placed in graves are indicative of a highly militarized society. Scythian warfare was primarily conducted through mounted archery . They were the first great power to perfect this tactic. The Scythians developed a new, powerful type of bow known as the Scythian bow . Sometimes they would poison their arrows. The Scythians were tall and powerfully built, even by modern standards. Skeletons of Scythian elites differ from those of modern people by their longer arms and legs, and stronger bone formation. Commoners were shorter, averaging 10–15 cm (4–6 in) shorter than

1092-530: Is disputed by archaeozoologist William T. Taylor, who argues that domestication of the horse long postdates the Yamnaya culture. Metallurgists and other craftsmen are given a special status in Yamnaya society, and metal objects are sometimes found in large quantities in elite graves. New metalworking technologies and weapon designs are used. Stable isotope ratios of Yamna individuals from the Dnipro Valley suggest

1176-614: Is needed to confirm this observation. In terms of paternal haplogroups , most Western Scythian remains from the North Pontic region have been observed to carry a specific clade haplogroup R1b , which distinguishes them from Eastern Scythians, who generally exhibited haplogroup haplogroup R1a , as well as other haplogroups. One Scythian from the Samara region carried R1a-Z93. Unterländer, et al. (2017) found that contemporary descendants of western Scythian groups are found among various groups in

1260-611: Is of particular interest to researchers, as the widely-accepted Kurgan hypothesis posits that the people that produced the Yamnaya culture spoke a stage of the Proto-Indo-European language . The speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language embarked on the Indo-European migrations , that gave rise to the Indo-European languages of today. The Yamnaya culture was defined by Vasily Gorodtsov in order to differentiate it from

1344-491: Is sometimes, and somewhat incorrectly, used in place of the term layer or strata . In the archaeology of the Americas "Horizon" terminology, used as proper names , has become used for schemes of periodization of major periods. "Horizons" are periods of cultural stability and political unity, with "Intermediate periods" covering the politically fragmented transition between them. In the periodization of pre-Columbian Peru and

1428-587: Is the name given in literature to a genetic component that represents descent from the people of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture or a population closely related to them. That genetic component is visible in tests of the Yamnaya people as well as modern-day Europeans. In the Baltic, Jones et al. (2017) found that the Neolithic transition  – the passage from a hunter-gatherer economy to a farming-based economy – coincided with

1512-470: The Bronze Age and early Iron Age . The Scytho-Siberian world quickly came to stretch from the Pannonian Basin in the west to the Altai Mountains in the east. There were, however, significant cultural differences between east and west. Over time they came in contact with other ancient civilizations, such as Assyria , Greece and Persia . In the late 1st millennium BC, peoples belonging to

1596-566: The Catacomb and Srubnaya cultures that existed in the area, but were considered to be of a later period. Due to the time interval to the Yamnaya culture, and the reliance on archaeological findings, debate as to its origin is ongoing. In 1996, Pavel Dolukhanov suggested that the emergence of the Pit-Grave culture represents a social development of various different local Bronze Age cultures, thus representing "an expression of social stratification and

1680-677: The Corded Ware people and the Bell Beaker culture , as well as the peoples of the Sintashta , Andronovo , and Srubnaya cultures. Back migration from Corded Ware also contributed to Sintashta and Andronovo. In these groups, several aspects of the Yamnaya culture are present. Yamnaya material culture was very similar to the Afanasievo culture of South Siberia, and the populations of the two cultures are genetically indistinguishable. This suggests that

1764-511: The Corded Ware culture people, with up to 75% Yamnaya-like ancestry in the DNA of Corded Ware skeletons from Central and Eastern Europe. Yamnaya–related ancestry is found in the DNA of modern Central , and Northern Europeans (c. 38.8–50.4 %), and is also found in lower levels in present-day Southern Europeans (c. 18.5–32.6 %), Sardinians (c. 2.4–7.1 %), and Sicilians (c. 5.9–11.6 %). However, according to Heyd, et al. (2023),

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1848-632: The East Asian mtDNA haplogroup C4 . People of the Yamnaya culture are believed to have had mostly brown eye colour, light to intermediate skin, and brown hair colour, with some variation. Some Yamnaya individuals are believed to have carried a mutation to the KITLG gene associated with blond hair, as several individuals with Steppe ancestry are later found to carry this mutation. The Ancient North Eurasian Afontova Gora group, who contributed significant ancestry to Western Steppe Herders , are believed to be

1932-579: The Eastern Steppe . The term Scytho-Siberians has also been applied to all peoples associated with the Scytho-Siberian world. The terms Early Nomads and Iron Age Nomads have also been used. The terms Saka or Sauromates , and Scytho-Siberians , is sometimes used for the "eastern" Scythians living in Central Asia and southern Siberia respectively. The ambiguity of the term Scythian has led to

2016-601: The Formative stage , Classic stage , and Post-Classic stage cover approximately similar periods. More commonly, lower-case horizons such as an " Olmec horizon" are referred to for the region. Yamnaya West: Catacomb culture , Vučedol culture The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture , also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture , is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of

2100-494: The Indo-European languages were the result of "a dominant language spoken by EHGs that absorbed Caucasus-like elements in phonology, morphology, and lexicon." It has also been suggested that the PIE language evolved through trade interactions in the circum-Pontic area in the 4th millennium BC, mediated by the Yamna predecessors in the North Pontic steppe. Guus Kroonen et al. 2022 found that

2184-632: The Pazyryk burials , which were discovered on the Ukok Plateau in the 1940s. The finds are notably for revealing the form of mummification practiced by the Scythians. Another important find is the Issyk kurgan . The Scythians were excellent craftsmen with complex cultural traditions. Horse sacrifices are common in Scythian graves, and several of the sacrificed horses were evidently old and well-kept, indicating that

2268-600: The Pazyryk culture (Pazyryk Berel), which displayed c. 70-83% additional Ancient Northeast Asian ancestry represented by the Neolithic Devil’s Gate Cave specimen, suggesting them to be recent migrants from further East. The same additional Eastern ancestry is found among the later groups of Huns (Hun Berel 300CE, Hun elite 350CE), and the Karakaba remains (830CE). At the same time, western Sarmatian -like and minor additional BMAC-like ancestry spread eastwards, with

2352-483: The Pontic–Caspian steppes between c.  3400 and 3200  BC : The spread of the Yamnaya horizon was the material expression of the spread of late Proto-Indo-European across the Pontic–Caspian steppes. [...] The Yamnaya horizon is the visible archaeological expression of a social adjustment to high mobility – the invention of the political infrastructure to manage larger herds from mobile homes based in

2436-516: The Scythian branch of the Iranian languages , all of these peoples are sometimes collectively referred to as Scythians , Scytho-Siberians , Early Nomads , or Iron Age Nomads . The Scytho-Siberian world emerged on the Eurasian Steppe at the dawn of the Iron Age in the early 1st millennium BC. Its origins has long been a source of debate among archaeologists. The Pontic–Caspian steppe

2520-471: The Sredny Stog culture , as opposed to the eastern Yamnaya horizon. The Corded Ware culture may have acted as major source for the spread of later Indo-European languages, including Indo-Iranian , while Tocharian languages may have been mediated via the Catacomb culture . They also argue that this new data contradicts a possible earlier origin of Pre-Proto-Indo-European among agricultural societies South of

2604-465: The mtDNA haplogroups C and D increased from 8.7 to 37.8%. Mary, et al. (2019) studied the genetics of remains from the Aldy-Bel culture in and around Tuva in central Asia, adjacent to western Mongolia ; the Aldy-Bel culture is considered one of the Scytho-Siberian cultures. The authors also analyzed the maternal haplogroups of 26 Siberian Scythian remains from Arzhan . 50% of the remains carried an East Eurasian haplogroup, while 50% carried

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2688-562: The "North-Western Indian & Pakistani" populations (PNWI) showed significant Middle-Late Bronze Age Steppe (Steppe_MLBA) ancestry along with Yamnaya Early-Middle Bronze Age (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry, but the Indo-Europeans of Gangetic Plains and Dravidian people only showed significant Yamnaya (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry and no Steppe_MLBA. The study also noted that ancient south Asian samples had significantly higher Steppe_MLBA than Steppe_EMBA (or Yamnaya). According to Narasimhan et al. (2019),

2772-521: The "basal Indo-European stage", also known as Indo-Anatolian or Pre- Proto-Indo-European language , largely but not totally, lacked agricultural-related vocabulary, and only the later "core Indo-European languages " saw an increase in agriculture-associated words. According to them, this fits a homeland of early core Indo-European within the westernmost Yamnaya horizon, around and west of the Dnieper , while its basal stage, Indo-Anatolian, may have originated in

2856-528: The 1st millennium BC originated independently, but both formed from a combination of a Yamnaya -related ancestry component from the area of the European steppes , and an East Asian -related component most closely corresponding to the modern North Siberian Nganasan people of the lower Yenesei . Furthermore, archaeological evidence now tends to suggest that the origins of the Scytho-Siberian world, characterized by its kurgan burial mounds and its Animal style of

2940-659: The 1st millennium BC, are to be found among Eastern Scythians rather than their Western counterparts: eastern kurgans are older than western ones (such as the Altaic kurgan Arzhan 1 in Tuva ), and elements of the Animal style are first attested in areas of the Yenisei river and modern-day China in the 10th century BC. The rapid spread of the Scytho-Siberian world, from the Eastern Scythians to

3024-474: The Afanasievo culture may have originated from the migration of Yamnaya groups to the Altai region or, alternatively, that both cultures developed from an earlier shared cultural source. Genetic studies have suggested that the people of the Yamnaya culture can be modelled as a genetic admixture between a population related to Eastern European Hunter-Gatherers (EHG) and people related to hunter-gatherers from

3108-545: The Caucasus (CHG) in roughly equal proportions, an ancestral component which is often named " Steppe ancestry ", with additional admixture from Anatolian, Levantine, or Early European farmers. Genetic studies also indicate that populations associated with the Corded Ware, Bell Beaker, Sintashta, and Andronovo cultures derived large parts of their ancestry from the Yamnaya or a closely related population. The Yamnaya culture

3192-475: The Caucasus and Central Asia, while Eastern Scythian affinity is more widespread but nearly exclusively found among modern Turkic -speaking as well as Uralic and Paleosiberian peoples . Overall, modern Tajiks and Yaghnobis were found to display the strongest genetic continuity with the Bronze and Iron Age populations of Central Asia ( Indo-Iranians ). Scythian Steppe populations display genetic heterogeneity along

3276-549: The Caucasus and Central Asia. This section lists the findings of genetic studies of the remains excavated in central Eurasia and the eastern steppe ascribed to one of the Scythian cultures . Pilipenko (2018) studied mtDNA from remains of the Tagar culture , which was part of the Scytho-Siberian world. Although found in Khakassia , at the eastern extreme of the Eurasian steppe, remains from

3360-587: The Caucasus, rather "this may support a scenario of linguistic continuity of local non-mobile herders in the Lower Dnieper region and their genetic persistence after their integration into the successive and expansive Yamnaya horizon". Furthermore the authors mention that this scenario can explain the difference in paternal haplogroup frequency between the Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures, while both sharing similar autosomal DNA ancestry. Genetic studies have found that Yamnaya autosomal characteristics are very close to

3444-560: The Central Andes , there are three Horizon periods with two Intermediate periods between them. The Horizons and their dominant cultures are: Early Horizon, Chavin ; Middle Horizon, Tiwanaku and Wari culture ; Late Horizon, Inca . The same terms (Early, Middle, and Late Horizons) are sometimes used for the Mesoamerican chronology , though there the five stages defined by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips in 1958 remain dominant, and

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3528-533: The Core Yamnaya culture (c. 3600–3400 BC). The Yamnaya economy was based upon animal husbandry , fishing , and foraging , and the manufacture of ceramics , tools , and weapons . The people of the Yamnaya culture lived primarily as nomads, with a chiefdom system and wheeled carts and wagons that allowed them to manage large herds. They are also closely connected to Final Neolithic cultures, which later spread throughout Europe and Central Asia , especially

3612-469: The Iron Age. The admixture with West Eurasian sources was found to be "in accordance with the linguistically documented language borrowing in Turkic languages". Archaeological horizon The term is used to denote a series of stratigraphic relationships that constitute a phase or are part of the process of determining the archaeological phases of a site. An archaeological horizon can be understood as

3696-570: The Middle Iron Age onwards, the Eastern Scythians received additional Northern East Asian geneflow, paralleling the emergence of Huns , which shared this newly arrived component. There was also an increase in Sarmatian and BMAC-like ancestries. Unterländer, et al. (2017) found that eastern Scythians share closest genetic similarities with modern-day speakers of Siberian Turkic languages, such as Telengits , Tubalars , and Tofalars , which supports

3780-741: The Pazyryk valley, Scythian remains show a variety of hair colors, ranging from black to bright chestnut. Mummified Scythian warriors from the Ukok plateau and Mongolia had blond hair. Preserved skin tissue also reveals that the eastern Scythians had tattoos . Tattooing is not thought to have been practiced by western Scythians. The genetics of remains from Scythian-identified cultures show broad general patterns, among these are remarkably different histories for men and women. Their ethnic affiliations are summarized above . Their familial inter-relations are discussed below. There are two distinct paternal lineages in

3864-459: The Scythians are the most famous, due to the reports on them published by the 5th century Greek historian Herodotus . The ancient Persians referred to all nomads of steppe as Saka . In modern times, the term Scythians is sometimes applied to all the peoples associated with the Scytho-Siberian world. Within this terminology it is often distinguished between "western" Scythians living on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, and "eastern" Scythians living on

3948-489: The Scytho-Siberian world are recognized for three characteristics known as the Scythian triad : Their art was made in the animal style , so characteristic that it is also called Scythian art . In the beginning of the 18th century, Russian explorers began uncovering Scythian finds throughout their newly acquired territories. Significant Scythian archaeological finds have been uncovered up to recent times. A major find are

4032-546: The Scytho-Siberian world expanded into Iran ( Sakastan ), India ( Indo-Scythians ) and the Tarim Basin . In the early centuries AD the western part of the Scytho-Siberian world came under pressure from the Goths and other Germanic peoples . The end of the Scythian period in archaeology has been set at approximately the 2nd century AD. Recent archeological and genetic data confirmed that Western and Eastern Scythians of

4116-409: The Scytho-Siberian world include speakers of the Scythian languages : Although the peoples of the forest steppe were part of the Scytho-Siberian world, their origins are obscure; there might have been early Slavs , Balts , and Finno-Ugric peoples among them. The settled population of the Scytho-Siberian world areas also included Thracians . Among the diverse peoples of the Scytho-Siberian world,

4200-643: The Western Scythians carried only West Eurasian maternal haplogroups , but the frequency of East Eurasian haplogroups rises to 26% in samples dated to the 2nd century BCE. Among the Western Scythians discovered at Rostov-on-Don , in European Russia , East Eurasian maternal haplogroups make up 37.5% of the total. These results possibly suggest the increasing presence of East Eurasian women in Western Scythian populations, although autosomal genetic evidence

4284-438: The Western Scythians, is also confirmed by significant east-to-west gene flow across the steppes during the 1st millennium BC. The peoples of the Scytho-Siberian world are mentioned by contemporary Persian and Greek historians. They were mostly speakers of Iranian languages . Despite belonging to similar material cultures, the peoples of the Scytho-Siberian world belonged to many separate ethnic groups. Peoples associated with

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4368-583: The Yamnaya culture and the contemporary populations of Europe. Klejn has also suggested that the autosomal evidence does not support a Yamnaya migration, arguing that Western Steppe Herder ancestry in both contemporary and Bronze Age samples is lowest around the Danube in Hungary, near the western limits of the Yamnaya culture, and highest in Northern Europe, which Klejn argues is the opposite of what would be expected if

4452-561: The Yamnaya culture. Dmytro Telegin viewed Sredny Stog and Yamna as one cultural continuum and considered Sredny Stog to be the genetic foundation of the Yamna. The Yamnaya culture was succeeded in its western range by the Catacomb culture (2800–2200 BC); in the east, by the Poltavka culture (2700–2100 BC) at the middle Volga. These two cultures were followed by the Srubnaya culture (18th–12th century BC). The Yamnaya culture

4536-441: The Yamnaya diet was terrestrial protein based with insignificant contribution from freshwater or aquatic resources. Anthony speculates that the Yamnaya ate meat, milk, yogurt, cheese, and soups made from seeds and wild vegetables, and probably consumed mead . Mallory and Adams suggest that Yamnaya society may have had a tripartite structure of three differentiated social classes, although the evidence available does not demonstrate

4620-522: The Yamnaya-related ancestry, termed Western_Steppe_EMBA, that reached central and south Asia was not the initial expansion from the steppe to the east, but a secondary expansion that involved a group possessing ~67% Western_Steppe_EMBA ancestry and ~33% ancestry from the European cline. This group included people similar to that of Corded Ware , Srubnaya , Petrovka , and Sintashta . Moving further east in

4704-715: The Z2103 subclade of R1b-L23, is the most common Y-DNA haplogroup found among the Yamnaya specimens. This haplogroup is rare in Western Europe and mainly exists in Southeastern Europe today. Additionally, a minority are found to belong to haplogroup I2 . They are found to belong to a wider variety of West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups, including U , T , and haplogroups associated with Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers and Early European Farmers . A small but significant number of Yamnaya kurgan specimens from Northern Ukraine carried

4788-622: The arrival en masse of individuals with Yamnaya-like ancestry. This is different from what happened in Western and Southern Europe, where the Neolithic transition was caused by a population that came from Anatolia, with Pontic steppe ancestry being detected from only the late Neolithic onward. Per Haak et al. (2015), the Yamnaya contribution in the modern populations of Eastern Europe ranges from 46.8% among Russians to 42.8% in Ukrainians . Finland has

4872-526: The central steppe, it acquired ~9% ancestry from a group of people that possessed West Siberian Hunter Gatherer ancestry, thus forming the Central Steppe MLBA cluster, which is the primary source of steppe ancestry in South Asia, contributing up to 30% of the ancestry of the modern groups in the region. According to Unterländer et al. (2017), all Iron Age Scythian Steppe nomads can best be described as

4956-399: The early stage of the Tagar culture were found to be closely related to those of contemporary Scythians on the Pontic-Caspian steppe far to the west, exhibiting both West Eurasian and East Eurasian lineages. However, the fossils from the middle stage of the Tagar culture showed a strong increase in East Eurasian maternal lineages, increasing from 35% to nearly 45% by the middle stage. Notably,

5040-478: The east and west, with the eastern and western paternal lineages being themselves homogeneous. The Western Scythian males almost uniformly carried haplogroup R1b , which is closely related to modern European peoples from the Pontic region, while the Eastern Scythians carried R1a , Q1a and N . In a sample of Siberian Scythians, there was a nearly equal proportion of West and East Eurasian maternal lineages. The maternal lineages among Scythians are diverse, showing

5124-399: The eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe, and the closely related Sredny Stog culture ( c.  4500 –3500 BC) in the western Pontic-Caspian steppe, preceded the Yamnaya culture (3300–2500 BC). Further efforts to pinpoint the location came from Anthony (2007), who suggested that the Yamnaya culture (3300–2600 BC) originated in the Don – Volga area at c.  3400 BC , preceded by

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5208-423: The elite. Their physical traits are characteristic of Iranian peoples and support a common origin indicated by the linguistic evidence, however, people of mixed physical appearance are also indicated by the archaeological and historical evidence. Numerous Eastern Scythian remains have been found in an excellent state of preservation in the Altai mountains , with soft tissues such as skin and hair preserved. From

5292-427: The emergence of chiefdom-type nomadic social structures" which in turn intensified inter-group contacts between essentially heterogeneous social groups. The origin of the Yamnaya culture continues to be debated, with proposals for its origins pointing to both the Khvalynsk and Sredny Stog cultures. The Khvalynsk culture (4700–3800 BC) (middle Volga) and the Don-based Repin culture ( c.  3950 –3300 BC) in

5376-448: The existence of specific classes such as priests, warriors, and farmers. According to Jones et al. (2015) and Haak et al. (2015), autosomal tests indicate that the Yamnaya people were the result of a genetic admixture between two different hunter-gatherer populations: distinctive " Eastern Hunter-Gatherers " (EHG), from Eastern Europe, with high affinity to the Mal'ta–Buret' culture or other, closely related people from Siberia and

5460-408: The genetic data supports the likelihood that the people of the Yamnaya culture were a "single, genetically coherent group" who were responsible for spreading many Indo-European languages. Reich's group recently suggested that the source of Anatolian and Indo-European subfamilies of the Proto-Indo-European ( PIE ) language may have been in west Asia and the Yamna were responsible for the dissemination of

5544-420: The geneticists' hypothesis is correct. Marija Gimbutas identified the Yamnaya culture with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) in her Kurgan hypothesis . In the view of David Anthony, the Pontic-Caspian steppe is the strongest candidate for the Urheimat (original homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language , citing evidence from linguistics and genetics which suggests that the Yamnaya culture may be

5628-430: The highest Yamnaya contributions in all of Europe (50.4%). Studies also point to the strong presence of Yamnaya descent in the current nations of South Asia, especially in groups that are referred to as Indo-Aryans. Lazaridis et al. (2016) estimated (6.5–50.2 %) steppe-related admixture in South Asians, though the proportion of Steppe ancestry varies widely across ethnic groups. According to Pathak et al. (2018),

5712-446: The homeland of the Indo-European languages, with the possible exception of the Anatolian languages. On the other hand, Colin Renfrew has argued for a Near Eastern origin of the earliest Indo-European speakers. According to David W. Anthony , the genetic evidence suggests that the leading clans of the Yamnaya were of EHG (Eastern European hunter-gatherer) and WHG (Western European hunter-gatherer) paternal origin and implies that

5796-413: The horse played a prominent role in Scythian society. They played a prominent role in the network connecting ancient civilizations known as the Silk Road . The homogeneity of patrilineal lineages and contrasting diversity of matrilineal lineages of samples from Scythian burial sites indicate that Scythian society was strongly patriarchal . Numerous archaeological finds have revealed that the Scythians led

5880-411: The latter. Reich also argues that the genetic evidence shows that Yamnaya society was an oligarchy dominated by a small number of elite males. The genetic evidence for the extent of the role of the Yamnaya culture in the spread of Indo-European languages has been questioned by Russian archaeologist Leo Klejn and Balanovsky et al., who note a lack of male haplogroup continuity between the people of

5964-442: The middle Volga-based Khvalynsk culture and the Don-based Repin culture ( c.  3950 –3300 BC), arguing that late pottery from these two cultures can barely be distinguished from early Yamnaya pottery. Earlier continuity from eneolithic but largely hunter-gatherer Samara culture and influences from the more agricultural Dnieper–Donets II are apparent. He argues that the early Yamnaya horizon spread quickly across

6048-712: The region between the Southern Bug , Dniester , and Ural rivers (the Pontic–Caspian steppe ), dating to 3300–2600  BC . It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archaeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: Я́мная ( romanization : yamnaya ) is a Russian adjective that means 'related to pits ( yama )', as these people used to bury their dead in tumuli ( kurgans ) containing simple pit chambers. Research in recent years has found that Mikhaylovka , in lower Dnieper river, Ukraine, formed

6132-414: The source of this mutation. A study in 2015 found that Yamnaya had the highest ever calculated genetic selection for height of any of the ancient populations tested. It has been hypothesized that an allele associated with lactase persistence (conferring lactose tolerance into adulthood ) was brought to Europe from the steppe by Yamnaya-related migrations. A 2022 study by Lazaridis et al. found that

6216-467: The southern parts of the Pontic-Caspian steppe sometime later. More recent genetic studies have found that the Yamnaya were a mixture of EHGs, CHGs, and to a lesser degree Anatolian farmers and Levantine farmers, but not EEFs from Europe due to lack of WHG DNA in the Yamnaya. This occurred in two distinct admixture events from West Asia into the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Haplogroup R1b , specifically

6300-471: The specific paternal DNA haplogroup that is most commonly found in male Yamnaya specimens cannot be found in modern Western Europeans, or in males from the nearby Corded Ware culture . This makes it unlikely that the Corded Ware culture can be directly descended from the Yamnaya culture, at least along the paternal line. Autosomal tests also indicate that the Yamnaya are the vector for "Ancient North Eurasian" admixture into Europe. " Ancient North Eurasian "

6384-621: The steppes. Alternatively, Parpola (2015) relates both the Corded ware culture and the Yamnaya culture to the late Trypillia (Tripolye) culture . He hypothesizes that "the Tripolye culture was taken over by PIE speakers by c. 4000 BC," and that in its final phase the Trypillian culture expanded to the steppes, morphing into various regional cultures which fused with the late Sredny Stog (Serednii Stih) pastoralist cultures, which, he suggests, gave rise to

6468-504: The typical phenotype among the Yamnaya population was brown eyes, brown hair, and intermediate skin colour. None of their Yamnaya samples were predicted to have either blue eyes or blond hair, in contrast with later Steppe groups in Russia and Central Asia, as well as the Bell Beaker culture in Europe, who did carry these phenotypes in high proportions. The geneticist David Reich has argued that

6552-498: The upper Yenisei River and North China , dating to the 10th century BC. Based on these finds, it has been suggested that the Scytho-Siberian world emerged at an early period in southern Siberia . It is probably in this area that the Scythian way of life initially developed. Recent genetic studies have concluded that the Scythians formed from European-related groups of the Yamnaya culture and East Asian / Siberian groups during

6636-778: The various " Scythian cultures ". Different Scythian groups arose locally, rather than through migration patterns. As a whole, Scythians can be modeled as a mixture between West Eurasian sources, primarily Western Steppe Herders (Steppe_MLBA) and BMAC -like groups, with additional amounts of admixture from a population represented by the Khövsgöl LBA peoples of East Eurasian origin. Previous suggested admixture sources represented by other modern " East Eurasian proxies", such as Han Chinese or Nganasans , failed and were less reliable than Khövsgöl sources. Scythians can broadly be differentiated into "Western" and "Eastern" sub-groups, with Western Scythians displaying affinity to various modern groups in

6720-421: Was nomadic or semi-nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers, and a few fortified sites, the largest of which is Mikhaylivka . Characteristic of the culture are the burials in pit graves surmounted by kurgans ( tumuli ), often accompanied by animal offerings. Some graves contain large anthropomorphic stelae , with carved human heads, arms, hands, belts, and weapons. The bodies were placed in

6804-502: Was already present during the LBA in the neighboring northern Mongolia region. Eastern Scythians did not belong to a single genetic or cultural cluster, while Western Scythians fall in or close to the European cluster. A later different Eastern influx, starting during the Middle Iron Age to post-Iron Age period, is evident in three outlier samples of the Tasmola culture (Tasmola Birlik) and one of

6888-534: Was characterized by the Scythian triad , which are similar, yet not identical, styles of weapons, horses' bridles, and jewelry and decorative art . The question of how related these cultures were is disputed among scholars. Its peoples were of diverse origins, and included not just Scythians , from which the cultures are named, but other peoples as well, such as the Cimmerians , Massagetae , Saka , Sarmatians , and obscure forest-steppe populations. Mostly speakers of

6972-612: Was found in Bronze Age samples from the Altai Mountains . Additionally, one specimen (6.25%) carried haplogroup N-M231 , which is associated with neolithic remains from Northern China. The Scythian groups of the Pontic Steppe and South Siberia had significantly different paternal genetics, which suggests that the Pontic and South Siberian Scythians had completely different paternal origins, with almost no paternal gene flow between them. Since

7056-451: Was initially thought to have been their place of origin, until the Soviet archaeologist Aleksey Terenozhkin suggested a Central Asian origin. Recent excavations at Arzhan in Tuva , Russia have uncovered the earliest Scythian-style kurgan yet found. Similarly the earliest examples of the animal style art which would later characterize the Scytho-Siberian cultures have been found near

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