Kurgan

Kurgan is a Turkic word for tumulus, burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, or a kurgan cenotaph. The word "kurgan", and in some cases the kurgan tradition, were borrowed by most of the cultures that coexisted with Türkic peoples. In Kurgan Cultures, most of the burials were in kurgans, either clan kurgans or individual. Most prominent leaders were buried in individual kurgans, now called "Royal kurgans", which attract highest attention and publicity.

Kurgan Cultures transverse all periods, Eneolyth, Bronze, Iron, Antiquity and Middle Age, with old traditions still smoldering in Southern Siberia and Central Asia. In time and space Kurgan Cultures are divided into a multitude of archeological cultures, most famous among them are Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish and Kuman-Kipchak cultures.

In 1956 Marija Gimbutas introduced her Kurgan hypothesis combining kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) speaking peoples. She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after their distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. This hypothesis has had a significant impact on Indo-European research. Those scholars who follow Gimbutas identify a Kurgan culture as reflecting an early Indo-European ethnicity which existed in the steppes and southeastern Europe from the fifth to third millennia BC. Her Kurgan hypothesis did not address the paradox that, in historical times, no Indo-European people ethnologically preserved a kurgan tradition, while every Türkic people has an archeologically documented record of kurgan tradition in historical times.

A plethora of placenames that include the word "kurgan" spread from lake Baikal to the Black Sea. After establishing control over newly captured territories, a few places in Russia were not renamed, and are still called Kurgan.

Sudovian kurgan near Suwałki, Poland

Archaeology

Kurgans were characteristic of Bronze Age nomadic peoples of the steppes, from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus and Romania. Kurgans were located near the winter settlements, where most of the deceased were brought to for burial, sometimes for a secondary permanent burial. Burial in summer camp kurgans was done only under extreme hardship, and in those cases substitute cenotaph burials were made in permanent necropoleis. Most of the kurgans were plowed or paved over, though records document tens of thousands kurgans, and some documented kurgan fields number kurgans in thousands. Sometimes, kurgans are quite complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, members of the elite were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. Both Scythian and Kipchak kurgans are known to be topped with a symbolic anthropomorphic statue; thousands of these statues, made of non-perishable stone, have survived. Kurgan practices extended, uninterrupted, well into 2nd millennium AD, traditionally carried out by even post-Moslem and post-Christian Kipchaks from the Danube to Central Siberia; Oguzes in the Middle East; and Kazakh and Mongolian steppe populations in Middle and Central Asia. A number of countries, presently with predominantly non-Türkic populations, have kurgan monuments left by Türkic inhabitants of the past.

Genetics

Data on genetic makeup of Kurgan people is still scarce and marked by absence of even rudimentary blood group and other studies, giving a wide field for speculations. The available biological data invariably tends to point to Uralo-Altaic composition of the Kurgan Cultures.

Some excavated kurgans

*The Ipatovo kurgan revealed a long sequence of burials from the Maykop culture ca. 4000 BC down to the burial of a Sarmatian princess of the 3rd century BC, excavated 1998–1999.
*Kurgan 4 at Kutuluk near Samara, Russia, dated to ca. 24th century BC, containing the skeleton of a man, estimated to have been 35 to 40 years old and about 152 cm tall. Rose, M., "Cudgel Culture," http://www.archaeology.org/0203/newabriefs/cudgel.html , Archaeology , March/April, 2002. Resting on the skeleton's bent left elbow was a copper object of a length of ca. 65 cm with a blade of a diamond-shaped cross-section and sharp edges, but no point, and a handle, originally probably wrapped in leather. No similar object is known from Bronze Age Eurasian steppe cultures, and the object has been compared to the vajra thunderbolt of Indian Indra.
Novovelichkovskaya kurgan of ca. 2000 BC on the Ponura River, Krasnodar region, southern Russia, containing the remains of 11 people, including an embracing couple, buried with bronze tools, stone carvings, jewelry, and ceramic vessels decorated with red ocher. The tomb is associated with the Novotitorovka culture nomads.
Issyk kurgan, in southern Kazakhstan, containing a skeleton, possibly female, 4th century BC, with proto-Türkic inscription on a silver cup, with 4.000 gold ornaments, with Scythian animal art objects and headdress reminiscent of Kazakh bridal hats, discovered in 1969.
*Kurgan 11 of the Berel cemetery, in the Bukhtarma River valley of Kazakhstan, containing a tomb of ca. 300 BC, with a dozen sacrificed horses, preserved with their skin, hair, harnesses, and saddles intact, buried side by side on a bed of birch bark next to a funeral chamber containing the pillaged burial of two Scythian nobles, excavated in 1998.
Ryzhanovka kurgan, a 10 metres high kurgan 125 km south of Kiev, containing the tomb of a Scythian chieftain, 3rd century BC, excavated in 1996.
Aleksandrovo kurgan, a Thracian kurgan of ca. the 4th century BC.
Håga Kurgan, a large Nordic Bronze Age kurgan from ca 1000 BC.
Pereschepino Kurgan, burial memorial of Great Bulgaria Khan Kubrat (Kurbat) from ca 660 AD.

Literature

*"In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth" by J. P. Mallory, ISBN 0500276161
*"The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected Articles Form 1952 to 1993" von Marija Gimbutas u.a., ISBN 0941694569
*"Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture" ed. James Mallory, D. Q. Adams, ISBN 1884964982
*D. Ya. Telegin et al., Srednestogovskaya i Novodanilovskaya Kul'tury Eneolita Azovo-Chernomorskogo Regiona. Kiev: Shlyakh, 2001. Reviewed by J.P. Mallory, JIES vol. 32, 3/4, p. 363–366.
*"Reconstruction Of The Genofond Peculiarities Of The Ancient Pazyryk Population (I-II Millennium BC) From Gorny Altai According To The mtDNA Structure" Voevoda M.I., Sitnikova V.V., Romashchenko A.G., Chikisheva T.A., Polosmak N.V., Molodin V.I.
*"Proto-Türkic rune-like inscription on silver cup (Issyk Inscription)" by A.S. Amanjolov, in "History Of Ancient Türkic Script", Almaty 2003

External links

*Kurgan Culture
*the Ipatovo kurgan
*excavated kurgans (archaeology.org).
*Ritual Sites, and Settlements: Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age book for download (www.csen.org)

Kurgan: Encyclopedia BETA