Yamna culture
 |
Typical Yamna burial with the skeleton in supine position, with bent knees. The bodies were typically covered with ochre. |
The
Yamna (from
Russian яма "pit") or
Pit Grave or
Ochre Grave culture is a
late copper age/early
bronze age culture of the
Bug/
Dniester/
Ural region, dating to the
36th–
23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly
nomadic, with some
agriculture practiced near rivers and a few
hillforts.
Characteristic for the culture are the
inhumations in kurgans, (
tumuli) in pit graves with the dead body placed in a supine position with bent knees. The bodies were covered in
ochre. Multiple graves have been found in these kurgans, often as later insertions. Significantly, animal grave offerings were made (cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horse), a feature associated with both
Proto-Indo-Europeans or
Proto-Indo-Iranians.
 |
Approximate culture extent c. 3200-2300 BC. |
It is said to have originated in the middle Volga based
Khvalynsk culture and the middle Dnieper based
Sredny Stog culture. In its western range, it is succeeded by the
Catacomb culture; in the east, by the
Poltavka culture and the
Srubna culture.
The Yamna culture is identified with the late
Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) in the
Kurgan hypothesis of
Marija Gimbutas. It is one candidate for the
Urheimat (homeland) of the
Proto-Indo-European language, along with the preceding
Sredny Stog culture. The earliest remains in Eastern
Europe of a
wheeled cart were found in the "Storozhova mohyla"
kurgan (
Dnipropetrovsk,
Ukraine, excavated by Trenozhkin O.I) associated with the Yamna culture.
J. P. Mallory, "Yamna Culture",
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
*
Kurgan*
Ukrainian stone stela*
Cucuteni culture*
Vinča culture*
Beaker culture.
