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| Geographical range | Pontic steppe |
|---|---|
| Period | Bronze Age |
| Dates | ca. 2500–1950 BC |
| Preceded by | Yamnaya culture |
| Followed by | Abashevo culture,Lola culture,Multi-cordoned ware culture,Srubnaya culture |
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Archaeology Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Bronze Age Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe
South Asia Iron Age Europe Caucasus Central Asia India |
Peoples and societies Bronze Age Iron AgeIndo-Aryans Iranians Nuristanis East Asia Europe Middle Ages Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian |
Religion and mythology |
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TheCatacomb culture (Russian:Катакомбная культура,romanized: Katakombnaya kul'tura,Ukrainian:Катакомбна культура,romanized: Katakombna kul'tura) was aBronze Age culture which flourished on thePontic steppe in 2,500–1,950 BC.[1]
Originating on the southern steppe as an outgrowth of theYamnaya culture, the Catacomb culture came to cover a large area. It was probablyIndo-European-speaking, with some linguists associating it withTocharian.[2] Influences of the Catacomb culture have been suggested to be found as far as Italy, Greece, and Syria.[3] It spawned theMulti-cordoned ware culture and was eventually succeeded by theSrubnaya culture.
The Catacomb culture emerged on the southern part of thePontic steppe in 2,500 BC,[1] as a western descendant of theYamnaya culture.[4][5] Influences from the west appear to have had a decisive role on the formation of the Catacomb culture.[6]
In addition to the Yamnaya culture, the Catacomb culture displays links with the earlierSredny Stog culture, theAfanasievo culture and thePoltavka culture.[7][8][9]
The Catacomb culture was distributed on thePontic steppe, an area that had earlier been occupied by the Yamnaya culture. This was a large area, and on the basis of ceramic styles and burial practices, regional variants have been found. On this basis, the Catacomb culture has by some been designated as a "cultural-historical area" with the regional variants classified as distinct cultures in their own respect.[4]
In the east the Catacomb culture neighbored the Poltavka culture, which was an eastern descendant of the Yamnaya culture.[4][11] The Catacomb culture influenced the development of the Poltavka culture.[12][13][14] Throughout its existence, the Catacomb culture expanded eastward and northward.[15]
Elena Efimovna Kuzmina suggests that theSeima-Turbino phenomenon emerged as a result of interaction between theAbashevo culture, the Catacomb culture and the earlyAndronovo culture.[16]
Evidence of Catacomb influence has been discovered far outside of the Pontic steppe. Its burial chambers, metal types and figurines are very similar to those appearing inItaly and the easternMediterranean, while the hammer-head pin, a characteristic ornament of the Catacomb culture, has been found inCentral Europe and Italy. Based on these similarities, migrations or cultural diffusion from the Catacomb culture to these areas have been suggested.[4] Similarities between the Catacomb culture andMycenaean Greece are particularly striking. These include types of socketed spear-heads, types of cheekpieces for horses, and the custom of making masks for the dead.[17]
TheLola culture emerged in the North Caucasus c. 2200 BC as a result of migrations of peoples from the eastCaucasus. It replaced the local variants of the Catacomb culture.[18]
The Catacomb culture is named for its burials. These augmented the shaft grave of the Yamnaya culture with a burial niche at its base. This is the so-called catacomb.[4] Such graves have also been found in Mycenaean Greece and parts ofEastern Europe.[a]
Deceased Catacomb individuals were typically buried in a flexed position on their right side. They were often accompanied by ornaments such as silver rings, and weapons such as stone and metal axes, arrows, daggers and maces.[4]
Animal sacrifices, including head and hooves of goats, sheep,[21] horses[22] and cattle, occur in about 16% of Catacomb graves.[4] Cattle sacrifices in the Catacomb culture are more frequent than in the Yamnaya culture.[23] Similarhorse burials also appeared in the earlierKhvalynsk culture, and in the Poltavka culture.[24]
Catacomb burials are occasionally covered withKurgan stelae. This practice was also common in the Yamnaya culture.[25] Some three hundred stelae have been found from the Yamnaya culture and the Catacomb culture.[26]
Catacomb burials are sometimes accompanied by wheeled vehicles. Such wagon burials are attested in the earlier Yamnaya culture, and later amongIranian peoples (Scythians),Celts, andItalic peoples.[29]
Aspects of the burial rite of the Catacomb culture have been detected in theBishkent culture of southernTajikistan.[30]
In some cases, the skull of deceased Catacomb people was modelled in clay. This involved the filling of the mouth, ears and nasal cavity with clay and modeling the surface features of the face. This practice is associated with high-status burials containing prestige items. The practice was performed on men, women, and children. It has been suggested that these clay masks may have served as a prototype for the later gold masks found in Mycenaean Greece.[4]
The economy of the Catacomb culture has been based mostly on stockbreeding. Remains of cattle, sheep, goat, horse and some pigs have been found. Plant remains are exceedingly rare, but traces of wheat, such aseinkorn andemmer, have been found. Wooden ploughs have been found at Catacomb burials, indicating that agriculture was practiced.[4]
The types of tools used by the Catacomb people suggest that the culture included several craft specialists, including weavers, bronze workers and weapons manufacturers.[4][33] Similar metal types to those of the Catacomb culture later appears among the Abashevo culture.[34]
Little evidence of Catacomb settlements has been found. These are mostly seasonal camp-sites located near sources of water.[4]
A larger settlement has been found at Matveyevka on the southernBug. It has three large structures with foundations of stone. On the island of Bayda in theDnieper river, a stone-built fortress of the late Catacomb period with a surrounding ditch has been found.[4]
Catacomb ceramics are more elaborate than those of the Yamnaya culture. Low footed vessels that have been discovered in female burials are believed to have been used in rituals that included the use of narcotic substances such ashemp.[4]
Catacomb ceramics appears to have influenced the ceramics of the Abashevo culture[34] and theSintashta culture.[35]
Evidence of earlycomposite bows have been yielded from the Catacomb culture. Quivers with space for ten to twenty arrows have also been found.[36] Its arrowheads may have influenced those of the Sintashta culture.[37]
Its hollow-based flint arrowheads are similar to those of theMiddle Dnieper culture.[38] Stone battle-axes of the Catacomb culture are similar to those of theFatyanovo–Balanovo culture.[39]
A knife from ca. 2,500 BC ascribed to the Catacomb culture in the Donets had a handle of arsenical bronze and a blade made of iron.[26]
Wheeled vehicles have been found in Catacomb burials.[40][41][42]
Bronze warty beads of the Catacomb culture are similar to those of the Sintashta culture.[37]
Certain variants of the Catacomb culture, particularly those centered at theDonets, appear to have practiced cranial deformation. This may have been an aesthetic device or an ethnic marker. Around 9% of Catacomb skulls had holes drilled into them. This appears to have been associated with a ritual or medical practice.[4]
Remains of bears have been found at Catacomb sites.[43]
The Catacomb culture is estimated to have included some 50,000-60,000 individuals.[4]
The Catacomb people were massively builtCaucasoids/Europoids. Their skulls are similar to those of thePotapovka culture.[b] Potapovka skulls are lessdolichocephalic than those of theFatyanovo–Balanovo culture,Abashevo culture,Sintashta culture,Srubnaya culture andAndronovo culture. The physical type of the Potapovka appears to have emerged through a mixture between the strongly dolichocephalic type of the Sintashta, and the less dolichocephalic type of theYamnaya culture andPoltavka culture.[c]
The people of the Catacomb culture have been described as "stockier and had more brachycephalic crania" than individuals belonging to the Yamnaya culture."[46][47]
Pashnik et al. (2014) analyzed the DNA of the remains of 28 Catacomb individuals. Their maternal haplogroupsU5 andU4 appeared in higher frequencies than in the preceding Yamnaya culture. Haplogroups U5 and U4 are typical ofWestern Hunter-Gatherers andEastern Hunter-Gatherers. Moreover, a generic similarity between Catacomb people and northern hunter-gatherers, particularly the people of thePitted Ware culture of southernScandinavia, was detected. It was suggested that the Catacomb people and the Yamnaya people were not as genetically admixed as previously believed. Interestingly, the modern population ofUkraine was found to be more closely related to people of the Yamnaya culture than people of the Catacomb culture.[49]
Similarly, Nikitin et al. (2017), and Juras et al. (2018) foundhaplogroup U5 andU5a.[50][51] These and other subclades ofhaplogroup U have been found in high frequencies among early hunter-gatherers ofNorthern Europe andEastern Europe. From theMesolithic they appear among populations of the Pontic steppe, including theSredny Stog culture, the Yamnaya culture, theCorded Ware culture, the Andronovo culture, theSrubnaya culture and the Scythians. This suggests continuity ofmtDNA among populations of the Pontic steppe going back at least to the Bronze Age.[51]
In a genetic study published inScientific Reports in 2018, the remains of two individuals from the Catacomb culture were analyzed. Both were found to belong tohaplogroup X4. They are the first ancient individuals that have been identified with this lineage, which is very rare among modern populations.[51]
In a February 2019 study published inNature Communications, the remains of five individuals ascribed to the Catacomb culture were analyzed. Three males were found to be carryingR1b1a2. With regards tomtDNA, all five individuals carried various subclades of haplogroup U (particularly U5 andU4).[52]
David Anthony (2007: 306) assumes that the Catacomb culture wasIndo-European-speaking.[53] It has sometimes been considered ancestral toIndo-Iranian[54][55][12] orThracian.[4] Other scholars have suggested that the culture provided a common background forGreek,Armenian and Indo-Iranian.[4][17]
Guus Kroonen et al. 2022 argues for a possible association between the Catacomb culture and earlyTocharian languages, before spreading eastwards.[56]
TheSrubnaya culture was a successor of the Catacomb culture.[57][55][58][59][60] It has been suggested that the Abashevo culture was partially derived from the Catacomb culture.[34] Parts of the area of the Catacomb culture came to be occupied by the Abashevo culture, and later by the Srubnaya culture.[55][61] TheMulti-cordoned ware culture was an eastern successor of the Catacomb culture.[62][63][64] It in turn may have played a role in the emergence of thePotapovka culture[65] and the Sintashta culture,[66][44][15][67][68] and thus on the formation of the Andronovo culture.[69][55][60] Morphological data suggests that the Sintashta culture might have emerged as a result of a mixture ofsteppe ancestry from the Poltavka culture and Catacomb culture, with ancestry fromNeolithic foresthunter-gatherers.[d]
| Bronze Age |
|---|
| ↑Chalcolithic |
East Asia(c. 3100–300 BC) |
Eurasia and Siberia(c. 2700–700 BC) |
Europe(c. 3200–900 BC) Aegean (Cycladic,Minoan,Mycenaean),Caucasus,Catacomb culture,Srubnaya culture,Bell Beaker culture,Apennine culture,Terramare culture,Únětice culture,Tumulus culture,Urnfield culture,Proto-Villanovan culture,Hallstatt culture,Canegrate culture,Golasecca culture,Argaric culture,Atlantic Bronze Age,Bronze Age Britain,Nordic Bronze Age |
| ↓Iron Age |
Anthony stated that chariots were invented in the southern Ural steppes (Anthony 2009); however, it is important to underline the fact that the Sintashta–Petrovka two-wheelers represent already-developed technology, and do not have known local prototypes. Even the earliest types of shield-shaped cheekpieces have very developed attributes and demonstrate long-term preceding evolution. Since the whole Sintashta phenomenon was likely developed not in the Urals, but elsewhere, chariot technology also likely developed before the year 2000 BC in the Sintashta homeland, which is the Don–Volga interfluve. The reference point might be two-wheeled carts from the Catacomb culture, the Sintashta predecessor, dated to cal. 2400–2200 BC. These might be the prototypes for the later Sintashta–Petrovka chariot complex.
