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| Geographical range | Pontic steppe |
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| Period | Bronze Age |
| Dates | ca. 1900 BC – 1200 BC |
| Preceded by | Abashevo culture,Multi-cordoned ware culture,Sintashta culture,Lola culture |
| Followed by | Noua-Sabatinovka culture,Trzciniec culture,Belozerka culture,Bondarikha culture,Scythians,Sauromatians |
TheSrubnaya culture (Russian:Срубная культура,romanized: Srubnaya kul'tura,Ukrainian:Зрубна культура,romanized: Zrubna kuljtura), also known asTimber-grave culture, was aLate Bronze Age 1900–1200 BC culture[1][2][3] in the eastern part of thePontic–Caspian steppe. It is a successor of theYamnaya culture, theCatacomb culture and thePoltavka culture. It is co-ordinate and probably closely related to theAndronovo culture, its eastern neighbor.[3] Whether the Srubnaya culture originated in the east, west, or was a local development, is disputed among archaeologists.[3]
The Srubnaya culture is generally associated with archaicIranian-speakers.[3][4] The name comes from Russian сруб (srub) / Ukrainian зруб (zrub), "timber framework", from the way graves were constructed.
The Srubnaya culture occupied the area along and above the north shore of theBlack Sea from theDnieper eastwards along the northern base of theCaucasus to the area abutting the north shore of theCaspian Sea, west of theUral Mountains.[3] Historical testimony indicate that the Srubnaya culture was succeeded by theScythians.[3]
In the early 2nd millennium BC, theLola culture in theNorth Caucasus came under increasing pressure from the Srubnaya culture, who were advancing from the MiddleVolga region. By 1800 BC, the Srubnaya replaced the Lola population. The Lola culture had previously replaced the local variants of theCatacomb culture.[5] The physical type of the Lola population was very different from that of the Srubnaya and Catacomb populations.[6]
The Srubnaya culture is named for its use of timber constructions within its burial pits. Its cemeteries consisted of five to ten kurgans. Burials included the skulls and forelegs of animals and ritual hearths. Stone cists were occasionally employed.[3] Srubnaya settlements consisted of semi-subterranean and two-roomed houses. The presence of bronze sickles, grinding stones, domestic cattle, sheep and pigs indicate that the Srubnaya engaged in both agriculture and stockbreeding.[3]
The use of chariots in the Srubnaya culture is indicated by finds of studded antler cheek-pieces (for controlling chariot horses), burials of paired domesticated horses, and ceramic vessels with images of two-wheeled vehicles on them.[7][8] The predecessor of the Srubnaya culture, a variant of theAbashevo culture known as thePokrovka type, is considered to be an important part of the early 'chariot horizon', representing the rapid spread of the 'chariot complex'.[9][10]
The Srubnaya culture is generally considered to have beenIranian.[3][4] Its area, which coincides with the presence of Iranianhydronyms,[4] has been suggested as a staging region from which the Iranian peoples migrated across theCaucasus into theIranian Plateau.[3]
Mathieson et al. (2015)[12] surveyed 14 individuals of the Srubnaya culture. Six men from 5 different cemeteries belonged to the Y-chromosome haplogroupR1a1. Extractions ofmtDNA from fourteen individuals were determined to represent five samples ofhaplogroup H, four samples of haplogroupU5, two samples ofT1, one sample ofT2, one sample ofK1b, one ofJ2b and one ofI1a.
A 2017 genetic study published inScientific Reports found that the Scythians shared similar mitochondrial lineages with the Srubnaya culture. The authors of the study suggested that the Srubnaya culture was ancestral to the Scythians.[13]
In 2018, a genetic study of the earlier Srubnaya culture, and later peoples of theScythian cultures, including theCimmerians, Scythians,Sarmatians, was published inScience Advances. Six males from two sites ascribed to the Srubnaya culture were analysed, and were all found to possesshaplogroup R1a1a1. Cimmerian, Sarmatian and Scythian males were however found have mostlyhaplogroup R1b1a1a2, although one Sarmatian male carried haplogroup R1a1a1. The authors of the study suggested that rather than being ancestral to the Scythians, the Srubnaya shared with them a common origin from the earlierYamnaya culture.[14]
In a genetic study published inScience in 2018, the remains of twelve individuals ascribed to the Srubnaya culture was analyzed. Of the six samples ofY-DNA extracted, three belonged toR1a1a1b2 or subclades of it, one belonged toR1, one belonged toR1a1, and one belonged toR1a1a. With regards tomtDNA, five samples belonged to subclades ofU, five belonged to subclades ofH, and two belonged to subclades ofT. People of the Srubnaya culture were found to be closely related to people of theCorded Ware culture, theSintashta culture,Potapovka culture and theAndronovo culture.[a][b] These were found to harbor mixed ancestry from theYamnaya culture and peoples of the Central EuropeanMiddle Neolithic.[15] The genetic data suggested that these cultures were ultimately derived of a remigration of Central European peoples withsteppe ancestry back into the steppe.[c]
In a 2023 study, one sample from the site Nepluyevsky, belonging to Srubnaya-Alakul culture and located in Southern Urals, (c. 1877 to 1642 calBC), (2-sigma, 95.4%), featured Y-haplogroup R1a1a1b2a (R1a-Z94), and other not dated sample featured R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93).[16]
![Dispersion of double-horse burials ca. 2000–1400/1300 BCE.[17] Horses were domesticated on the Pontic-Caspian steppe.[18]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDispersion_of_double-horse_burials_ca._2000_to_1400-1300_BCE.png)
![Forensic reconstruction of a young woman (20–25), from the Aksay I cemetery, kurgan 9, burial 6, Late Bronze Age, Srubnaya culture.[19]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aReconstruction_of_a_young_woman_(20-25)%2c_from_the_Aksay_I_cemetery%2c_kurgan_9%2c_burial_6%2c_Late_Bronze_Age%2c_Srubnaya_culture.jpg)
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From 2100/2000–1400/1300 b.c., paired burials of complete horses were interred in several centers, from the Kazakh steppes in central Asia in the east to as far as the Małopolska Upland in the west and the Peloponnese to the south. The earliest are connected to the Sintashta-Petrovka cultural complex in the southern Ural area, while later ones are associated with various other steppe and forest-steppe groups, such as the Andronovo, Potapovka, Alakul, and Srubnaya cultures
Media related toSrubna culture at Wikimedia Commons
