| 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 |
TheMiddle Dnieper culture or theMiddle Dnipro culture (Ukrainian:Середньодніпро́вська культу́ра,romanized: Seredn'odniprovs'ka kul'tura;Belarusian:Сярэднедняпроўская культура,romanized: Siaredniedniaproûskaja kuĺtura) is a formative early expression of theCorded Ware culture,[1] ca. 2800–1800 BC,[2] of northern Ukraine and Belarus.
As the name indicates, it was centered on the middle reach of theDnieper River and is contemporaneous with the latter phase and then a successor to theIndo-EuropeanYamnaya culture, as well as to the latter phase of theCucuteni–Trypillia culture.
Geographically, the Middle Dnieper culture is directly behind the area occupied by theGlobular Amphora culture (south and east), and while commencing a little later and lasting a little longer, it is otherwise contemporaneous with it.
TheFatyanovo–Balanovo culture is, in turn, considered an eastern extension of the Middle Dnieper culture.
More than 200 sites are attested to, mostly as barrowinhumations undertumuli; some of these burials are secondary depositions into Yamnaya-erakurgans. Grave goods included pottery and stone battle-axes. There is some evidence of cremation in the northerly area. Settlements seem difficult to define; the economy was much like that of the Yamna and Corded Ware cultures, semi-to-fully-nomadic pastoralism.[3]
Within the context of theKurgan hypothesis ofMarija Gimbutas, this culture is a major center for migrations (or invasions, if one prefers) from the Yamnaya culture and its immediate successors into Northern and Central Europe.
It has been argued that the area where the Middle Dnieper culture is situated would have provided a better migration route for steppe tribes along thePripyat tributary of theDnieper and perhaps provided the cultural bridge betweenYamnaya andCorded Ware cultures. This area has also been a classic invasion route, as seen historically with the armies of theMongolGolden Horde (moving east to west from thesteppes) andNapoleon Bonaparte (moving west to east from Europe).[4]
On the other hand, the Middle-Dnieper culture has been viewed as a contact zone between Yamnaya steppe tribes and occupants of the forest steppe zone, possibly signaling communications between pre-Indo-Iranian speakers and pre-Balto-Slavs as interpreted by an exchange of material goods evident in the archaeological record sans migration.[5]
