of the grave, consisting of a dromos and a burial chamber, often with a dome, has parallels in the famous grave of King Hinze in Germany, and probably with the construction of the famous domed tombs of Hellas. The most southern monuments are known in the steppes of Crimea, and the most northern – near Kursk and Yelets. Catacomb settlements are known on the Don (near Rostov), Kibikinskoye near Lugansk, Ternovskoye near Kamyshin on the Volga, etc. Later, researchers turned their attention to the heterogeneity of the catacomb monuments in different territories, which contributed to the identification of a number in the 50—60s of the XX century. local options. With the accumulation of archaeological material, prerequisites were created for understanding local variants as independent archaeological cultures of a single catacomb cultural and historical community, which was ultimately done in the early 1970s by researchers L.S. Klein and O.G. Shaposhnikova.
The problem of the origin of the catacomb culture (later the catacomb cultural and historical community) was posed at the beginning of the 20th century by V.A. Gorodtsov, almost immediately after the discovery of the burial mounds in the catacombs on the Seversky Donets, but still remains debatable. Researchers discuss autochthonous and migration theories of the origin of tribes of the catacomb community.Adherents of the autochthonous theory believe that the emergence of a catacomb community should be associated with the further development of the local pit population. Proponents of the migration theory suggest that the catacomb tribes genetically go back to the Yamnaya, but arise under the strong migration influence of the populations of the Ciscaucasia. The type of economy of the carriers of the catacomb cultural and historical community was determined by the environmental conditions of the steppe and forest-steppe zones. So, in the steppe pastoral or cattle breeding of the nomadic type, which was based on the breeding of cattle and small cattle, took root. In the forest-steppe, a model of shepherd or stall cattle breeding is prevailing with the predominance of cattle and pigs in the herd. For the catacomb cultural and historical community, tribal villages and low (up to 1 m) burial mounds without cremation are characteristic. Catacomb funeral device, ritual ceramic incense burners, ornament in the form of a cord stamp, flat-bottomed goblets, crouched corpse on one side. In the burials there are wooden carts. Ceramic implements carry elements of the culture of spherical amphoras and cord ceramics in Central and Eastern Europe.
Temporal lobed rings Blackened tableware with a spiral ornament
The ceramics are also blackened, with a relief pattern, often spiral-shaped, which brings them closer to the Trypillian ones, but people of the catacomb culture didn’t apply the dishes, but squeezed it out. This brings the ceramics of the catacomb culture closer to the same Middle Hellenic one.
Minoyan ceramics of Crete.
Catacomb pottery differs from the primitive and uniform in the form of dishes of ancient yamnaya culture. Known flat-bottomed pots with convex sides and a narrowed neck, the surface of which is decorated with ornaments printed with prints of twisted rope, comb teeth or just a sharp object. The motifs of the ornament are triangles, zigzags, but circles and spirals are more common, reflecting the cosmic representations of ancient farmers about the solar deity and mysterious plant principles that turn grains into stems, which in turn give rise to many of the same grains.
In the territory of Donbass there was a metallurgical center. This is also confirmed by the finds in Donetsk catacomb burials of stone beater, which were used to crush ore before washing and smelting. In the inventory of the catacomb culture, objects from bronze are presented: leaf-shaped knives, axes with eyes, awls and bronze jewelry, but most of the implements were still made of stone and bone. In the Dmitrov mound No. 6 in the Zaporizhzhya region, at the entrance to the burial chamber, a wooden catacombs cart was found with a fully preserved wheel 5 thousand years old. A two-wheeled wagon with a preserved wheel 0.6 m in diameter is known from the Tyagunova Mogila catacomb burial in the Zaporizhzhya village of Maryevka. In the burial complex of Ulan IV of the West Manych catacomb culture in the Rostov Region, a four-wheeled wagon made in the XXIII century BC was discovered. e.
Skulls of the catacomb stage are distinguished by brachycrania and a higher arch than in the pit culture. Male skulls are characterized by a high mesocrane skull, highly profiled broad face, wide cheekbones, high transference, very large protrusion of the nasal bones. In the Dnieper steppe there are three craniological options:
– brachycranic – does not find analogues of the Bronze Age.
– mesocrane – reveals a distant resemblance to the skulls of the Afanasyev culture of Altai.
– dolichocranial – similar to the culture groups of Noua and Srubnaya.
If we talk about the catacomb culture, apparently, the rite of neutralization of the dead, the dismemberment of dead bodies to neutralize their harm to the living, was not only inherited from the pits, but also received further development. So, among the catacomb tribes, the custom of decapitation (separation of the head), which can be considered on the example of the Middle Don catacomic culture, has spread.
Findings of burials with separated skulls are recorded throughout the distribution area of the Middle Don catacomb culture from the Seversky Donets to the Don-Volga interfluve (Khoper River).On the territory of the Middle Don, among more than 400 burials of the Middle Don catacomb culture, five burials with skeletons are known, in which the separation of the skull of the buried is reliably recorded.
All considered burials were accompanied by ocher, which was located both in separate burial places and completely covered the skeleton of the buried. In each burial, ocher, as it were, emphasizes the special ritual significance of the objects it accompanies. This type of “special burials” is characterized by a variety of accompanying equipment. The set of equipment in each burial is individual, but a common feature for all burials is its originality. Almost all decapitated burials were accompanied by animal bones. In addition, two fortunetelling bones are a particularly interesting find. According to some researchers, the “dice”, but rather the fortunetellers, that is, the buried was a representative of the priestly group. “Bones with signs” or dice, namely fortunetelling bones, originally had cult character, were the prerogative of a certain class associated with the performance of priestly functions. Among the cult objects is the flute, as well as the bone hairpin (Vlasovka 12/3). The dead already have artificial deformation of the skulls. According to A.T. Sinyuka, all burials where a burial ritual of burial was used, indicate the high social status of the deceased. Only prominent representatives of society and their immediate circle could claim burial places under the mound. But even from this series of burials, according to special signs, decapitated burials stand out. Researchers believe that it is possible to assert with sufficient confidence that decapitated burials are not specifics of a particular culture of the catacomb community, but most likely have a supercultural character, reflecting the complex social structure of tribes carrying catacomb traditions. Found the burial of a teenage girl. Stuffed with boulders. Weighing hundreds of kilograms, which speaks of considerable fear inspired by such a young creature. But faith in the “evil” deceased seems obvious and proven.
Srubnaya culture
The cultural-historical community is an ethnocultural association of the late Bronze Age (XVIII – XII centuries BC, according to other estimates – XVI – XII centuries BC. Some scholars, like S. Berestnev I. that the timber culture existed before IX BC, common in the steppe and forest-steppe bands of Eastern Europe between the Dnieper and the Urals, with individual
