tribes of Central Kazakhstan, proposed a new chronological framework for the stages, extending the Nurin stage (synchronous to Fedorov) from the end of III to the beginning of II millennium BC. e., almost 5 centuries; Atasu (synchronous to Alakul) until the 18th century BC e., i.e. for 4 centuries, and the transition period to the Late Bronze Age to the XIII century. BC e., i.e. for one century, leaving the dating of the Begazy-Dandybaev culture as early as the 10th-8th centuries unchanged. BC e.
The northern border of the spread of Andronovo culture coincides with the border of the taiga. In the Volga basin, a noticeable influence of the logging culture is felt. Pottery of the Fedorovo type was discovered in the Volgograd region. The issues of chronology and cultural affiliation of the late bronze monuments of Northern Kazakhstan were developed by S. Ya. Zdanovich, who singled out the Sargarine culture of the final stage of the Bronze Age, dating it to the X – VIII or even IX – VIII centuries. BC e.
Sintashta, bracelet with volute.
In the Siberian steppes, a common economic and cultural type of shepherds and pastoralists and farmers developed for all Andronovites; Andronovtsy settled down in long-term semi-dugouts. Their villages were located in river valleys rich in pastures and fertile land suitable for agriculture. The herd was dominated by cattle, sheep, horses. Andronovites became the first riders in the Asian steppes. Cattle were kept on pastures for most of the year under the supervision of shepherds, and in winter – in special pens. Cereals were cultivated on lungs to cultivate floodplain lands. The soil was manually cultivated with stone and bronze hoes. Hunting and fishing were not of great importance in economic life. They lived poorly, settled in large families in dugouts, located quite far from each other; many times they created settlements, but chaotic, spontaneous, without a clear plan. Settlements in the form of 10 to 20 large dwellings.
Chariot on the blackened vessel, SHM
The dwellings were semi-dugouts and ground log cabins. Some settlements (for example, settlements in the Petrovka and Bogolyubovo regions) were surrounded by moats and ramparts, the land for which was taken during a fragment of the moat. A wooden picket fence was built on top of the shafts. For passage inside, jumpers were left in the ditch, and gates were arranged in the shaft for the passage of chariots.
Andronovtsy were tribes of metallurgists. They owned copper and tin mines and delivered metal far to the west. Their casters provided a wide production of tools (sickles, axes, Celts) and weapons (daggers, bushings, spears with a leaf-shaped pen), including outside the Andronovo range. Copper ore deposits were developed in Kazakhstan, as well as in the Altai Mountains. Burials were made in pits with stone embankments, sometimes surrounded by fences made of stone slabs. Burials using wooden cladding are encountered. The dead were laid in a crouched position, hands were laid in front of the face. In the burials find flint arrowheads, bronze tools and weapons, jewelry, ceramics. The deceased was sometimes burned. Vessels with a flat bottom were decorated at the top and at the very bottom with impressions of a thin comb stamp or carved lines, often in the form of a variety of geometric shapes – meanders, triangles, crosses, swastikas and meanders. Of the ornaments, again, spiral bracelets, temporal lobed rings, open bracelets with a volute, figure below.
Weapons, decorations
The horse was a consuming and important character among the ornaments characteristic of bronze combat knives. A stocky horse with a thick mane, a large head and sensitively guarded ears froze on the top of a crooked knife. The short man gripped the reins tightly and glides on widely spaced skis. This, already famous, sculptural group from the Rostovka burial ground points to one of the oldest ways to move a person in tow after a fast-jumping animal.
Figurine, man rides a horse on skis
Genetic studies of Andronov’s remains showed that the culture representatives had the Y chromosome haplogroup R1a1, R1b M73, Q1a and the Y chromosome haplogroup C (prd M48) and mitochondrial haplogroups U, Z, T, H, K, and HV. In one study of 2015, the Y chromosome haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2-Z2124 and mitochondrial haplogroups U2 were found, in another study of 2015, a mitochondrial haplogroup A10 * was found in a representative of the Fedorov culture (Tartas-1). The closest to Andronovites were representatives of the European culture of cord ceramics and Sintashta culture, as well as modern Indian populations, according to a study by Keyser C. et al. “Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people.”
What did all these peoples call themselves? I would venture to suggest that the Huns or Ghans, or rather, the Hans, and this is confirmed by the myth of Hannimed of Asia Minor. King Guney of Thessaly, as well as the names of the barrows in Russia and Germany, and in Russia, this literally means “KUR-GAN” – “possession of the Gans”, hens – possession, the cossack’s hens, and the name of the city of Kursk. And in Germany there are also such “Hünegrab” – “grave of the hun (giant)” and “Hünebett” – “the bed of the hun (giant)”. In Dutch also – Hunebed – a giant’s bed. It is very likely that it was at this time, and these peoples. Judging by the legends of the Narts and the legends of the Egyptians, the Huns-Hans were mysterious Hyksos-shepherd kings, because the cities founded by these tribes in the Nile Delta were given names in honor of the distant ancestral home – Tanais (Tanis) and Avaris, and here on the historical stage go Avars Avars, who became the ancestors of the current Avars.
Cimmerians and Scythians
Cimmerians
Next comes the time of the Cimmerians, the predecessors of the Scythians. Although judging by the images of this people by the Greeks, they are indistinguishable from each other. Cimmerians (Akkad. Gimirāia, other Greek Κιμμέριοι) are nomadic tribes that invaded Transcaucasia in the second half of the VIII century BC. e. and in the 7th century BC e. conquered some areas of Asia Minor. Also the conditional name of the so-called “pre-Scythian” peoples of the Northern Black Sea region of the Iron Age. Gimirra from Assyrian sources can be identical to the Cimmerians of ancient authors, driven out from the steppes to the Middle East by the advance of the Scythians. By the way, now there is the city of Gyumri in the Caucasus in Armenia, and the city of Kimry in Russia, and the village of Gimry in Dagestan. The period of existence of the ethno-cultural community of the Cimmerians fell on the 1st half of the 1st millennium BC. e., according to ancient narrative sources and modern archaeological data, the traces of the Cimmerians are fairly reliably traced in the VIII – VII centuries BC. e. The region of residence of the Cimmerians is the Northern and Eastern Black Sea (Crimea, Priazovye, Taman, the western Ciscaucasia and the Caucasus); there is also information about the penetration of the Cimmerians into western Transcaucasia and Asia Minor.
In the 1st millennium BC. e. on the territory of Eurasia, an important historical era has come – the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age. Written testimonies of the Cimmerians were preserved among the peoples who had written language who directly came into contact with them: in the chronicles of the Assyrians, in the Urartian and Biblical texts, in ancient authors.
Data on the language of the Cimmerians is limited to the tribal name itself and 3 names of their leaders; Iranian etymologies were proposed for all these words, not one of which is indisputable. Given the cultural affinity of the Cimmerians and Scythians according to written sources and archeological
