Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T01:07:21.133Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Catacomb culture wagons of the Eurasian steppes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2015

N.I. Shishlina ,
D.S. Kovalev  and
E.R. Ibragimova
N.I. Shishlina*
Affiliation:
State Historical Museum, Red Square 1, Moscow 109012, Russia (Email: nshishlina@mail.ru)
D.S. Kovalev
Affiliation:
JSC ‘Heritage’, Nikitsky Boulevard 12a, Moscow 119019, Russia
E.R. Ibragimova
Affiliation:
State Historical Museum, Red Square 1, Moscow 109012, Russia (Email: nshishlina@mail.ru)
*
*Author for correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The origin and development of wheeled vehicles continues to fascinate today no less than when Stuart Piggott (1974) first wrote about the subject in Antiquity 40 years ago. A growing number of examples from the steppes of southern Russia and Ukraine are providing new insights into the design and construction of these complex artefacts. A recent example from the Ulan IV burial mound illustrates the techniques employed and the mastery of materials, with careful selection of the kinds of wood used for the wheels, axles and other elements. Stable isotope analysis of the individual interred in this grave showed that he had travelled widely, emphasising the mobility of steppe populations.

Keywords

Eurasian steppesBronze AgeCatacomb culturewheeled vehiclesisotopes
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 340 , 01 June 2014 , pp. 378 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreeva, M.V. 1984. Clay wagon model from the Catacomb culture grave. Soviet Archaeology 3: 201–205.Google Scholar
Andreeva, M.V. 1996. The role of wagons in the funerary ritual of the eastern Manych Katacomb culture, in Olkchovsky, V.S. (ed.) Actual problems of the North Caucasus archeology (XIX Krupnov Readings): 13 — 14. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60.Google Scholar
Cherednichenko, N.N. & Pustovalov, S.Zh.. 1991. Warrior chariots and chariot riders in the Catacomb culture society (data from the Lower Dnieper excavation). Soviet Archaeology: 4: 206–18.Google Scholar
Derzhavin, V.L. 1989. Bronze Age graves from Veselaya Roscha kurgans (expedition, 1980), in Munchaev, R.M. (ed.) The Stavropol antiquity: 125–94. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Gak, E.I. 2007. Common and specific features in the metal production of the Catacomb cultures of the Donetsk, Lower Don and north Caucasus piedmont areas, in Sanzharov, N. (ed.) From the Neolithic to the Cimmerians: 95–102. Lugansk: CNU.Google Scholar
Gak, E.N. & Kalmykov, A.A.. 2009. Yamnaya-Novotitorovka heritage in the metal production of the Catacomb cultures of the central and eastern part of the steppe north Caucasus piedmont area, in Morgunova, N.L. (ed.) Problems of the investigation ofthe Early Bronze Age cultures of the steppe zone of Eastern Europe: 104–19. Orenburg: Orenburg State University.Google Scholar
Gening, V.F., Zdanovitch, G.B. & Gening, V.V.. 1992. Sintashta. Archeological sites of Arians of the Ural-Kazakhstan steppes. Vol. 1. Chelyabinsk: Chelyabinsk State University.Google Scholar
Gey, A.N. 2000. Novotitorovskaya culture. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Kalmykov, A.A. 2007. Tonmodelle von Wiegen aus mittelbronzezeitlichen Bestattungen im Egorlyk-Kalaussk-Zwischenstromgebeit. Eurasia Antiqua 13: 113–38.Google Scholar
Kalmykov, A.A. & Golyeva, A.A.. 2009. Research of microscopic biogenic particles and wood samples from Bronze Age burials in the Ipatovo kurgans, in Belinksy, A.B. (ed.) Materials on the investigation of historical-cultural heritage of the north Caucasus. Vol. IX: 147–76. Stavropol: GUP “Heritage”.Google Scholar
Korpusova, V.N. & Lyashko, S.N.. 1990. Catacomb culture with wheat from Crimea. Soviet Archaeology 3: 166–75.Google Scholar
Morgunova, N.L. & Turetsky, M.A.. 2003. Yamnaya culture sites near the village of Shumayevo: new data on the wheeled transport of the western Orenburg area population during the Early Metal epoch, in Vasilyev, I.B. (ed.) Archaeology of the Volga region problems: 144–59. Samara: Samara Pedagogical University.Google Scholar
Novozhenov, V.A. 2012. Communications and earliest wheeled transport of Eurasia. Moscow: TAUS.Google Scholar
Orfinskaya, O.V., Shishlina, N.I. & Golikov, V.P.. 2003. Head-dress from the Catacomb culture grave from Shakhaevskaya 1 on the river Manych, in Vasilyev, I.B. (ed.) Archaeology of the Volga region problems: 261–67. Samara: Samara Pedagogical University.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1974. Chariots in the Caucasus and in China. Antiquity 48: 16–24.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C. Bronk, Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & Van Der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine 13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azujsrc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Rogudeyev, V.V. 2008. Graves with wagons of the Late Catacomb time and problems of the chariots, in Vasilenko, A.I. (ed.) The origin and spread of chariot riding: 71–90. Lugansk: Globus.Google Scholar
Romanovskaya, M.A. 1982. Wagons of the Bronze Age from the Stavropol area. Kratkii Soobscheniya Instituta Archeologii 169: 102–108.Google Scholar
Shishlina, N.I. 2008. Reconstruction of the Bronze Age of the Caspian steppes. Life styles and life ways of pastoral nomads (British Archaeological Reports international series 1876). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Shishlina, N.I. 2011. Bronze Age Eurasian steppe cultures: problems of identification of the level of mobility of population and migration, in Nosov, E.N. (ed.) Papers of the III (XIX) Russian Archaeological Congress: 300–302. Saint Petersburg: IIMK RAS.Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, I.V. & Erdniyev, U.E.. 1966. New archeological sites on the Kalmykia ASSR area (excavation of 1962-1963). Elista: Elista Books.Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, I.V. & Erdniyev, U.E.. 1971. Elista burial ground. Elista: Elista Books.Google Scholar
Smirnov, A.M. 2004. Creators of the Bronze Age wagons in the Pontic-Caspian steppes: identification of professional tools and graves of masters, in Gulyaev, V.I. (ed.) Ethnocultural interaction and cultural destinies: 20–30. Moscow: Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Trifonov, V.A. 2004. Die Majkop-Kultur und die erstenWagen in der sudrussischen Steppe, in Burmeister, S. & Fansa, M. (ed.) Rad und Wagen: 167–76. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.Google Scholar
Vlaskin, N.M. 2008. The new catacomb burials with wheels in the Nizhniy Don region, in Vasilenko, A.I. (ed.) The origin and spread of chariot riding: 91–99. Lugansk: Globus.Google Scholar
Vlaskin, N.M. 2010. Comparative study of Manych type cultures of the Middle Bronze Age. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Institute of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg.Google Scholar