Afanasyev archaeological culture belonged to the Early Bronze Age - the second half of the III – the first half of the II millennium BC. S. A. Teploukhov singled it out in 1927, and named it by the mountain in Khakassia, where its first burial ground was discovered.
About location
It should be noted that in the analysis of the Afanasyev culture in South Siberia, many dates were obtained that reached 32-35 centuries BC, but there are also separate dates from the 39th century, as well as 5000 years BC.
The culture was distributed in the upper Yenisei, in Altai. It rises in the Khakass-Minusinsk depression, Eastern Kazakhstan, Western Mongolia. It was one of the first Caucasoid cultures in southern Siberia. She changed the Mongoloid population.
About the graves
The main monuments of the Afanasyev culture are represented by burial grounds. Traces of settlements were not explored so much. The burial grounds were not large, they were pits that covered stone pavements and embankments from above.
Graves were surrounded by rings of stone or fences of stone slabs, and in the center of them were earthen and stone structures. At the fence were small children's fences. The deceased Afanasyev culture laid down with bent legs or on the right side. They were sprinkled with ocher on top. All lay in the same positions, there are paired burials - men and women, women with a child, a man and several women.
About Products
Afanasyevskaya culture left a small number of bronze items - these are knives, games, jewelry. For the most part, its carriers were armed with stone arrowheads, axes, and scrapers. There were ceramic vessels, the bottom of which was pointed. They were decorated with Christmas tree ornaments with comb dies or blunt sticks.
Huge boilers for cooking food carriers Afanasyevsky culture dug in the hearth. They also had large vessels, the capacity of which reached 200 liters. Censer bowls on four legs were found.
Representatives of the Afanasyev culture led a settled life, were engaged in breeding cows, sheep, horses. They hunted, fished with nets.
In the neighboring regions, in Kazakhstan, the Neolithic people, who represented the Chinese culture, lived. Representatives of the Poltava culture lived in the west. In the regions of Kazakhstan, the Afanasyevites were replaced by the Okunev culture, represented by the Mongoloid population.
About the anthropological type
Considering living in Central Asia, on the map this culture should have been marked with Mongoloid features. However, the type of its carriers is protoeuropoid. Studies have shown that people here had long skulls of medium height, their forehead was strongly inclined, and their brow was developed. The orbits were low and the nasal opening was high. And at the same time, this is not a monolithic type.
About origin
An analysis of the appearance of the dishes, burial rites, anthropological type made it possible to say about people living in Xinjiang of the Uigur Autonomous Region that they were aliens from the Ponto-Caspian steppes. They were an offshoot of the Yamnaya culture. It is this point of view that archaeologists adhere to who directly managed to work with the Afanasyev culture in Altai.
Thanks to the analysis of genomes, it was possible to establish that a truly consistent connection with the Yamnaya culture existed in these individuals. At the same time, anthropological studies have shown the diversity of culture - it was mixed.
Strange facts also take place here - for example, the censer bowls here resemble catacomb ones. But Afanasevskaya culture was ahead of the time of the catacomb.
Many consider the Afanasyevites to be Proto-Tochars, since they were Indo-Europeans. Their appearance in the Middle Ages in neighboring areas can be explained by the movement of the Afanasyevites. After all, the habitats of these peoples are located close to each other.
But in order to precisely state this, it is necessary to confirm the fact that the pit culture was pre-Indo-European. But if the pit culture is attributed to the Aryan, then the Afanasyevites could not be Pratocharas, this is the branch of the Aryans. In addition, the Chumerchek culture claims to be the Pratochar.
About metals
The appearance of the Afanasyevites is associated with the movement of proto-European cattle breeders to Altai. When the Afanasyevites came here, the era of the Bronze Age began. The alien tribes understood, unlike the locals, how to find stones in the mountains, from which, when glowing, unusual material is obtained. When the pieces cooled down, they gave the material various shapes that were inaccessible to stone, bone, and wood products. It was copper. Adding arsenic to copper, they received solid bronze.
It was from these materials that they created needles and awls, which showed much more strength than bone. Knives were created from this material, which, unlike stone ones, were easier to sharpen. They cut deep grooves in the bones and tree.
In fishing, the Afanasyevites used copper hooks, which were much more convenient to use than bulky stone and bone ones. Thanks to copper shackles, these people carried out repairs on wooden utensils.
Moreover, other metals were known to them. They highly valued gold and silver, making wire spiral ornaments and rings from them. Once in one of the graves was found and a bracelet made of meteorite iron, which is easy to forge.
About marriage
It is noteworthy that the Afanasyevites did not marry the local Mongoloid population, and thanks to this, their racial type remained for many years. The most deeply studied monuments of this culture belong to the afterlife.
In burial grounds, 5–20 barrows were found. Sometimes for one fence there were two or three graves. Usually the dead were buried in the warm season. If a person died in winter, until spring he was left in a temporary storage, separating his head from his body. 1-2 ceramic vessels were placed in the graves. Quite rarely, stone axes, pestles, knives, awls and needles were left here. Usually, weapons were not left in burials. Separately, the elders were buried.
About life
Throughout the long migrations, the Afanasyevites were surrounded by hostile tribes with whom clashes occurred. It was difficult to negotiate as speakers of different languages. If the settlers were Caucasians, then the locals were Mongoloids who hunted, but did not know that cattle could be raised.
It is believed that the Afanasyevites reached Khakassia, having traveled several thousand kilometers. There were beliefs that somewhere in the distance they were waiting for a new homeland. Once in Khakassia, they noticed grassy pastures rich in grass, on which there were no pastoralists.
The arrival of these pilgrims marked the beginning of a producing economy in the area. Since that time, the tradition of erecting stone-and-earth funerary structures began to spread in Khakassia. The round fence around the funerary hills probably served as a separator for the world of the living and the dead, which these ancient people believed should not be in contact.
Mounds of power
Along with standard burials, separate burials of leaders were also practiced. So, if the width of ordinary graves was 0.5-1 m, then here it reached 5 m. The diameter of such mounds was 20 m. The initial height of such graves is 2 m, and this is twice as much as usual.
In one of these mounds, the old leader and his wife were buried. Their heads were cut off, and the remains of infants surrounded them. In the grave there was a vessel-vault with a rod of power, it was decorated with carnations. Probably, the very leader was buried here, thanks to the iron will of which the Afanasyevites reached Khakassia.
About food
Very important was the fact that the Afanasyevites switched from hunting to cattle breeding and agriculture. The remnants of the meat that they put in the burial grounds next to the dishes helped to establish it. Among the remains of domestic animals here were found the bones of a ram, a cow, a horse.
But often the meat of wild animals — bulls, chipmunks, foxes, and bison — was often left as food for those buried. Thus, hunting was as important for the Afanasyevites as cattle breeding.
About the dishes
For the most part, dishes from this culture were primitive. She crumbled quickly, her body was porous. Each vessel was burned at the stake, before that ornaments were placed on it. There are very few smooth dishes. Most likely, people cooked vegetables and meat in vessels.
About settlements
Afanasyev residents lived in small settlements, which were most likely represented by dugouts and log cabins. Most likely, around their settlements there were crops and fences for livestock. And this was reflected in the way they organized the mounds.
Funeral monuments also shed light on the social system of these tribes. They do not reflect any sign of inequality, dependence of men or women. Paired burials are rare. At the same time, burials of a man and a woman are rarely found in pairs, usually there are two women, two men, two children.
Equality of settlers is reflected in the large collective graves that are found in each burial ground. In those, up to 8 people could be buried. And among the buried there is no one who stands out by his position in the grave or by the wealth of related objects. On the contrary, food was left for everyone at a time. For this reason, one cannot say that it could be a funeral of a significant person with subordinates or family members. These were mass graves.
Much indicates the fact that, as elsewhere, in primitive society, due to poor nutrition and difficult living conditions, the mortality rate of children was high. Died children accounted for half of all buried.
They were buried in the same way as adults. They were placed in the same fences where their relatives lay. But not all burial grounds have children, which means that there were special children's cemeteries.
Most often, there are traces of ocher in the graves. She survived on the bones of many skeletons. It was probably a symbol of blood, life. Representatives of the Afanasyev culture could paint the bodies with ocher, as their descendants - Okunev tribes - with a magical purpose. Ocher was stirred in censers, which were also used for fumigation and stupefying. The ocher probably protected them from spoilage and disease. The fact that the local tribes had ideas about magic is indicated by the peculiarities of jewelry - drilled fangs of predatory animals, claws of bears. In addition, the buried people always laid their heads exclusively strictly to the west or south-west, which indicates the presence of a cult of the sun.