The transition of Russia from the Bronze to the Iron Age. Transition from Bronze to Iron Age

Iron Age, an era in the primitive and early class history of mankind, characterized by the spread of iron metallurgy and the manufacture of iron tools. Replaced by the Bronze Age mainly at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. The use of iron gave a powerful stimulus to the development of production and accelerated social development. In the Iron Age, most peoples experienced the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the transition to a class society.

The period of the initial spread of the iron industry was experienced by all countries at different times, but the Iron Age usually includes only the cultures of primitive tribes that lived outside the territories of ancient slave-owning civilizations that arose in the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, India, China, etc. ). The Iron Age is very short compared to previous archaeological eras (Stone and Bronze Ages). Its chronological boundaries: from 9-7 centuries. BC e. Initially, meteorite iron became known to mankind. Individual objects made of iron (mainly jewelry) from the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. found in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. The method of obtaining iron from ore was discovered in the 2nd millennium BC. e. However, for a long time iron remained a rare and very valuable metal.

Only after the 11th century. BC e. A fairly widespread production of iron weapons and tools began in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and India. At the same time, iron became famous in southern Europe. The technical revolution caused by the spread of iron and steel greatly expanded man's power over nature: it became possible to clear large forest areas for crops, expand and improve irrigation and reclamation structures, and generally improve land cultivation. The development of crafts, especially blacksmithing and weapons, is accelerating. Craftsmen, from shoemakers and masons to miners, also received more advanced tools. By the beginning of our era, all the main types of craft and agricultural hand tools (except for screws and hinged scissors), used in the Middle Ages, and partly in modern times, were already in use. The construction of roads became easier, military equipment improved, exchange expanded, and metal coins became widespread as a means of circulation.

The development of productive forces associated with the spread of iron, over time, led to the transformation of all social life. As a result of the growth in labor productivity, the surplus product increased, which, in turn, served as an economic prerequisite for the emergence of exploitation of man by man and the collapse of the tribal primitive communal system. One of the sources of accumulation of values ​​and growth of property inequality was the expansion of exchange during the Iron Age. The possibility of enrichment through exploitation gave rise to wars for the purpose of robbery and enslavement. At the beginning of the Iron Age, fortifications became widespread.

During the Iron Age, the tribes of Europe and Asia experienced the stage of collapse of the primitive communal system, and were on the eve of the emergence of class society and the state. The transition of some means of production into the private ownership of the ruling minority, the emergence of slavery, the increased stratification of society and the separation of the tribal aristocracy from the bulk of the population are already features typical of early class societies. For many tribes, the social structure of this transition period took the political form of the so-called. military democracy.

If the invention of bronze significantly contributed to the progress of human material culture, then an equally important step forward was made with the introduction of iron. Copper and bronze were convenient materials for vessels and utensils, but not hard enough for tools and weapons. Although archaeologists have discovered a significant number of bronze swords, they were probably mostly used as rapiers, since bronze is too fragile for slashing. Only after the sword was made of iron did it become a formidable weapon. The situation was similar with agricultural tools: only with the invention of the iron plow did agriculture enter a new stage of development.

As we have seen, iron began to be used much later than bronze. It has been known in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia since at least 1300 BC. After 1000 BC its use spread to Koban, in the North Caucasus region. The earliest iron products in both Central Russia and Ukraine can be dated back to 900 BC. It was around this time that iron was introduced into Greece. In central Europe, the beginning of the Iron Age, known as the Hallstatt culture, established itself in the first half of the first millennium BC. In the second half of the millennium, a richer and more subtle iron culture developed, known as the La Tène culture. Its usual carriers were the Celts. Around 500 BC The expansion of the Celts in southeastern Europe began, and with it the La Tène culture spread. In the first quarter of the third century BC. The Celts reached Western Ukraine, Bessarabia and the Balkan Peninsula. Just as it was with copper and bronze, iron came into use only gradually. In many regions, iron tools initially only replaced bronze ones. This is also true for the development of iron culture throughout Russia. Although iron products appeared in both Central Russia and Ukraine around 900 BC, as we have seen, centuries had to pass before the arrival of a true Iron Age in these parts.

It should be noted that in Russia natural conditions were more favorable for the development of the iron industry than the copper and bronze industry. The iron deposits of the Dnieper basin were too deep to be exploited by primitive techniques, but in Western Ukraine and Central and Northern Russia there were many surface or near-surface ore deposits, mainly near lakes and swamps. Both the Slavs and the Finns began to use local iron ores only around the beginning of the Christian era. Ore at this time was smelted using primitive methods, in ditches and pits. During the Antes period, from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD, the iron industry was greatly improved in the south, and smelting furnaces were already in use.

At the beginning of the Iron Age, the Black Sea steppes were controlled by the Cimmerians, a people similar to the Thracians. In the seventh century BC. The Cimmerians were replaced by the Scythians, who migrated to Southern Russia from Kazakhstan. The Scythians are, of course, not the first wave of Eurasian nomads to reach the Black Sea steppes from the east, but they are the first about whom we have certain information. The Scythian movement to the west must have been accompanied over time by numerous invasions of other nomads. It seems logical, therefore, to coordinate the outline of our brief survey of the cultural spheres of Eurasia in the Cimmerian and Scythian eras with the direction of the major migrations. Therefore, we need to turn first to Siberia and Kazakhstan, then to the Caucasus and Crimea, and then explore the archaeological base of the Black Sea steppes and Central and Northern Russia.

SIBERIA AND TURKESTAN.

We can assume that in the first millennium BC, as in the previous millennium, Northern Turkestan and Southern Siberia were culturally closely interconnected. Both regions were still living in the Copper and Bronze Ages. This was the heyday of the Minusinsk culture, so named because the Minusinsk region - i.e. the valley of the upper Yenisei - was one of its most important centers. The Sayan Mountains, located in this region, are especially rich in copper ore. Numerous burials of the Minusinsk type are scattered throughout the steppe zone of Southern Siberia. They provide evidence of significant population density. Animal husbandry, agriculture and hunting were the main branches of the economy of the Minusinsk people.

The first stage of the Minusinsk culture can be dated to the eighth and seventh centuries BC. Burial mounds from this period are low and usually surrounded by a square stone fence. The burial chamber was lined from the inside with stone slabs or wood. One or more bodies were in each chamber. The chamber also contained grave goods, consisting of clay vases with carved ornaments and bronze mirrors, copper and bronze daggers, knives, hatchets, arrowheads, awls, needles and fishing hooks. Decorations include conical beads and hemispherical plates, decorated with bone combs. Copper and bronze chisels with recesses are also characteristic of Minusinsk-type sites.

The second stage of Minusinsk culture reached its full expression in the second half of the first millennium BC. The burial mounds of this period are wide and high; the internal masonry usually consists of large stones, as before, and the sides of the square are oriented with compass arrows. Burial chambers are usually very spacious, so that several bodies can be easily accommodated. According to S. Teplukhov, each chamber was adapted for an entire family or even clan. In later burials, the funeral procedure was preceded by cremation. The grave goods include clay vases, but most of them are without ornament; copper and bronze hatchets, daggers, knives, punches, metal plates, glass and jasper beads. Some of these objects are decorated with figures of a deer, a goat and some other animals, drawn in a certain style: the eyes and nostrils of the animals, as well as the ends of the feet and tails, have a rounded outline, the shoulders and thighs protrude, the ears are long and at times directed forward. While the stylization is more pronounced than in the Scythian objects of southern Russia, the basis of the ornament is the same.

Burial sites of the Scythian period in Kazakhstan have been intensively studied over the past few years in connection with archaeological research in Khorezm. So far, however, less material has been published regarding Kazakhstan than regarding the Minusinsk area. Excavations by P.S. Rykov in the Karaganda region brought evidence of continuity of cultural development, since in several cases old graves of the Andronovo type were reused in the Scythian period.

CAUCASUS AND GREEK CITIES ON THE NORTH COAST OF THE BLACK SEA.

While bronze dominated Siberia during the Scythian-Cimmerian era, the Caucasus was rapidly entering the Iron Age. The oldest iron objects found in Koban graves can date back to approximately 1000 BC. The iron decorations of Koban belts have already been mentioned. Gradually, various iron products appeared in the North Caucasus region; they included axes, adzes, hoes, and plows. Perhaps the most ancient iron objects found in the Caucasus were imported from the kingdom of Urartu, just as happened with the Ancient Bronze. Later, the iron industry developed locally. There are more than ten iron deposits in the Trans-Caucasus and North Caucasus regions, which could serve as the basis for a local iron industry. Two ancient iron smelters were discovered recently (1928) in Chuber, Upper Svaneti. Layers of slag were left on platforms and hillsides. The belt of forges was open on the slopes of the hill, with layers of slag all around. Each forge was lined from the inside with clay. The forge was filled with ore and fuel through a pit built from chopped stones cemented with clay. The iron smelted at Chuber was of high quality, as is clear from the tools found there.

Chuber iron smelters must have already existed around 250 BC, although the exact date of their appearance is unknown. Other similar smelters in the Caucasus could have been built even earlier. It is possible that the tradition of Greek authors of the fifth and fourth centuries regarding the Chalibs, a blacksmith people, may refer to the Caucasian iron smelters. The art of iron smelting had to be kept secret for a considerable time by the families of smelters in order to preserve their own privileges. Therefore, while the products they made were exported, their technology did not initially spread beyond the Caucasus. It was the Greeks who became intermediaries in the iron trade between the Caucasus and the northern Black Sea region. Numerous colonies were established along the northern shores of the Black Sea as early as the seventh century BC, and some of them soon became quite prosperous. Cities located on both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait) were especially active in the Caucasian trade in metals.

BLACK SEA STEPPE.

During the Cimmerian period, the population of the Black Sea steppes mainly used bronze tools and goods, although iron products had been known since 900 BC. Later, the Scythians brought with them their own distinct culture, which included both bronze and iron. Rich gold and silver jewelry was especially characteristic of this culture. Scythian mounds (burial sites), dating from the sixth to third centuries BC, stretch across a wide steppe zone from the Danube to the Ural River. Thousands of them have been excavated: most of them are low with rather poor inventory. Most likely, those buried in them were simple warriors, in some cases not even Scythians, but representatives of conquered tribes. The graves of Scythian kings and nobles, on the contrary, are especially rich in gold and jewelry. The hills above them are high. The early group of Scythian burials includes the Litoy mound, near Elisavetgrad, between the Dnieper and Bug rivers (excavated in the eighteenth century), and the Kelermes mound in the North Caucasus region. Both can be dated back to the sixth century BC. It is obvious that in this ancient period the Scythian kingdom was based geographically in both the Dnieper and Kuban regions.

The Mound of the Seven Brothers (Semibratny) in the Taman region, in the delta of the Kuban River, represents the "Middle Ages" of Scythian rule in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Among the late Scythian mounds from the fifth to fourth centuries the following can be named: Karagodeuashkh in the North Caucasus region; Kul-Oba near Kerch in Crimea; Chertomlyk, Alexandropol, Solokha in the area of ​​the Dnieper rapids. Many large mounds from the same period are located between the southern bend of the Dnieper and the Sea of ​​Azov.

The location of the large mounds is important for understanding the political geography of the Scythian region. There were apparently three main centers of this region, namely the North Caucasus region, the Crimea and the Lower Dnieper region, especially the rapids zone. This last zone is associated with the region named Gerchoi by Herodotus. According to this historian, it was here that the Scythians buried their kings. Gerhoy was a closed zone into which no foreigner was allowed. The main Scythian horde grazed its horses between Gerkhoi and the sea in order to increase the inaccessibility of the royal mounds. As a result, the Greeks did not have precise information regarding the Gerhoy area, and it is significant that Herodotus was unable to provide any information about the Dnieper rapids. It is clear that none of his informants knew about them or in any case dared to talk about them. So, Herodotus could only conclude from the stories of local residents in Olbia that the Dnieper was suitable for navigation only to the Gerkhoy region.

The tombs of Scythian leaders usually contain large amounts of gold and silver jewelry, and bronze weapons found in these tombs are also decorated with gold plates. Sometimes iron swords are found. The wives, slaves and horses of the Scythian leaders were usually buried with them. The so-called animal style is the leading feature of Scythian art. Metal bowls, bow quivers, belts, sword hilts, horse harnesses and various other objects are decorated with figures of animals such as panther, tiger, deer, horse, bull and often scenes of animal life. The predator is usually shown tearing apart a herbivore with its claws. The Scythian animal style is to a certain extent similar to that present in the Minusinsk culture, although more subtle. The sophistication of the Scythian style is an obvious result of the contact of the Scythians with the Greeks in the Black Sea steppes. First-class Greek artists were hired by the Scythian kings, and in this way steppe art was fertilized by Greek technology. Later, this Greco-Scythian style influenced in turn the development of Hellenistic art.

1. Transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age

If the invention of bronze significantly contributed to the progress of human material culture, then an equally important step forward was made with the introduction of iron. Copper and bronze were convenient materials for vessels and utensils, but not hard enough for tools and weapons. Although archaeologists have discovered a significant number of bronze swords, they were probably mostly used as rapiers, since bronze is too fragile for slashing. Only after the sword was made of iron did it become a formidable weapon. The situation was similar with agricultural tools: only with the invention of the iron plow did agriculture enter a new stage of development.
As we have seen, iron began to be used much later than bronze. It has been known in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia since at least 1300 BC. After 1000 BC its use spread to Koban, in the North Caucasus region. The earliest iron products in both Central Russia and Ukraine can be dated back to 900 BC. It was around this time that iron was introduced into Greece. In central Europe, the beginning of the Iron Age, known as the Hallstatt culture, established itself in the first half of the first millennium BC. In the second half of the millennium, a richer and more subtle iron culture developed, known as the La Tène culture. Its usual carriers were the Celts. Around 500 BC The expansion of the Celts in southeastern Europe began, and with it the La Tène culture spread. In the first quarter of the third century BC. The Celts reached Western Ukraine, Bessarabia and the Balkan Peninsula. Just as it was with copper and bronze, iron came into use only gradually. In many regions, iron tools initially only replaced bronze ones. This is also true for the development of iron culture throughout Russia. Although iron products appeared in both Central Russia and Ukraine around 900 BC, as we have seen, centuries had to pass before the arrival of a true Iron Age in these parts.
It should be noted that in Russia natural conditions were more favorable for the development of the iron industry than the copper and bronze industry. The iron deposits of the Dnieper basin were too deep to be exploited by primitive techniques, but in Western Ukraine and Central and Northern Russia there were many surface or near-surface ore deposits, mainly near lakes and swamps. Both the Slavs and the Finns began to use local iron ores only around the beginning of the Christian era. Ore at this time was smelted using primitive methods, in ditches and pits. During the Antes period, from the fourth to the seventh centuries AD, the iron industry was greatly improved in the south, and smelting furnaces were already in use.
At the beginning of the Iron Age, the Black Sea steppes were controlled by the Cimmerians, a people similar to the Thracians. In the seventh century BC. The Cimmerians were replaced by the Scythians, who migrated to Southern Russia from Kazakhstan. The Scythians are, of course, not the first wave of Eurasian nomads to reach the Black Sea steppes from the east, but they are the first about whom we have certain information. The Scythian movement to the west must have been accompanied over time by numerous invasions of other nomads. It seems logical, therefore, to coordinate the outline of our brief survey of the cultural spheres of Eurasia in the Cimmerian and Scythian eras with the direction of the major migrations. Therefore, we need to turn first to Siberia and Kazakhstan, then to the Caucasus and Crimea, and then explore the archaeological base of the Black Sea steppes and Central and Northern Russia.

SIBERIA AND TURKESTAN .

We can assume that in the first millennium BC, as in the previous millennium, Northern Turkestan and Southern Siberia were culturally closely interconnected. Both regions were still living in the Copper and Bronze Ages. This was the heyday of the Minusinsk culture, so named because the Minusinsk region - i.e. the valley of the upper Yenisei - was one of its most important centers. The Sayan Mountains, located in this region, are especially rich in copper ore. Numerous burials of the Minusinsk type are scattered throughout the steppe zone of Southern Siberia. They provide evidence of significant population density. Animal husbandry, agriculture and hunting were the main branches of the economy of the Minusinsk people.
The first stage of the Minusinsk culture can be dated to the eighth and seventh centuries BC. Burial mounds from this period are low and usually surrounded by a square stone fence. The burial chamber was lined from the inside with stone slabs or wood. One or more bodies were in each chamber. The chamber also contained grave goods, consisting of clay vases with carved ornaments and bronze mirrors, copper and bronze daggers, knives, hatchets, arrowheads, awls, needles and fishing hooks. Decorations include conical beads and hemispherical plates, decorated with bone combs. Copper and bronze chisels with recesses are also characteristic of Minusinsk-type sites.
The second stage of Minusinsk culture reached its full expression in the second half of the first millennium BC. The burial mounds of this period are wide and high; the internal masonry usually consists of large stones, as before, and the sides of the square are oriented with compass arrows. Burial chambers are usually very spacious, so that several bodies can be easily accommodated. According to S. Teplukhov, each chamber was adapted for an entire family or even clan. In later burials, the funeral procedure was preceded by cremation. The grave goods include clay vases, but most of them are without ornament; copper and bronze hatchets, daggers, knives, punches, metal plates, glass and jasper beads. Some of these objects are decorated with figures of a deer, a goat and some other animals, drawn in a certain style: the eyes and nostrils of the animals, as well as the ends of the feet and tails, have a rounded outline, the shoulders and thighs protrude, the ears are long and at times directed forward. While the stylization is more pronounced than in the Scythian objects of southern Russia, the basis of the ornament is the same.
Burial sites from the Scythian period in Kazakhstan have been intensively studied over the past few years in connection with archaeological research in Khorezm. So far, however, less material has been published regarding Kazakhstan than regarding the Minusinsk area. Excavations by P.S. Rykov in the Karaganda region brought evidence of continuity of cultural development, since in several cases old graves of the Andronovo type were reused in the Scythian period.

CAUCASUS AND GREEK CITIES ON THE NORTH COAST OF THE BLACK SEA .

While bronze dominated Siberia during the Scythian-Cimmerian era, the Caucasus was rapidly entering the Iron Age. The oldest iron objects found in Koban graves can date back to approximately 1000 BC. The iron decorations of Koban belts have already been mentioned. Gradually, various iron products appeared in the North Caucasus region; they included axes, adzes, hoes, and plows. Perhaps the most ancient iron objects found in the Caucasus were imported from the kingdom of Urartu, just as happened with the Ancient Bronze. Later, the iron industry developed locally. There are more than ten iron deposits in the Trans-Caucasus and North Caucasus regions, which could serve as the basis for a local iron industry. Two ancient iron smelters were discovered recently (1928) in Chuber, Upper Svaneti. Layers of slag were left on platforms and hillsides. The belt of forges was open on the slopes of the hill, with layers of slag all around. Each forge was lined from the inside with clay. The forge was filled with ore and fuel through a pit built from chopped stones cemented with clay. The iron smelted at Chuber was of high quality, as is clear from the tools found there.
Chuber iron smelters must have already existed around 250 BC, although the exact date of their appearance is unknown. Other similar smelters in the Caucasus could have been built even earlier. It is possible that the tradition of Greek authors of the fifth and fourth centuries regarding the Chalibs, a blacksmith people, may refer to the Caucasian iron smelters. The art of iron smelting had to be kept secret for a considerable time by the families of smelters in order to preserve their own privileges. Therefore, while the products they made were exported, their technology did not initially spread beyond the Caucasus. It was the Greeks who became intermediaries in the iron trade between the Caucasus and the northern Black Sea region. Numerous colonies were established along the northern shores of the Black Sea as early as the seventh century BC, and some of them soon became quite prosperous. Cities located on both sides of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Strait) were especially active in the Caucasian trade in metals.

BLACK SEA STEPPE .

During the Cimmerian period, the population of the Black Sea steppes mainly used bronze tools and goods, although iron products had been known since 900 BC. Later, the Scythians brought with them their own distinct culture, which included both bronze and iron. Rich gold and silver jewelry was especially characteristic of this culture. Scythian mounds (burial sites), dating from the sixth to third centuries BC, stretch across a wide steppe zone from the Danube to the Ural River. Thousands of them have been excavated: most of them are low with rather poor inventory. Most likely, those buried in them were simple warriors, in some cases not even Scythians, but representatives of conquered tribes. The graves of Scythian kings and nobles, on the contrary, are especially rich in gold and jewelry. The hills above them are high. The early group of Scythian burials includes the Litoy mound, near Elisavetgrad, between the Dnieper and Bug rivers (excavated in the eighteenth century), and the Kelermes mound in the North Caucasus region. Both can be dated back to the sixth century BC. It is obvious that in this ancient period the Scythian kingdom was based geographically in both the Dnieper and Kuban regions.
The Mound of the Seven Brothers (Semibratny) in the Taman region, in the delta of the Kuban River, represents the "Middle Ages" of Scythian rule in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Among the late Scythian mounds from the fifth to fourth centuries the following can be named: Karagodeuashkh in the North Caucasus region; Kul-Oba near Kerch in Crimea; Chertomlyk, Alexandropol, Solokha in the area of ​​the Dnieper rapids. Many large mounds from the same period are located between the southern bend of the Dnieper and the Sea of ​​Azov.
The location of the large mounds is important for understanding the political geography of the Scythian region. There were apparently three main centers of this region, namely the North Caucasus region, the Crimea and the Lower Dnieper region, especially the rapids zone. This last zone is associated with the region named Gerchoi by Herodotus. According to this historian, it was here that the Scythians buried their kings. Gerhoy was a closed zone into which no foreigner was allowed. The main Scythian horde grazed its horses between Gerkhoi and the sea in order to increase the inaccessibility of the royal mounds. As a result, the Greeks did not have precise information regarding the Gerhoy area, and it is significant that Herodotus was unable to provide any information about the Dnieper rapids. It is clear that none of his informants knew about them or in any case dared to talk about them. So, Herodotus could only conclude from the stories of local residents in Olbia that the Dnieper was suitable for navigation only to the Gerkhoy region.
The tombs of Scythian leaders usually contain large amounts of gold and silver jewelry, and bronze weapons found in these tombs are also decorated with gold plates. Sometimes iron swords are found. The wives, slaves and horses of the Scythian leaders were usually buried with them. The so-called animal style is the leading feature of Scythian art. Metal bowls, bow quivers, belts, sword hilts, horse harnesses and various other objects are decorated with figures of animals such as panther, tiger, deer, horse, bull and often scenes of animal life. The predator is usually shown tearing apart a herbivore with its claws. The Scythian animal style is to a certain extent similar to that present in the Minusinsk culture, although more subtle. The sophistication of the Scythian style is an obvious result of the contact of the Scythians with the Greeks in the Black Sea steppes. First-class Greek artists were hired by the Scythian kings, and in this way steppe art was fertilized by Greek technology. Later, this Greco-Scythian style influenced in turn the development of Hellenistic art.

UKRAINIAN FOREST-STEPPE BORDER ZONE.

Numerous mounds of the Scythian period were discovered in this zone, but funeral rites, as well as the contents of the graves, are somewhat different from the steppe mounds. There are two types of burials in the forest-steppe border zone: ground burial and cremation. In the first case, the body was placed in a deep trench, the walls of which were reinforced with wood. In the second case, the burned remains were simply placed in the hole. Tools and weapons found in both types of mounds are mostly bronze, occasionally iron. The clay pottery is sometimes of the Scythian and sometimes of the Greek type. In the sites closest to some of the mounds, pits with grain were discovered; So, it is obvious that people engaged in agriculture lived nearby. For this reason, A.A. Spitsyn considers the mounds in the region of Kyiv, Kharkov and Poltava as the remains of the civilization of the so-called Scythian tillers. It should be noted, however, that very few, if any, agricultural implements were found in the mounds themselves. Drills and arrowheads are typical of the assemblage of objects found. Therefore, the people who buried their dead here were apparently horsemen and archers, like the Scythians.
In the region to the north-west of the Ukrainian mounds and partly in the area of ​​the mounds themselves, the remains of a different, non-Scythian culture were discovered. This is the so-called urn culture. This cultural sphere covers a wide area, including southern Poland, Galicia and Volhynia. Its southern boundary of distribution runs along the latitude of the forty-ninth parallel. These people practiced two types of burials - ground and cremation. In case of cremation, the burned bones were placed in an urn. Such urns, along with various clay products, were buried on clay platforms, which were then covered with earth without a burial mound. The platforms were shallow: about 1 meter underground. In the case of burial in the ground, the platforms were made much deeper: from 1 to 3 meters underground, the body was laid prostrate on its back. Several clay vessels were placed next to the body. One of them usually contained lamb bones; sometimes a knife was stuck into the ground nearby. Objects associated with funerary urns are quite poor, especially when compared with Scythian graves. Beads made of carnelian, amber, glass or shells were found in abundance. Silver, bronze and iron pins are as common, as are belt clasps. Other items may include bronze needles, drills, rings, hairpins and bracelets, knives and sickles.
The culture of burial urns existed for many centuries in the territory between the Carpathians and the middle Dnieper. While its oldest monuments are dated to the Scythian period, other cemeteries of the same type can be attributed to the beginning of the Christian era. In addition to the cemeteries, various remains of old settlements (fortifications) belonging to the same cultural sphere have been excavated in approximately the same region. Agricultural tools, such as sickles and shovels, as well as stone hand mills for grinding grain, were found in all settlement-type settlements. It is obvious that the people of this cultural sphere were farmers.
In light of the fact that the cultural sphere of the burial urns partially coincides with the territory of the borderland of the forest-steppe barrows, it can be assumed that two different ethnic or social groups coexisted in this region for several centuries. One consisted of horsemen, the other of peasants. We mentioned that, according to Spitsyn, the mounds in this area belonged to the so-called Scythian farmers. If we accept Spitsyn’s assumption, then we can say that these “Scythians” did not plow the land themselves, but only controlled their neighboring peasants and collected grain from them as a tax.

NORTHEASTERN RUSSIA .

The most interesting moment of development in this region during the Scythian period was the flourishing of the so-called Ananino bronze culture in the region of the middle Volga and Kama. It is named after the village of Ananyino in the Vyatka province, where the first typical burial sites were discovered. The culture belongs to the period from the sixth to the second century BC; that is, it coincides chronologically with Scythian rule in the Black Sea steppes. Judging by its remains, the people who created it were mainly hunters and fishermen. A large number of hunting and fishing tools, including harpoons, were found at the sites. Most are made of bone, but some are made of bronze and iron. Domestic animal bones, as well as hemp seeds, have also been discovered, indicating the possibility of at least some people engaging in both farming and animal husbandry to obtain additional livelihoods. The dead were either laid out in an extended position in their graves or cremated; in the latter case, a clay urn containing the ashes of the deceased was buried in the grave. The people of Ananyino were apparently involved in a lively trade in furs, exporting them far to the south.
Among the jewelry of the Ananyin culture, bronze necklaces and bracelets representing animal heads, as well as leather belts with bronze plates and buckles on them, are typical. Some of them are reminiscent of Greco-Scythian art, showing a particularly close resemblance to objects discovered in the Greek colony in Olbia, at the mouth of the Dnieper River. The depiction of animals and birds corresponds to the Caucasian type. Bronze knives are of the Minusinsk type, while iron knives are similar to those produced in the Koban region. It is obvious that the Ananyino people maintained commercial relations with various regions, and Ananyino itself was a crossroads of important international trade routes. The Volga waterway, connecting the Ananyin region with the Caucasus, was perhaps the most important. In addition to this, Greek merchants also used the overland road from Olbia to the middle Volga region.

1. Transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age