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Population Genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia
Section 1
An introduction to the sampled cultures and their dating
1.1 Bronze Age - the beginning
The Bronze Age starts with urbanisation and state formation in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC
but with some urbanisation already evolving during the 4th millennium BC. From that time
onwards copper alloys (including bronze) were systematically used in the economy for
agricultural tools, weapons, personal ornaments, metal cauldrons and cups for cooking, dining
and drinking. Therefore, large quantities of copper were needed but since there are no sources of
metal in Mesopotamia, all metal had to be traded in, mostly from mining areas in Caucasus and
later Oman. This exploitation of copper mines in Anatolia and Caucasus had started already
during the early and middle 4th millennium BC, when colonizing groups from Mesopotamia,
known as the Uruk movement, settled in the north to establish new trade routes and thus
securing the flow of copper, gold and silver back to the Mesopotamian heartland1. The ages
provided below should be considered approximate as the exact time frames for the various
cultures are subject to some discussion.
1.2 Maikop and Late Tripolje (3700-3000 BC), Yamnaya (3000-2400 BC), and Remedello 1
(3400-2800 BC) cultures
As a results of these colonizing ventures, prestige goods from Mesopotamia were traded into the
Caucasus, where we find them earliest in the richly furnished, chiefly barrows (or kurgans in
Russian) of the Maikop Culture in northern Caucasus from the middle and later part of the 4th
millennium BC2. They represent the first ranked societies of the steppe based on a new
perception of individualized property and the monogamous family. These concepts were most
likely adopted from Mesopotamia along with prestige goods and metallurgy as a result of
regular trade3,4. From the northern hills of the Caucasus this social "package", symbolized in the
new burial ritual of individual (family) burials in kurgans/barrows soon spread to the steppe
where it was linked to a new economy of pastoralism and herding of mainly cattle5, 6. The
Maikop Culture produced some of the most astonishing figurines of cattle made of gold, which
symbolized their use as draught animals for the earliest wheeled vehicles7, 8. This custom rapidlyspread all the way to northern Europe.
During the 4th millennium BC, large mega settlements of up to 400 hectares with populations in
the ten thousands, known as the Tripolje Culture 2, 9, emerged in the western forest-steppe,
bordering the steppe. By the middle of the 4th millennium BC, it seems that such large
populations could no longer be sustained and the mega-sites gradually collapsed and were left.
The Tripolje populations expanded into the steppe 10 where they encountered Maikop groups
and adopted individual burials under barrows and metallurgy. Horse domestication and the
development of wheeled vehicles, in the style of later prairie wagons11, took place to support a
mobile pastoral lifestyle in the steppe. A new expansionist pastoral society, called the Yamnaya
Culture (see below), evolved from this merging of cultures, and spread rapidly east and
westwards, from Hungary to the Ural Mountains. This Yamnaya expansion has often been
associated with the spread of Proto-Indo-European languages, after the early split of
Anatolian/Hittite12.
The Remedello Culture was a North Italian Copper Age Culture, situated in the Po Delta and the
Italian Alps. It was contemporary with the famous Ötzi (the "Iceman"). The culture is best
known from their often rich, individual burials in flat graves, sometimes with copper daggers,
axes, halberds and pins. They show cultural connections with the Northern Alps, the Aegean and
Anatolia.
We have in recent years witnessed a new 14C-dating programme of Russian samples from
burials. Due to the reservoir effects from freshwater diet, many previous 14C-dates of human
bone can now be demonstrated as being too old - sometimes by 300-400 years. This has been
demonstrated by systematically dating objects of animal bones, or objects made from animal
bone, and of short lived timber from graves13,14,15. We have therefore here lowered the absolute
chronology of Yamnaya and related cultures in accordance with these new results
Section 1
An introduction to the sampled cultures and their dating
1.1 Bronze Age - the beginning
The Bronze Age starts with urbanisation and state formation in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC
but with some urbanisation already evolving during the 4th millennium BC. From that time
onwards copper alloys (including bronze) were systematically used in the economy for
agricultural tools, weapons, personal ornaments, metal cauldrons and cups for cooking, dining
and drinking. Therefore, large quantities of copper were needed but since there are no sources of
metal in Mesopotamia, all metal had to be traded in, mostly from mining areas in Caucasus and
later Oman. This exploitation of copper mines in Anatolia and Caucasus had started already
during the early and middle 4th millennium BC, when colonizing groups from Mesopotamia,
known as the Uruk movement, settled in the north to establish new trade routes and thus
securing the flow of copper, gold and silver back to the Mesopotamian heartland1. The ages
provided below should be considered approximate as the exact time frames for the various
cultures are subject to some discussion.
1.2 Maikop and Late Tripolje (3700-3000 BC), Yamnaya (3000-2400 BC), and Remedello 1
(3400-2800 BC) cultures
As a results of these colonizing ventures, prestige goods from Mesopotamia were traded into the
Caucasus, where we find them earliest in the richly furnished, chiefly barrows (or kurgans in
Russian) of the Maikop Culture in northern Caucasus from the middle and later part of the 4th
millennium BC2. They represent the first ranked societies of the steppe based on a new
perception of individualized property and the monogamous family. These concepts were most
likely adopted from Mesopotamia along with prestige goods and metallurgy as a result of
regular trade3,4. From the northern hills of the Caucasus this social "package", symbolized in the
new burial ritual of individual (family) burials in kurgans/barrows soon spread to the steppe
where it was linked to a new economy of pastoralism and herding of mainly cattle5, 6. The
Maikop Culture produced some of the most astonishing figurines of cattle made of gold, which
symbolized their use as draught animals for the earliest wheeled vehicles7, 8. This custom rapidlyspread all the way to northern Europe.
During the 4th millennium BC, large mega settlements of up to 400 hectares with populations in
the ten thousands, known as the Tripolje Culture 2, 9, emerged in the western forest-steppe,
bordering the steppe. By the middle of the 4th millennium BC, it seems that such large
populations could no longer be sustained and the mega-sites gradually collapsed and were left.
The Tripolje populations expanded into the steppe 10 where they encountered Maikop groups
and adopted individual burials under barrows and metallurgy. Horse domestication and the
development of wheeled vehicles, in the style of later prairie wagons11, took place to support a
mobile pastoral lifestyle in the steppe. A new expansionist pastoral society, called the Yamnaya
Culture (see below), evolved from this merging of cultures, and spread rapidly east and
westwards, from Hungary to the Ural Mountains. This Yamnaya expansion has often been
associated with the spread of Proto-Indo-European languages, after the early split of
Anatolian/Hittite12.
The Remedello Culture was a North Italian Copper Age Culture, situated in the Po Delta and the
Italian Alps. It was contemporary with the famous Ötzi (the "Iceman"). The culture is best
known from their often rich, individual burials in flat graves, sometimes with copper daggers,
axes, halberds and pins. They show cultural connections with the Northern Alps, the Aegean and
Anatolia.
We have in recent years witnessed a new 14C-dating programme of Russian samples from
burials. Due to the reservoir effects from freshwater diet, many previous 14C-dates of human
bone can now be demonstrated as being too old - sometimes by 300-400 years. This has been
demonstrated by systematically dating objects of animal bones, or objects made from animal
bone, and of short lived timber from graves13,14,15. We have therefore here lowered the absolute
chronology of Yamnaya and related cultures in accordance with these new results