Post by Admin on Jan 25, 2021 4:32:35 GMT
Fatyanovo culture
The antiquities of the Fatyanovo culture are recognized in a wide area of the European part of Russia
from the Novgorod oblast to Tatarstan, particularly the Lake Ilmen area to the Vyatka River (23, 24).
The research history of this culture extends back to about 150 years ago when in 1873 the Fatyanovo
burial ground, which also gave its name to the culture, was discovered near the town of Jaroslav,
prompting the beginning of excavations on the site the same year (23). The main features of the culture
were defined during the first quarter of the 20th century (23). Research was especially active during the
1950s and 1970s when the topic was handled mainly by Dimitri Krainov in the western and Otto Bader
in the eastern part of the culture area. Bader (136) distinguished a separate Balanovo culture, but the
two are still commonly approached as a singular comprehensive culture (23, 24). Other subgroups have
been recognized in the Fatyanovo culture on the basis of differences in pottery and the shape and
material of tools as well as burial methods (21, 23). By now, more than three hundred burial places
belonging to the Fatyanovo culture (most of them found by chance during other excavation works) and
numerous stray finds (mainly shaft-hole axes) have been found.
Information about the settlements of the Fatyanovo culture people is scarce – for a long time, a number
of them were only known from the area of the Balanovo group (23). Found mostly on riverbanks, the
settlement sites of the Balanovo group are usually in areas well protected by nature. Both open and
fortified settlements were founded by the Balanovo culture group and the remains of dwellings (incl.
timber-framed structures), as well as fortifications, have been excavated (25). More extensive
investigation into the settlement sites of the western part of Fatyonovo culture, including a systematic
survey, began in the 2000s (137, 138).
The Fatyanovo culture people buried their dead mostly in inhumation cemeteries without visible above
ground signs. In a constrained area of the Middle Volga region, they were buried in singular or grouped
barrows, located on higher moraine or sandy hills and the shores of watercourses and lakes (23, 25).
The number of graves in a burial ground varies between 2 and 125 (23). Some regularities in the burial
customs can be detected, described in more detail below (23, 21, 25, 139). The dead are usually buried
at a depth of 0.1–2.7 meters and the grave shafts can be relatively large (maximum 3 × 5.6 meters),
some with wooden, birch bark or root constructions. The bodies have been laid in the grave mostly on
their sides, with elbow, hip and knee joints flexed. In general, the men are laid on their right side and
the women on their left. It has been suggested that some of the deceased had been wrapped prior to
burial. As an exception, some cremation burials can be found. In some cases, charcoal and ochre have
been found in graves. The grave goods usually consist of pottery vessels, battle axes, flint work axes,
adzes and knives, as well as metal weapons and jewelry and in special cases, animal bones and shells.
Differences between sexes and age groups have been detected in the depth of the graves as well as the
grave goods. The stone battle axes are usually found with male burials, rarely with children and women,
with the axe often placed near the head. Polished flint work axes and adzes as well as flint knives are
usually found in the hip region in male burials and near the feet in female burials. Other items, such as
flint arrowheads, scrapers, blades and flakes, bone tools (awls, points, adzes etc.) and ornaments made
of animal teeth, bone and amber can also be found. The age-at-death of the deceased is usually between
30–50 years of age, in special cases up to 70 years. Women, however, are rarely older than 40 years
(23).
The source of subsistence for the people of the Fatyanovo culture has mostly been thought to be animal
husbandry, but also hunting, fishing and gathering, and the possibility of cultivation has not been
excluded either (21, 23). The bones of domestic animals (pig, goat/sheep, sometimes cattle and horse)
and items made from the bones have been found from several burial places (23). Teeth belonging to
horses, cattle and goat/sheep have been found from an extensively excavated RANIS settlement site in
the Moscow area (138) and the bones of domesticated animals have also been recovered from many
settlement sites of the Balanovo area (25). Both nomadic and sedentary animal husbandry has been
assumed. The idea of a nomadic lifestyle has been reasoned from the scarcity of settlement sites while
the location of the burial places in the landscape is considered as indirect evidence for agriculture (23,
140). The deforestation on the shores of the Moscow River during the Fatyanovo culture period, visible
on pollen diagrams, is presumed to be related to agriculture (141). However, direct evidence of cereal
crop farming has yet to be found. Hunting as a source of subsistence can be inferred from the bone items
found from burial places and animal bones from the settlement sites of the Balanovo group. The bones
of elk, roe deer, reindeer, beaver, bear, marten and fox as well as other types of wild animals and fish
have been differentiated (23, 25).
In the anthropological sense, the Fatyanovo culture people can be seen as a relatively homogeneous
group with the greatest similarities, mostly in cranial features, to other Corded Ware cultures (142, 143).
Craniometric studies of skulls from the Upper Volga region reveal that the people of Fatyanovo culture
are characterized by dolichocranic skulls (long and narrow neurocranium), medium-height and mediumwidth
face, obvious horizontal profiling and a high protruding noseband. These features are especially
clear in the oldest skeletons.
Only 14 radiocarbon dates of the Fatyanovo culture sites have been published until this research project
and in many cases, the context has been unclear (24). Based on reliable radiocarbon results, the
Fatyanovo culture has been dated to the period between c. 2,750–2,500 (2,300) cal BC (24). While our
results completely overlap with the beginning of the period, they do shift the end of the culture to be a
bit younger, the median of the latest date is c. 2,150 cal BC.
Different hypotheses have been proposed on the topic of the origin of Fatyanovo culture as well as on
its connections to the cultures of the East European Plain that preceded and followed it. In the first half
of the 20th century, the idea of an autochthon emergence of the culture was assumed but many of the
researchers later renounced the opinion in favour of migration (23). The Fatyanovo culture has been
quite unanimously treated as a part of European Corded Ware and Battle Axe cultures. The formation
and distribution of the culture has on different occurrences been thought to be both prolonged (23) as
well as a relatively fast process (24). Mostly, the formation of this culture has been described as a
migration of settlers to the area that had previously been inhabited by the people of Volosovo culture
whose main form of subsistence was foraging (11). The most impactful has been Krainov’s (23)
approach where he localized the source of Fatyanovo culture, as well as to all Corded Ware cultures, to
the wider area of the basins of rivers Dnepr, Visla and Oder in modern Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia,
Lithuania and Latvia. Krainov assumed that the people of the Corded Ware culture settled on the areas
of the later Fatyanovo culture in four major migration waves: 1) from Belarus, Lithuania and Eastern
Latvia to the Upper-Volga region, 2) from Belarus and Mid- and Upper Dnepr area of Ukraine to
Moscow area, 3) from the southernmost areas of Ukraine to Middle-Volga and 4) from Eastern Latvia
and Belarus to the areas of Western Dvina and Ilmen. Krainov also did not exclude the idea of some
mixing between the settlers and the local populations.
From the pottery found from the Moscow river basin during the 2000s, matches have been found in
Globular Amphorae, the pottery of the Rzucewo culture in the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea and the
epi Corded Ware of the Southern Poland and Ukrainian Volyn areas. It has been assumed that the
Fatyanovo culture developed rapidly on the basis of western Globular Amphorae and Corded Ware
cultures' peoples and that the area of its formulation also included the modern Moscow area (24, 138).
Estonian regional group of Corded Ware culture
Judging mainly by the characteristic pottery and stone axes, the Estonian Corded Ware culture prevailed
in present-day Estonia, northern and eastern parts of Latvia, southeastern Finland, as well as in the
Karelian Isthmus, Ingria and the Pskov region in northwestern Russia (154, 155). Geographically, it is
a neighboring group of Fatyanovo culture, but their contact zone is still almost unexplored. Solitary
Fatyanovo-type axes in Estonian Corded Ware culture context and Estonian-type axes in the area of
Fatyanovo culture indicate some but not very close contacts between these groups (156, 157, 54). Also,
in time, the Estonian group is almost analogous to Fatyanovo culture, continuing perhaps only a little
longer, the averaged range of AMS dates is 2800–2000 cal BC (54).
Research on the Estonian Corded Ware culture group began in the second half of the 19th century and
the first general presentations were compiled in the first quarter of the 20th century (158). Several
important burial sites were studied in the 1920s and 30s, above all Sope and Ardu (159). Excavations
at settlement sites started more widely in the 1950s (160). The Estonian group is characterized by a
relatively large number of settlements (a little less than a hundred) located in different natural
environments (54, 161). Their burials (more than twenty) are all flat earth graves. The graves are simple
pits, less than 1.5 m deep and with varying orientations. The burials are single, sometimes double
inhumations, the deceased are in a flexed, rarely in a supine position (143, 162). The grave goods include
battle axes, work axes and adzes of flint and crystalline rock, flint knives as well as different bone tools.
The subsistence of the Estonian Corded Ware group was likely based on a mixed economy, combining
productive livelihoods with hunting, gathering and fishing (161, 163). Based on aDNA studies (14, 27),
Corded Ware culture was brought into this area by newcomers, likely coming from somewhere in
eastern or central Europe.
The antiquities of the Fatyanovo culture are recognized in a wide area of the European part of Russia
from the Novgorod oblast to Tatarstan, particularly the Lake Ilmen area to the Vyatka River (23, 24).
The research history of this culture extends back to about 150 years ago when in 1873 the Fatyanovo
burial ground, which also gave its name to the culture, was discovered near the town of Jaroslav,
prompting the beginning of excavations on the site the same year (23). The main features of the culture
were defined during the first quarter of the 20th century (23). Research was especially active during the
1950s and 1970s when the topic was handled mainly by Dimitri Krainov in the western and Otto Bader
in the eastern part of the culture area. Bader (136) distinguished a separate Balanovo culture, but the
two are still commonly approached as a singular comprehensive culture (23, 24). Other subgroups have
been recognized in the Fatyanovo culture on the basis of differences in pottery and the shape and
material of tools as well as burial methods (21, 23). By now, more than three hundred burial places
belonging to the Fatyanovo culture (most of them found by chance during other excavation works) and
numerous stray finds (mainly shaft-hole axes) have been found.
Information about the settlements of the Fatyanovo culture people is scarce – for a long time, a number
of them were only known from the area of the Balanovo group (23). Found mostly on riverbanks, the
settlement sites of the Balanovo group are usually in areas well protected by nature. Both open and
fortified settlements were founded by the Balanovo culture group and the remains of dwellings (incl.
timber-framed structures), as well as fortifications, have been excavated (25). More extensive
investigation into the settlement sites of the western part of Fatyonovo culture, including a systematic
survey, began in the 2000s (137, 138).
The Fatyanovo culture people buried their dead mostly in inhumation cemeteries without visible above
ground signs. In a constrained area of the Middle Volga region, they were buried in singular or grouped
barrows, located on higher moraine or sandy hills and the shores of watercourses and lakes (23, 25).
The number of graves in a burial ground varies between 2 and 125 (23). Some regularities in the burial
customs can be detected, described in more detail below (23, 21, 25, 139). The dead are usually buried
at a depth of 0.1–2.7 meters and the grave shafts can be relatively large (maximum 3 × 5.6 meters),
some with wooden, birch bark or root constructions. The bodies have been laid in the grave mostly on
their sides, with elbow, hip and knee joints flexed. In general, the men are laid on their right side and
the women on their left. It has been suggested that some of the deceased had been wrapped prior to
burial. As an exception, some cremation burials can be found. In some cases, charcoal and ochre have
been found in graves. The grave goods usually consist of pottery vessels, battle axes, flint work axes,
adzes and knives, as well as metal weapons and jewelry and in special cases, animal bones and shells.
Differences between sexes and age groups have been detected in the depth of the graves as well as the
grave goods. The stone battle axes are usually found with male burials, rarely with children and women,
with the axe often placed near the head. Polished flint work axes and adzes as well as flint knives are
usually found in the hip region in male burials and near the feet in female burials. Other items, such as
flint arrowheads, scrapers, blades and flakes, bone tools (awls, points, adzes etc.) and ornaments made
of animal teeth, bone and amber can also be found. The age-at-death of the deceased is usually between
30–50 years of age, in special cases up to 70 years. Women, however, are rarely older than 40 years
(23).
The source of subsistence for the people of the Fatyanovo culture has mostly been thought to be animal
husbandry, but also hunting, fishing and gathering, and the possibility of cultivation has not been
excluded either (21, 23). The bones of domestic animals (pig, goat/sheep, sometimes cattle and horse)
and items made from the bones have been found from several burial places (23). Teeth belonging to
horses, cattle and goat/sheep have been found from an extensively excavated RANIS settlement site in
the Moscow area (138) and the bones of domesticated animals have also been recovered from many
settlement sites of the Balanovo area (25). Both nomadic and sedentary animal husbandry has been
assumed. The idea of a nomadic lifestyle has been reasoned from the scarcity of settlement sites while
the location of the burial places in the landscape is considered as indirect evidence for agriculture (23,
140). The deforestation on the shores of the Moscow River during the Fatyanovo culture period, visible
on pollen diagrams, is presumed to be related to agriculture (141). However, direct evidence of cereal
crop farming has yet to be found. Hunting as a source of subsistence can be inferred from the bone items
found from burial places and animal bones from the settlement sites of the Balanovo group. The bones
of elk, roe deer, reindeer, beaver, bear, marten and fox as well as other types of wild animals and fish
have been differentiated (23, 25).
In the anthropological sense, the Fatyanovo culture people can be seen as a relatively homogeneous
group with the greatest similarities, mostly in cranial features, to other Corded Ware cultures (142, 143).
Craniometric studies of skulls from the Upper Volga region reveal that the people of Fatyanovo culture
are characterized by dolichocranic skulls (long and narrow neurocranium), medium-height and mediumwidth
face, obvious horizontal profiling and a high protruding noseband. These features are especially
clear in the oldest skeletons.
Only 14 radiocarbon dates of the Fatyanovo culture sites have been published until this research project
and in many cases, the context has been unclear (24). Based on reliable radiocarbon results, the
Fatyanovo culture has been dated to the period between c. 2,750–2,500 (2,300) cal BC (24). While our
results completely overlap with the beginning of the period, they do shift the end of the culture to be a
bit younger, the median of the latest date is c. 2,150 cal BC.
Different hypotheses have been proposed on the topic of the origin of Fatyanovo culture as well as on
its connections to the cultures of the East European Plain that preceded and followed it. In the first half
of the 20th century, the idea of an autochthon emergence of the culture was assumed but many of the
researchers later renounced the opinion in favour of migration (23). The Fatyanovo culture has been
quite unanimously treated as a part of European Corded Ware and Battle Axe cultures. The formation
and distribution of the culture has on different occurrences been thought to be both prolonged (23) as
well as a relatively fast process (24). Mostly, the formation of this culture has been described as a
migration of settlers to the area that had previously been inhabited by the people of Volosovo culture
whose main form of subsistence was foraging (11). The most impactful has been Krainov’s (23)
approach where he localized the source of Fatyanovo culture, as well as to all Corded Ware cultures, to
the wider area of the basins of rivers Dnepr, Visla and Oder in modern Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia,
Lithuania and Latvia. Krainov assumed that the people of the Corded Ware culture settled on the areas
of the later Fatyanovo culture in four major migration waves: 1) from Belarus, Lithuania and Eastern
Latvia to the Upper-Volga region, 2) from Belarus and Mid- and Upper Dnepr area of Ukraine to
Moscow area, 3) from the southernmost areas of Ukraine to Middle-Volga and 4) from Eastern Latvia
and Belarus to the areas of Western Dvina and Ilmen. Krainov also did not exclude the idea of some
mixing between the settlers and the local populations.
From the pottery found from the Moscow river basin during the 2000s, matches have been found in
Globular Amphorae, the pottery of the Rzucewo culture in the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea and the
epi Corded Ware of the Southern Poland and Ukrainian Volyn areas. It has been assumed that the
Fatyanovo culture developed rapidly on the basis of western Globular Amphorae and Corded Ware
cultures' peoples and that the area of its formulation also included the modern Moscow area (24, 138).
Estonian regional group of Corded Ware culture
Judging mainly by the characteristic pottery and stone axes, the Estonian Corded Ware culture prevailed
in present-day Estonia, northern and eastern parts of Latvia, southeastern Finland, as well as in the
Karelian Isthmus, Ingria and the Pskov region in northwestern Russia (154, 155). Geographically, it is
a neighboring group of Fatyanovo culture, but their contact zone is still almost unexplored. Solitary
Fatyanovo-type axes in Estonian Corded Ware culture context and Estonian-type axes in the area of
Fatyanovo culture indicate some but not very close contacts between these groups (156, 157, 54). Also,
in time, the Estonian group is almost analogous to Fatyanovo culture, continuing perhaps only a little
longer, the averaged range of AMS dates is 2800–2000 cal BC (54).
Research on the Estonian Corded Ware culture group began in the second half of the 19th century and
the first general presentations were compiled in the first quarter of the 20th century (158). Several
important burial sites were studied in the 1920s and 30s, above all Sope and Ardu (159). Excavations
at settlement sites started more widely in the 1950s (160). The Estonian group is characterized by a
relatively large number of settlements (a little less than a hundred) located in different natural
environments (54, 161). Their burials (more than twenty) are all flat earth graves. The graves are simple
pits, less than 1.5 m deep and with varying orientations. The burials are single, sometimes double
inhumations, the deceased are in a flexed, rarely in a supine position (143, 162). The grave goods include
battle axes, work axes and adzes of flint and crystalline rock, flint knives as well as different bone tools.
The subsistence of the Estonian Corded Ware group was likely based on a mixed economy, combining
productive livelihoods with hunting, gathering and fishing (161, 163). Based on aDNA studies (14, 27),
Corded Ware culture was brought into this area by newcomers, likely coming from somewhere in
eastern or central Europe.
