Karasuk culture

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox archaeological culture The Karasuk culture (Template:Langx) describes a group of late Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea to the upper Yenisei in the east and south to the Altai Mountains and the Tian Shan in ca. 1500–800 BC.<ref name="Mallory">Template:Harvnb</ref>

Overview

The distribution of the Karasuk culture covers the eastern parts of the Andronovo culture, which it appears to replace.<ref name="Mallory"/><ref name="Genetics"/> It is considered that the Karasuk culture primarily formed out of the Andronovo culture with influences from the Okunevo culture.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The remains of settlements are minimal, and entirely of the mortuary variety.<ref name="Mallory" /> At least 2000 burials are known.<ref name="Mallory" /> The Karasuk period persisted down to c. 700 BC. From c. 700 to c. 200 BC, culture developed along similar lines. Vital trade contact is traced from northern China and the Baikal region to the Black Sea and the Urals, influencing the uniformity of the culture.<ref name="EB_Stone_Age">Template:Cite web</ref> The Karasuk was succeeded by the Tagar culture.<ref name="Genetics" /><ref name="EB_Art">Template:Cite web</ref>

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The economy was mixed agriculture and stockbreeding.<ref name="Mallory"/> Its culture appears to have been more mobile than the Andronovo.<ref name="Mallory"/> The Karasuk were farmers who practiced metallurgy on a large scale.<ref name="Genetics"/> Arsenical bronze artefacts are present.<ref name="Mallory"/> Their settlements were of pit houses and they buried their dead in stone cists covered by kurgans and surrounded by square stone enclosures.<ref name="Mallory"/> Industrially, they were skilled metalworkers, the diagnostic artifacts of the culture being a bronze knife with curving profiles and a decorated handle and horse bridles.<ref name="Mallory"/> The pottery has been compared to that discovered in Inner Mongolia and the interior of China, with burials bronze knives similar to those from northeastern China.<ref name="Reinhardt">Geraldine Reinhardt: Bronze Age in Eurasia, Lecture 13 delivered 5 August 1991Template:Dead link.</ref> Their realistic animal art probably contributed to the development of the Scytho-Siberian animal art style (Scythian art).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The origins of the Karasuk culture are complex, but it is generally accepted that its origins lie both with the Andronovo culture and local cultures of the Yenisei.<ref name="Mallory"/> The ethnic identity of the Karasuk is problematic, as the Andronovo culture has been associated with the Indo-Iranians while the local cultures have been considered as unconnected to the steppe.<ref name="Mallory"/> Nevertheless, a specifically Proto-Iranian identity has been proposed for the Karasuk culture.<ref name="Mallory"/> The Karasuk tribes have been described by archaeologists as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid/Europoid features.<ref name="Genetics"/> George van Driem has suggested a connection with the Yeniseian and Burushaski people, proposing a Karasuk languages group.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The contemporary Deer stones culture to the southeast may have been built in part by nomads from the Karasuk culture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Chariots

File:Karasuk culture bronze rein holders (horizontal).png
Bronze rein holder for chariots.<ref name="VM"/>

The Karasuk culture had horse-drawn spoke-wheeled chariots, a technology first attested in the Sintashta culture (c. 2000 BC) which spread eastwards with the Andronovo culture.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Although no Karasuk chariots have been found, their existence is indicated by petroglyph drawings, chariot equipment, horse bridles and 'charioteer burials'.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite journalTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These have close similarities to chariots and equipment from the Shang dynasty in China (c. 1200 BC), such as the use of wheels with numerous spokes and bow-shaped rein holders.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> Both Karasuk and Shang chariots also have close similarities to chariots from Lchashen in Armenia, dating from c. 1500 BC.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Wu (2013) Shang chariots and their associated equipment originated from the Karasuk culture and can be understood as "a local version of the Karasuk set."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Metallurgy

File:Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with turquoise inlays and animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE.jpg
Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE. Such knives were the result of contacts with the northern people of the Mongolian steppe.Template:Sfn<ref name="BM">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="JFS">Template:Cite book</ref>

The metallurgy of the Karasuk culture may have derived from the earlier Seima-Turbino tradition. It expanded on this tradition, and became the core of a regional hub in metallurgy, sometimes called the "East Asian Metallurgical Province".Template:Efn

Seima-Turbino had a westward expansion, encountering the Abashevo and Sintashta cultures during the 2200-1700 BCE period.Template:Sfn On the contrary, the expansion of the Karasuk metallurgical culture was eastward.Template:Sfn Karasuk styles were copied throughout Central and Eastern Asia, reaching China where numerous bronze objects on the Karasuk model have been excavated.Template:Sfn In particular the royal complex of the Anyang Cemetery from the 13-11th centuries BCE during the Shang dynasty period is known for numerous such imitations.Template:Sfn

It is thought that these metallurgical innovations from the Karasuk culture were transmitted by steppe nomads, within a context of rather conflictual relations between China and its northern neighbours. The Shang mainly imitated the curved one-edged knives with animal handles, and placed them in their tombs among other bronze paraphernalia.Template:Sfn Altogether, these influences travelled over a distance of more than 3,500 kilometers, from the Sayan-Altai region to the heart of ancient China beyond the Yellow River.Template:Sfn

Weapons of the contemporary Deer stones culture, as seen in their petroglyphs, are generally derived from those of the Karasuk culture, and belong to the Karasuk typology.<ref name="TT2021">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Comparisons of Karasuk and Chinese Shang-Zhou blades

File:Influences on Chinese metallurgy.png
Historical influences on Chinese metallurgy. After a small early copper industry in the Neolithic, China was influenced by the metallurgy of the steppes (Andronovo culture), the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and the Karasuk culture down to the Shang dynasty period.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Many bronze blades of the Shang dynasty (13th-11th centuries BCE) and Zhou dynasty were derived from Karasuk designs.Template:Sfn<ref name="VM"/>

Genetics

File:Bronze to Iron Age Steppe peoples genetic makeup.png
Genetic makeup of Bronze and Iron Age Steppe populations

Keyser et al. (2009) published a genetic study of ancient Siberian cultures, the Andronovo culture, the Karasuk culture, the Tagar culture and the Tashtyk culture.<ref name="Genetics">Template:Cite journal</ref> They surveyed four individuals of the Karasuk culture of four different sites from 1400 BC to 800 BC. Two of these possessed the Western Eurasian mtDNA U5a1 and U4 lineages. Two other ones exhibited the Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1, which is thought to mark the eastward migration of the early Indo-Europeans.<ref name="Genetics"/> The individuals surveyed were all determined to be Europoid and light-eyed.<ref name="Genetics"/> In a study by Allentoft et al. (2015) three of four male Karasuk samples were found to have the Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1 whilst one had Q1a2a.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sites

Sites are not numerous, and are mainly found southwest of the Minusinsk basin. They consist in semi-subterranean houses and larger winter houses about 100-200 m2 in area, with domed or pitched roofs covered with earth to protect against the cold.<ref name="JPM325"/>

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See also

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File:Minusinsk Basin cultures (Summed probability distribution for new human bone dates, Afanasievo to Tagar cultures).png
Minusinsk Basin cultures (Summed probability distribution for new human bone dates, Afanasievo to Tagar cultures).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Notes

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References

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Sources

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