Kurgan
- For other uses, see Kurgan (disambiguation).
Kurgan (кургáн) is the Russian word (of Turkic origin) for Tumulus, a type of burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, often of wood.
In 1956 Marija Gimbutas introduced her Kurgan hypothesis combining kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) speaking peoples. She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after their distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. This hypothesis has had a significant impact on Indo-European research. Those scholars who follow Gimbutas identify a Kurgan culture as reflecting an early Indo-European ethnicity which existed in the steppes and southeastern Europe from the fifth to third millennia BC.
Several places in Russia are called Kurgan, including one town after this prominent Landscape feature.
Archaeology
Kurgan type barrows were characteristic of Bronze Age nomadic peoples of the steppes, from the Altai to the Caucasus and Romania. Sometimes, burial mounds are quite complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, members of the elite were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots.Some excavated kurgans
See also Scythia.- The Ipatovo kurgan revealed a long sequence of burials from the Maykop culture ca. 4000 BC down to the burial of a Sarmatian princess of the 3rd century BC, excavated 1998-1999.
- Kurgan 4 at Kutuluk near Samara, Russia, dated to ca. 24th century BC, containing the skeleton of a man, estimated to have been 35 to 40 years old and about 135 cm tall. Resting on the skeleton's bent left elbow was a copper object of a length of ca. 65 cm with a blade of a diamond-shaped cross-section and sharp edges, but no point, and a handle, originally probably wrapped in leather. No similar object is known from Bronze Age Eurasian steppe cultures, and the object has been compared to the Vajra thunderbolt of Indian Indra.
- Novovelichkovskaya kurgan of ca. 2000 BC on the Ponura River, Krasnodar region, southern Russia, containing the remains of 11 people, including an embracing couple, buried with bronze tools, stone carvings, jewelry, and ceramic vessels decorated with red ocher. The tomb is associated with the Novotitorovka culture nomads.
- Issyk kurgan, 31 miles east of Alma Ata, southern Kazakhstan, containing a skeleton, possibly female, with 4.000 gold ornaments, with a headdress reminiscent of Kazakh bridal hats, discovered n 1969.
- Kurgan 11 of the Berel cemetery, in the Bukhtarma River valley of Kazakhstan, containing a tomb of ca. 300 BC, with a dozen sacrificed horses, preserved with their skin, hair, harnesses, and saddles intact, buried side by side on a bed of birch bark next to a funeral chamber containing the pillaged burial of two Scythian nobles, excavated in 1998.
- Ryzhanovka kurgan, a 10 metres high kurgan 125 km south of Kiev, containing the tomb of a Scythian chieftain, 3rd century BC, excavated in 1996.
- Aleksandrovo kurgan, a Thracian kurgan of ca. the 4th century BC.
- Håga Kurgan, a large Nordic Bronze Age kurgan from ca 1000 BC.
See also
- Marija Gimbutas
- Kurgan hypothesis
- Yamna culture
- Scythia
- Ukrainian stone stela
- Tarpan
- Animal sacrifice, Ashvamedha
Literature
- "In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth" by J. P. Mallory, ISBN 0500276161
- "The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe: Selected Articles Form 1952 to 1993" von Marija Gimbutas u.a., ISBN 0941694569
- "Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture" ed. James Mallory, D. Q. Adams, ISBN 1884964982
- D. Ya. Telegin et al., Srednestogovskaya i Novodanilovskaya Kul'tury Eneolita Azovo-Chernomorskogo Regiona. Kiev: Shlyakh, 2001. Reviewed by J.P. Mallory, JIES vol. 32, 3/4, p. 363-366.