This is a post about South American history from 2000-1000BC. Please remember that I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and still being discovered by archaeologists. However, notwithstanding these caveats, the broad outlines of what I will describe here will hopefully be mostly correct. The dates presented here will be very broad estimates and may well be wildly off. This is a time before writing in this part of the world, so the main sources will be entirely archaeological. While oral history is important, this particular time period is too far in the past for oral history to be useful here.
For the purposes of this blog, South America will comprise of the continent of South America, excluding the islands of the Caribbean, which have been dealt with briefly in the blog post about the history of North America.
View of the site of the city of Caral
At the opening of this time period, around the century of the 2000’s BC, the city of Caral was flourishing, as part of the Norte Chico civilisation, alongside other cities such as Huaricanga. The nearby civilisation of the Casma/Sechin culture, with its cities of Sechin Bajo and Sechin Alto, was also flourishing at this time. Bandurria may also have been significant along the Peruvian coast. This small section of the coast of present-day Peru saw a number of small cities and their hinterlands. Many of these cities may have only had a few thousand people in them, but they were undeniably cities. The largest of these was the city of Caral, which had a population of perhaps five thousand people and impressive monumental architecture.
Somewhat inland from the coast, another culture, known as the Kotosh Religious Tradition, had arisen and large ceremonial centres were constructed at Kotosh and La Galgada. This culture showed continuity with cultures that were to follow, but their relationship with the Sechin and Caral-Supe cultures is unclear.
While pottery had been independently invented in South America several millennia earlier, probably around 5500BC in the Amazon Basin, it had not yet spread as far as the Peruvian coast, meaning that these cultures are referred to as aceramic (meaning “without pottery”) or Pre-Ceramic.
Temple remains at Kotosh
Further to the south of the cities on the Peruvian coastline, the Chinchorro culture existed in and near the Atacama Desert and were noted for their mummification processes. The bodies of the dead were elaborately treated and partially preserved, allowing many of them to survive to the present day.
Around the century of the 2000’s BC the earliest dated murals in the Americas were made on the walls of the temples of Ventarron, along the northern coast of Peru. One of the murals depicted a snake like creature being caught in a net; perhaps a scene from mythology or perhaps simply an illustration from the lives of a fishing people. Sadly, at least one of the murals was destroyed in a fire in 2017.
Around the century of the 1800’s BC, the unlikely urban site of Las Haldas began to expand. This was situated on a completely barren piece of shoreline, possibly far away from even any sources of fresh water. Yet here the peoples of Las Haldas, part of the Casma/Sechin culture had settled over a millennium previously, and now eventually began to build temple mounds and ceremonial architecture. It is also around this time that the Pre-Ceramic phase of the Casma-Sechin culture ends and what is known as the Initial Period begins. This merely means that archaeologists have noted the occurrence of pottery and other ceramics from around this time onwards.
Chinchorro Mummy
Also around this time, the Chinchorro culture appears to die out or change. This means that the mummies, which had been made for so many millennia previously, were made no more. It is probable that increasing contacts with the agriculturalists to the north brought changes to the culture. Perhaps new religious ideas came to the fore and the mummies of the ancestors were of less importance. Mummification was certainly important to later cultures in the Andean region, so it is likely that the Chinchorro traditions, and others like them, were remembered.
Around the century of the 1700’s BC the Norte Chico culture appears to have begun to decline. It is probable that the land that the civilisation was built one was too poor to support population increases. Excess people would have left the region and taken their knowledge to the surrounding areas, which would then have eclipsed the city of Caral and the other Norte Chico sites. But this would suggest that other greater civilisations should have arisen in the outlying areas. In fact this does not seem to happen. While the emigration and overshadowing hypothesis is a good one, I feel that we just do not know for sure what caused this civilisation to decline. By the end of the next century, by around 1600BC, the city of Caral itself was mostly abandoned, only to be discovered by archaeologists in the 1990’s.
Cumbemayo Aqueduct
Around the century of the 1500’s BC in the Peruvian highlands near the present-day city of Cajamarca, the aqueduct of Cumbemayo was dug into the rock. This aqueduct is carved into the rock and is around 9 km in length. A number of petroglyphs are evident in the area but they are not clearly shaped and their meaning is unclear. Perhaps the people who created these had once come from the Norte Chico civilisation and had brought their methods of irrigation to different lands.
Around this time the Cupisnique culture began to flourish around the northern coast of Peru. As the knowledge of ceramics had very definitely reached the Peruvian coast at this time, they left behind striking and beautiful pottery. They had a number of monumental sites, but as with the Kotosh Religious Tradition and perhaps the Norte Chico civilisation, it is likely that Cupisnique culture was perhaps more of a religious tradition than a culture per se. Aside from the pottery, little distinguishes it from the periods that precede it, and very little distinguishes it from the later periods. The Cupisnique culture almost certainly influenced the later Chavin and Moche cultures. They left the remains of several sites, such as the complex of ruins at Caballo Muerte and the highland temple platforms of Kuntur Wasi (also near Cajamarca).
Rock carvings at Cerro Sechin
In the Casma-Sechin culture, the Cerro Sechin reliefs date from around this time. These are perhaps the first monumental sculptures in South America and show what might be the scene of a bloody battle, with dead and dying warriors perhaps being depicted. Sadly, without writing, we may never know what these represent but they are certainly graphically portrayed. Cerro Sechin may have been abandoned not long after this time period. The nearby complex of Sechin Alto may have also been abandoned, or at least gone into decline around this time.
Around this time, further south in what is now Bolivia, the Wankarani culture began. These were farmers of alpacas and llamas high on the Bolivian altiplano, particularly near the now dead lake of Poopó. The land was not rich however, so the population levels remained low and most settlements were village rather than city-sized.
Around the century of the 1400’s BC the Chiripa culture began to emerge around the southern edges of Lake Titicaca. This was a farming culture that used quinoa and other grains to practice subsistence farming. The type site at Chiripa, which gives its name to the culture, consists of a raised platform with clusters of houses and graves surrounding it. The town seems to have been quite small, although the quality of the grave goods seem to show class distinctions between the townspeople. Some researchers believe that the site of Tiwanaku, near Lake Titicaca, was founded around this time, but if this was the case it is likely that this was just another village for around a millennium.
Site of the arid lands of Las Haldas
On the Peruvian coast, the desert site of Las Haldas expanded, with the inhabitants building a number of mounds around a central plaza. It is possible that the decline of the Casma Valley sites, such as Sechin Alto allowed the city of Las Haldas to expand.
Around this time the Machalilla culture may have begun to thrive in the coastal region of Ecuador. The people of this culture stretched their skulls by moulding them in childhood. They left behind pottery remains but no cities. They lived in villages and practised small-scale agriculture, supplemented by fishing and occasional hunter-gathering. They are really best known to archaeologists because of their relatively elaborate ceramic burial goods that were left in the graves of their deceased.
Terracotta statuary of the Chorrera culture,
but probably some centuries later
In the next century, around the 1300’s BC, the Machalilla culture in Ecuador seems to have begun to merge in with the Chorrera culture, which was very similar but spread over a much larger extent of land, covering much of Ecuador and stretching into Colombia. The Chorrera culture would have incorporated not just the Machalilla culture but also the Valdivia culture, which had been predominant in the region now known as Ecuador.
Around the century of the 1200’s BC, the Kotosh religious tradition appears to have either gone into decline or to have changed into a belief system that required different rituals. It would seem to have been influential in moulding the iconography of the religious traditions of the later Chavin culture.
Around the end of the time period, around the century of the 1000’s BC, the site of Sechin Bajo, as part of the Casma-Sechin culture, may have been conquered by outside invaders, leading to a change in the tradition. The Casma-Sechin settlement of Las Haldas appears to have ceased building new monuments from around this time, possibly because of change in political circumstances. But this is mostly unproven however. Both sites continued to be occupied for much of the next millennium.
Plaza and platform at Kuntur Wasi
So, the period ends, with the initial Andean cultures of Norte Chico and Casma Sechin either declining or disappearing. Pottery usage had become widespread, religious traditions had risen and fallen. The Cumbemayo aqueduct had been built and the last of the Chinchorro mummies had been made. As in North American history, it is so difficult to know what exactly what happened and we are left baffled with conflicting evidence and the mute evidence of archaeological digs. But the variety of finds allow us to know that much had once happened here.
Were-jaguar sculpture from
the Olmec city of San Lorenzo
This is a post about North American history from 2000-1000BC. I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and being discovered by archaeologists but the broad outlines of what I will describe here will hopefully be mostly correct. The dates presented here will be very broad estimates and may well be wildly off. This is a time before writing in this part of the world so the main sources will be entirely archaeological but I may make some references to the beliefs of later cultures.
For the purposes of this blog, North America will comprise of Alaska, Canada, the continental USA, Mexico, all the Central American countries as far as Panama, the Caribbean Islands and, for good measure and because there was nowhere else to really put it, Greenland.
Around the century of the 2000’s BC many archaeologists refer to the Mesoamerican Archaic Period ending and to the Pre-Classic period beginning. This is more a matter of definition than of any real change. Nothing really changed for the inhabitants of the region. But it is an acknowledgement that in Mesoamerica all of the major crops had been domesticated and that villages were now forming that would eventually grow into cities.
To the far north, in Greenland, a young man died. His body was discovered four thousand years later and his genome sequenced. He is known now as Inuk, from the current Greenlandic language word for “man”. The cold climate and the fortunate preservation of some of his hair allowed for the DNA sequencing to take place and points to Inuk being closely related to the current tribes on the Russian side of the Bering Strait.
Map of Poverty Point site in Louisiana
Around the century of the 1900’s BC the cacao plant was cultivated in Mesoamerica. The initial domestication was probably to make an alcoholic beverage, but all subsequent cocoa and chocolate products in the world stem from this single domestication event. The cacao beans were very rare and were even used as currency in Mesoamerica. The elites of all the subsequent cultures in this region, until the time of the Spanish arrival, would use this item as a status symbol and in their mythology and rituals.
Over the next centuries, the peoples of Mesoamerica became ever more organised into small farming communities. In the lands that are now the United States and Canada, the people still engaged primarily in hunting and gathering. However, the hunting and gathering communities along the southern reaches of the Mississippi River were organised into small villages that were able to use the fertility of the land to support living in the same region for a long time. These people are referred to by archaeologists as the Poverty Point Culture. This was because one of the main sites of occupation was at a location called Poverty Point.
Semi-circular mounds at Poverty Point site
Around the century of the 1600’s BC the site of Poverty Point, in what is now northern Louisiana, was occupied. The site was built along a river bend and comprised of a number of large earthworks. It is unclear if this was a type of hunter-gatherer city (which would have been most unusual) or if it was a place for the roving bands to meet and trade. The answer is probably both.
Also around this time the city of San Lorenzo was occupied by the people of the Olmec culture. While the site at Poverty Point would grow greatly in size, it likely that San Lorenzo (known as San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan) in Mexico was the first true city in North America. The name of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan does not mean that the site had anything to do with the Spanish, or even the Aztecs. It is simply the name of the nearby present day settlement, after which the ancient city is named. San Lorenzo began as a village or town in the midst of a rich agricultural hinterland. It was near a river and yet not far from the sea and thus could be accessed by traders coming from all directions. It probably became a ceremonial site that grew into an actual city. This phase of Olmec history is referred to as the Formation Stage and they have good claim to being the first great civilisation of Mesoamerica.
Olmec colossal stone head from San Lorenzo
Around the century of the 1500’s BC the Marsden Mounds archaeological site was occupied by people from the Poverty Point culture group. However the large mounds currently on this site in northern Louisiana are from a much later period and a different culture.
Around the century of the 1300’s BC the city of San Lorenzo had swelled in population to over at least five thousand people, with many others living in the hinterlands. This is usually classed as the Integration stage of Olmec history. The people living in San Lorenzo farmed, traded extensively, built large dwellings and ceremonial structures, and carved enduring stone monuments. The ball-game, which was later so obsessively played in Mesoamerican cultures, may have been played there.
Of the signs of the greatness of San Lorenzo and its Olmec inhabitants, none is more spectacular than the stone heads. These are nearly spherical basalt rocks, transported from a nearby volcano and carved into representations of the heads of rulers, ball-players or deities. Some of these colossal sculptures weigh up to 28 tons.
Mound A at Poverty Point site
Around this same time, at the Poverty Point site in Louisiana, the huge Mound A was built. This currently stands 22 metres tall but was undoubtedly higher when it was built. It is shaped rather like a T and is composed over approximately 238,000 cubic metres of earth, making it a truly impressive structure. Even after a time of over thirty centuries of erosion it still looms over the landscape. It would be the largest structure in the region of what is now the United States for the next two thousand years.
The next centuries would see the Olmec culture in Mesoamerica continue to grow and flourish, with a new settlement at La Venta dating to around 1200BC and another Olmec settlement now known as Tres Zapotes being founded slightly afterwards. San Lorenzo however continued to be the main settlement.
Olmec colossal stone head from San Lorenzo
Around the century of the 1000’s BC the Woodland Period began in what is now the southern part of the continental US. This was a period where the inhabitants built mounds and engaged in trade, in a fashion quite similar to the Watson Brake and Poverty Point cultures, but covering a much larger area and extending much further northwards. The first of these cultures of note would be the Adena culture in what is now the Ohio region but these would only flourish some time later.
Thus the period draws to a close. The river dwellers of the Mississippi were creating large ceremonial structures, while still not relying on farming technology for their subsistence. Meanwhile in Mesoamerica, the Olmec cultures were flourishing and creating the first cities in the region, as well as enduring works of art that would last through the ages.
Reconstruction of a hunter from the archaeological site
of Ban Chiang in present-day Thailand
This is a post about Southeast Asian history from 2000-1000BC. I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and being discovered by archaeologists, but the broad outlines of what I will describe here will hopefully be mostly correct. The dates presented here will be very broad estimates and may well be wildly off. This is a time before writing in this part of the world so the main sources will be entirely archaeological but I may make some references to later myths and legends.
For the purposes of this blog, Southeast Asia will be held to comprise the lands of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the archipelago of Indonesia and East Timor. There are strong reasons for including Taiwan and southern China within the remit of this piece, but these will be covered elsewhere I think.
Axe, seen from different angles, from Samrong Sen
in present-day Cambodia
From a linguistic perspective, the mainland of Southeast Asia was probably populated by speakers of Proto-Austroasiatic languages, which would later diverge to form language groups such as the Khmer and Vietic languages. The speakers of Austronesia languages were situated in the island of Taiwan at this point in history and had not yet begun their epic migrations that would see their language family stretch from Madagascar to Easter Island. Other languages such as Tai languages group or the Lolo-Burmese portion of Sino-Tibetan were not yet much spoken in the region, as the speakers of these languages came in later migrations to the region.
Later Vietnamese writers of history identified a legendary dynasty beginning around 2800BC. This is extremely ancient and there is no real evidence to support this. The dynasty was referred to as the Hong Bang dynasty and was supposed to have ruled in what is now northern Vietnam, near the Red River Delta. This dynasty reigned over a kingdom that was supposedly called Van Lang. It should be noted that the history of Vietnam, while undoubtedly ancient, was also affected by a number of destructive wars fought with the Chinese, which seems to have destroyed a certain amount of records. As this dynasty is only really referred to by later writers from the 15th Century AD and there is no archaeological evidence for it, we should probably relegate this kingdom to the realms of legend. However, it would be correct to state that the Red River Delta would be important to the later history of the region.
Vase from different angles, from Samrong Sen in
Cambodia
Around the year 2000, regular trade contacts begin to appear between Taiwan and the Philippines. Both island groups spoke mostly Austronesian languages at this point and may have shared vaguely similar cultures. The mainland cultures in China prized jade highly and the Taiwanese islanders also became enamoured of the beautiful stone. Jade items began to be traded between the islands of the Philippines and Taiwan. In some ways this high status good had similarities to the lapis lazuli trade in the Middle East at that time. It is one of the earliest well-defined trade routes in the region.
During this period, we can be certain that wet-rice agriculture and millet farming had been introduced to areas such as Laos and northern Thailand.
In northern Vietnam the Phung Nguyen culture began to flourish. Here as well, we begin to see definite evidence of farming in a recognisable fashion. In southern Thailand the Khok Phanom Di site began to be occupied. It comprises a series of burials near habitations from the late Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The inhabitants of Khok Phanom Di may not have been full agriculturalists at the beginning of the settlement however, as they seem to have eaten a great deal of fish, suggesting a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Around this period, the Hoabinhian stone tools begin to disappear from the archaeological record of Southeast Asia. Quite simply the older Mesolithic tools were beginning to be replaced by more sophisticated stone tools as more and more of the region became used for agriculture.
Around the century of the 1900’s BC the shell middens of Lal-lo and Gattaran, in what is now known as the Philippines, began to be used. These were situated along the Cagayan River banks, on the northern island of Luzon. The shell middens hold discarded seafood shells and other remnants of a culture. Effectively they are rubbish heaps, but archaeologically significant rubbish heaps. These people were probably Austronesian speakers but despite the existence of the middens, there is not much that can be said about this, save that these people seem to have participated in the jade trade at that time.
Reconstruction of woman painting pottery at Ban
Chiang in Thailand. This style of pottery probably
dates from the next millennium however
There is little that can be said about the next few centuries, save for the fact that agriculture became ever more widespread. Around the century of the 1500’s BC bronze smelting was in evidence at the site of Nyaunggan in what is currently Myanmar. The technology of working with bronze was probably introduced from outside the region but the dates are rather confused. The site of Ban Chiang in present-day Thailand seems to show bronze-working around this time. The Ban Chiang site is sometimes dated much earlier, but this appears to have been in error and most sources now suggest that bronze working only began in Ban Chiang around the mid-2nd millennium BC.
The Cambodian site of Samrong Sen shows evidence of bronze working around this time. The fact that the lands now referred to as Cambodia have no copper deposits suggest that the copper was imported from outside the region, thus inferring some form of trade networks.
Around this time, in the area of the Red River region in what is now northern Vietnam, the Phung Nguyen culture came to an end. The Dong Dau culture took its place. These names are only archaeological designations, as the two cultures are only differentiated by different types of pottery markings.
Dong Son Vase from Vietnam,
probably dates from the next
millennium however
Little can be said for the next few centuries, save that in the region of northern Vietnam the Go Mun culture emerged, perhaps around 1100-1000BC. Again, this was a very similar culture to the Dong Dau culture, but which had a greater variety of tools and artefacts surviving from it.
By the ending of the period, around the century of the 1000’s BC the Dong Dau culture in Vietnam had been replaced by the Go Mun culture and the Dong Son culture. Further to the south of the Red River basin, in central and southern Vietnam, the Sa Huynh culture was beginning. Both the Sa Huynh and Dong Son are rather interesting cultures but will be dealt with in future blogs.
At the beginning of this time period in Southeast Asia agriculture was only partially adopted across the region and bronze-working, if it was known, was rather limited. By the end of the millennium agriculture had spread to nearly every part of Southeast Asia and bronze working was well known on the mainland, although it had perhaps not spread out to the island archipelagos of Indonesia and the Philippines just yet.
This is a post about Japanese and Korean history from 2000-1000BC. I am not an expert on this time period at all and there is much that is still unknown and being discovered by archaeologists but the broad outlines of what I will describe here should be mostly correct. This is a time before writing in this part of the world so the main sources will be entirely archaeological, but I may make some references to later myths and legends.
In 2000BC in Korea the period at this time is known as Middle Jeulmun, or the ending of the Middle Jeulmun. This is named after the Korean word for the comb-patterned pottery vessels that were used by the hunter-gatherers in the region. Farming appears to have been occurring on a small scale during the Middle Jeulmun period, but the population of the Korean area was still quite reliant on fishing, hunting and gathering. The people built pit houses that were roofed with a type of thatch. The Bangudae Petroglyphs, a series of rock carvings in southern Korea show evidence of whaling, perhaps the first whaling in the world, but it’s unclear exactly what date this should be ascribed to. Some of these ancient carvings may date from this time but the dates assigned for these stretch over a number of millennia.
In Korea there are later legends of a kingdom having been founded around 2300BC by a sage named Dangun. This is almost certainly legendary and there is no real record of this kingdom, nor of a level of state organisation higher than that of the tribe. But it is worth mentioning that some sources will refer to Korea of this time as being part of the Gojoseon kingdom, which was said to have been founded by Dangun.
Reconstructed Jomon houses
In Japan the situation was very similar. Here the Middle Jomon culture, also named after the comb-patterned pots used by its people, was flourishing. Here again we see fairly sedentary hunter-gatherers who had used bows and arrows (possibly tipped with poison) to hunt deer while also spending much of their time fishing and gathering nuts and berries. Despite being hunter-gatherers, they were able to build large log houses that may have housed large extended families.
In Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, to the north of Japan, there is evidence of hunter-gatherers at this time as well. It is presumed that they were related to the Jomon peoples, but the harsher climates faced by these more northerly peoples limited their numbers. To the south, in the Ryukyu Islands, similar conditions prevailed, with the islands being inhabited by hunter-gatherers who relied primarily on gathering fish, especially shellfish, from the sea. The remains of the shellfish were deposited in large shell-middens that are very useful to archaeologists.
Around the century of the 2000’s BC the Middle Jeulman Period ends in Korea and the Late Jeulmun period begins. The population seems to have reduced its reliance on gathering shellfish and begun low-level subsistence agriculture.
Stone circles of Oyū
In Japan, in what is now the Akita Prefecture of northern Japan, the Ōyu Stone Circles began to be used. These were a number of circles of small stones (rather than megaliths such as those of Stonehenge). The two largest circles were 46 and 42 metres in diameter. Around the edges, there were a number of wooden buildings and further out, some rubbish heaps, which would suggest that large numbers of people gathered here. The stone circles are aligned so that certain larger standing stones mark the position of the sunset on the summer solstice, making this an ancient astronomical monument. The monument seems to have been in use for several centuries at least.
For the next five centuries there is little that can be said. However, around the 1500’s BC, the Middle Jomon Period ended in Japan and the Final Jomon Period began. This period sees more elaborate pottery being created, including rather wonderful statues known as dogū, but also sees the beginning of stagnation and population decline. It is possible that the hunter-gatherers of Japan were finally beginning to exhaust the land. This is of course speculation. There could be other reasons for the apparent drop in population. Perhaps the sites that have been excavated have not been representative of the Final Jomon settlements.
Mumun pottery from Korea
Around this time the Late Jeulmun Period also ended in Korea. The new period that replaced it was known as the Early Mumun Period. This is another archaeological term, and is named after a particular type of pottery vessel that is quite typical of the time. This period was a gradual evolution from the Late Jeulmun and saw the same trends continue. Agriculture was practised but not intensively. Extended families would cultivate a small plot of land to grow some foodstuffs, augmenting their diet with hunter-gathering and fishing. Once the land had been exhausted they would move on to another patch of land nearby. This type of agriculture did not permit high population levels so the Korean Peninsula was still fairly sparsely populated. After a number of centuries the farming practices changed to allow small villages to emerge, which were then probably ruled by chieftains. The important people of these villages began to be buried in megalithic graves. In certain ways, Korea looked quite similar to the Late Neolithic in parts of Ireland, or other parts of Europe or Asia, and one of the types of grave, the dolmen grave, would be seen in Korea as well. Korea would go on to have the largest concentration of dolmens in the world but this would happen later.
Not much more can be said for the next few centuries save that around the century of the 1000’s BC, a Chinese prince is said to have come to Korea. Supposedly a descendant of the conquered Shang Dynasty, named Jizi in later Chinese records or Gija in later Korean records, came to Korea. He was then said to have either founded a kingdom named Gija Joseon or to have been granted lands by the Gojoseon ruler. Gija was said to have brought Chinese learning, culture and technology to Korea. Later Korean writers have disagreed with this on nationalist grounds, arguing that this story was a later legend that was meant to bring Korea under the hegemony of China. This might well have been the case. But the main thing to remember is that there is no archaeological evidence of either the Gojoseon or the Gija Joseon kingdoms at this time.
Late Jomon dogu clay statue
This brings the period that we are looking at to a close. Not much can be said to have happened. In Japan the hunter-gathering Jomon culture continued. In Korea there was a slow shift towards agriculture but in non-intensive fashion. It is in some ways surprising, that Korea and Japan, two regions that would go on to have such an impact on world history, should be such comparatively late starters. But perhaps this is a misunderstanding. To be able to manage the environment in such a way that organised, sedentary hunter-gathering can be done for millennia is no mean feat. Perhaps this was not a lack of civilisation but a different type of it.
I would certainly never argue for a return to a hunter-gathering society but I would be cautious of a simplistic approach that sees a shift to agriculture as a sign of a necessary or progressive development. Perhaps it helps to try and remove moral judgements from these things and simply view the archaeological record of these times as a bare record of what was, rather than attaching value judgements to them.
This post will look at the years 1500-1000BC for the region of Central Asia. Central Asia is a little tricky to describe and for the purposes of this post it will include the Pontic Steppes (referred to in previous European posts), the boreal lands north of Siberia and all the steppe lands from the black soil of the Ukraine, the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau, to the northern steppes on the borders of China. I will also include the history of the Iranian Plateau here. It is not Central Asian, but it does link the northern steppes with the regions of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
The same caveats that I have mentioned before must be mentioned again. I am not a professional historian, merely someone who finds history interesting. So, all of my data should be questioned heavily.
This period predates much writing, certainly for the areas outside of the Iranian Plateau, so much of what we learn will come from archaeology, with some additional input from linguistics, genetics, biology and geology. Dendrochronology is of less use here than in Europe but we have the great fortune to be close enough to written history to be able to use folklore and legend here in a way that we have not been able to do in the posts about prehistoric Europe. There will however be some writings, mainly from nearby Mesopotamia, which shed some light on the kingdoms of what is now Iran.
Stela of Untash-Napirisha
Around the century of the 1500’s BC, the Epartid Dynasty in Elam ended and was replaced by the Kidinuid Dynasty. The end of the Epartid Dynasty marks the end of what has been termed the Old Elamite Period and the beginning of the Middle Elamite Period. The Kidinuid Dynasty is not particularly well known either however, unfortunately.
Near the Caspian Sea, south of where the BMAC culture had flourished, the Yaz culture began to become evident. This was in some ways the first distinctively Iranian culture. Plenty of ancient cultures had existed in the Iranian Plateau but they spoke non-Iranian languages. The Yaz culture almost certainly spoke an Iranian language that had begun to split from the Indic languages. The Yaz culture was settled but with remnants of nomadism. Their towns were mixtures of Sintashta and BMAC structures. They clearly had horses and chariots but they do not seem to have buried their dead. The aversion to burial of the dead seems to reflect the earliest beginnings of the Iranian religious tradition that would eventually become Zoroastrianism.
The Indo-Iranian language family seems to have split around this time, with the Indic languages arising around this time period. This century probably saw the composition of the earliest parts of the Rig Veda, as the speakers of Sanskrit moved from central Asia into the subcontinent. Just to be clear, I do not believe that the speakers of Sanskrit invaded India. I believe that they probably had been involved in the subcontinent for many centuries. As they were trading and intermingling with the BMAC culture, they would have been aware of the area now known as India. When the climate shifted and the rivers dried up for the Harappan civilisation, the speakers of Sanskrit moved into the vacuum. With their new culture and status symbols like horses and chariots, they would have been people to emulate. There were not even necessarily that many of them who moved, at least not at once. But I believe that some form of migration from central Asia had to have happened. But here is not the place for a full discussion. Below is a video giving an idea of how the Vedic chanting sounds today.
Mitanni cylinder seal
Another migration of sorts, which might be similar in certain respects to the migration into India, was the emergence of the mysterious Mitanni kingdom. This kingdom was a Hurrian kingdom in the north of Mesopotamia, near the Khabur Triangle. The people spoke Hurrian, a language of the Hurro-Urartian family. It was not related to the other languages around it, or to any that are spoken today. But while the people and the kingdom spoke Hurrian, were culturally Hurrian and had Hurrian gods, the rulers did not. The rulers of the land had Indo-Iranian names and seem to have worshipped at least a few of the Indo-Iranian gods. They were also skilled charioteers, used an Indo-Iranian word for warrior, “maurya” and were experts on horsemanship. The occurrences of the names of Mitanni kings and their gods on treaty documents are the earliest instances of Indo-Iranian languages preserved to us.
It’s not clear exactly who they were or how they got there but my own theory is that they were a group of mercenaries who had been hired by the Hurrians and who took control of the land. Sadly we know almost nothing of the Mitanni and everything we do know is from the writings of their enemies. Perhaps one day we shall find out more of these mysterious charioteer kings.
Around the century of the 1400’s BC one of the earliest texts on the training of horses was written. It was written in or around the city of Hattusa (or Khattusha) in the Hittite lands. It was written by Kikkuli, a master horse trainer from the Mitanni lands. By now the Hittites, Egyptians and Mesopotamians had thoroughly imbibed the horse knowledge of the steppe peoples and Kikkuli, and other trainers like him, were doubtless in high demand.
Elamite Hedgehog
In Elam, the Kidinuid Dynasty ended and the Igehalkid Dynasty is said to have begun. The evidence for this is rather fragmentary. We have some inscriptions from a king called Igi-Halki. Igi-Halki mentions no ancestors and so may have been the founder of a new dynasty. This circumstance is probably to be connected with one of the Kassite kings of Babylon, called Kurigalzu I. Kurigalzu claims to have conquered Susa. If he had done so, he may have installed a new client ruler, who may well have been Igi-Halki.
Regardless of which poorly documented dynasty was ruling Elam, one of my favourite artworks from the ancient world was created around this time. Around this time someone in Elam decided to make a small stone figurine of a hedgehog on little wheeled cart. It is said to have been a ritual object, but quite often scholars say that something is “ritual” when they have nothing else to say. All we know is that someone decided to make it and I am glad that they did.
Slab grave shown at a museum, original location in Buryatia
Around the century of the 1300’s BC the Slab Grave culture arose in what is now the land of Mongolia and the surrounding regions. This appeared to be an expansion of the Bronze Age steppe culture from the steppes of central Asia to the regions further east. There were crucial differences however, particularly in how the peoples of this region buried their dead. Rather than exposing their dead, as was being done in the Yaz culture, cremation, burial in timber graves or in kurgan mounds, the Slab Grave culture buried their dead in graves made of stone slabs, on high ground, facing the sun and sky. There is not much more that can be said about this culture, save for the fact that their grave goods show that horses and bronze had now spread all across the northern region of Eurasia. The bronze-working may have come from the south, rather than the west, as the Chinese regions had had knowledge of bronze for a considerable time at this point.
Axehead bearing the name of Shutruk-Nakhunte
Around this time, the Elamites intermarried with the Kassite Dynasty of Babylon, with the daughter of the Babylonian king Burna-Buriash II being married to an Elamite king. This daughter may have been Napir-asu, whose statue is currently on display in the Louvre.
Around the century of the 1200’s the Bronze Age in the Near East began to collapse. This did not greatly affect Elam or the regions that are now known as Iran. In fact, it may have strengthened them, as the famines and supply shortages that the states bordering the Mediterranean region were not experienced so far east.
Around this time the city of Tepe Sialk was resettled. It had been abandoned, possibly because the lands around it were beginning to dry up and the great inland lake that had been near it was beginning to dry up. The resettlement may have been of settlers from Elam, as the Elamite kingdom was strong at this time.
Ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil
Around this time the Nairi tribes become unified into the rising state of Urartu. This state was centred on the Armenian highlands and had its heartland between Lake Van and Lake Urmia. They fought the Assyrian state in the north of Mesopotamia.
In Elam the Igehalkid Dynasty had completely outgrown any Babylonian influence that may have been over it when it was founded. Untash-Napirisha, the king of Elam, built a spectacular new city called Dur-Untash. This means, the Fortress of Untash, but today it is better known as Chogha Zanbil. The city itself was a large one but it is best known today for the ruins of the ziggurat, which is the best preserved ziggurat in the world.
At the very end of the century the Igehalkid Dynasty came to an end and the Shutrukid Dynasty was founded. The first king of the Shutrukid Dynasty was Hallutush-Inshushinak. His son Shutruk-Nakhunte, was married to a Kassite princess; daughter of a king of Babylon.
Author posing with Stele of Naram-Sin in the Louvre.
Shutruk-Nakhunte's inscription is visible on the top
right of the stela
In the century of the 1100’s BC Shutruk-Nakhunte I came to the throne of Elam. He had been married to a Babylonian princess, and felt that he had a right to the throne of Babylon. When the throne of Babylon was not forthcoming, Shutruk-Nakhunte took matters into his own hands and marched upon Babylon. He captured Enlil-nadin-ahi and took him as a prisoner to Susa. He also conquered much of southern Mesopotamia. As a historical trophy he took the stele of Naram-Sin (who had conquered Elam a millennium earlier) and brought it back to Susa. While the stele of the earlier conqueror was treated with respect, Shutruk-Nakhunte nevertheless had his own inscription carved upon the stele. More importantly, Shutruk-Nakhunte carried away the cult statue of Marduk from the city of Babylon.
Later in the century, Nabu-kudurri-usur, better known as Nebuchadnezzar I, turned the tables on Elam. He defeated the Elamites near Susa and returned the statue of Marduk to its place in Babylon. The Babylonian scribes recorded their defeats at the hands of Shutruk-Nakhunte and their victories at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Elam was a powerful kingdom, one of the most powerful in the region, but even at their strongest they were unable to exercise hegemony over Mesopotamia for more than a few decades.
Reconstruction of Srubnaya Culture hut
Between the Black and Caspian Seas the Srubnaya Culture came to an end around this time. It was replaced in a gradual evolution by the peoples who we generally refer to as Cimmerians and Scythians. These were horse tribes who specialised in cavalry rather than chariots and who may have been the first horse archers, as opposed to chariot archers. Being able to rely on horses alone, rather than horses and chariots, gave them once again a competitive military edge over other groups, as horses are much more manoeuvrable than chariots and can go across much more difficult terrain.
In the century of the 1000’s BC, towards the end of the millennium, the Dasht-e-Kavir had dried up. This had been a great lake that had survived since the end of the last Ice Age. However, it had become seasonal and relied upon the monsoons. When the monsoons had ceased to come to the region some centuries earlier, the Dasht-e-Kavir, which literally means The Great Salt Desert, dried out completely to become an arid wilderness of dunes. Occasional runoff of winter storms from nearby mountain ranges would occasionally make the desert bloom but the region would no longer support great cities easily.
Elamite artwork
I mentioned earlier about the Yaz culture, on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, being a potential precursor to Zoroastrian religion. It is possible that Zoroaster may have been active around this time. However I am unable to say much with certainty here. Zoroaster may never even have existed. The linguistic analysis of the Gathas are not of much help. Zoroaster’s dates could be as late as 550BC or as early as 1500BC. The truth may never be known unless more is discovered, which we may hope will be the case.
Thus the period draws to a close. The period has seen the gradual development of the familiar steppe cultures, Iranian and Indic cultures, the height of Elamite power under Untash-Napirisha and Shutruk-Nakhunte, as well as the inevitable Mesopotamian counterattacks against this power.
This post will look at the years 2000-1500BC for the region of Central Asia. Central Asia is a little tricky to describe and for the purposes of this post it will include the Pontic Steppes (referred to in previous European posts), the boreal lands north of Siberia and all the steppe lands from the black soil of the Ukraine, the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau, to the northern steppes on the borders of China. I will also include the history of the Iranian Plateau here. It is not Central Asian, but it does link the northern steppes with the regions of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
The same caveats that I have mentioned before must be mentioned again. I am not a professional historian, merely someone who finds history interesting. So, all of my data should be questioned heavily.
This period predates most writing, so much of what we learn will come from archaeology, with some additional input from linguistics, genetics, biology and geology. Dendrochronology is of less use here than in Europe, but we have the great fortune to be close enough to written history to be able to use folklore and legend here in a way that we have not been able to do in the posts about prehistoric Europe. There will however be some writings, mainly from nearby Mesopotamia, which shed some light on the kingdoms of what is now Iran.
Shahr-e-Sukhteh
Around the century of the 2000’s BC, we see the Kulli culture of Baluchistan coming to an end. This probably signals that the Indus Valley Civilisation, upon which the Kulli culture appears to have been based, was entering a period of difficulty and any influence on the hinterlands appears to have ending. It is around this time that the trade from Meluhha to Mesopotamia stops and the two civilisations drift apart, leaving each other as only a memory.
The Kura-Araxes culture south of the Caucasus came to an end around this time and the Trialeti culture, based in what is now Georgia, came to prominence. The Trialeti are known for their spectacular kurgan burials and might possibly be counted as a steppe culture.
Much further to the north and east, in Siberia, the Okunev culture comes to an end and the sprawling Andronovo culture. The Andronovo culture was in many ways an extension of the Sintashta culture. It covered a vast swathe of territory. The Andronovo region stretched from the north of the Caspian Sea past Lake Balkhash to the east and stretching into what is now Xinjiang in China. To the south it stretched down as far south as the BMAC, whose culture it seems to have influenced.
Figures from the Bactri-Margiana Archaeological Complex
The Andronovo culture should in no way be thought of as a single group and definitely not as an empire, but it is rather a cultural expansion, probably driven by the now perfected methods of chariot warfare. Every group on the steppe now adopted this new method or faced absorption by those that did. The transient nature of steppe life depended on the herds of livestock that could be kept. This means that any group that specialised in mobile warfare could steal the herds of those that did not with impunity. This gave a strong impetus for all groups to adopt a mobile form of warfare, in this case, the chariot.
In Elam, the city of Susa was conquered by the Ur III Dynasty in their expansion under their king Shulgi, but it won independence around the turn of the millennium under a Shimashki king known as Kindattu.
In the century of the 1900’s BC the Shimashki Dynasty in Elam ended. It is possible that this was not a dynasty in our modern understanding of the word, but that the king list that we have represents a number of rulers, some of whom ruled consecutively and who may have been allied, but from completely different families. Our understanding of Elam at this time is very limited. We have some knowledge, but apart from the names of some possible kings, we know very little. The Epartid Dynasty, which is similarly obscure, succeeded it.
Reconstructed chariot of the Sintashta culture
Also around this time, the Abashevo Culture, near the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, came to an end. It had however influenced the nearby Sintashta culture, who at this time were making spoked-wheel chariots, which allowed even small horses to become effective for battle.
Around the century of the 1800’s BC the Sintashta culture itself was drawing to an end, becoming subsumed in the larger Andronovo culture that surrounded it. The people of the Sintashta culture had built a large number of settlements on what is today just north of the northern border between Kazakhstan and Russia. They had been probably the first people in the world to pioneer using light, spoked-wheeled chariots. These imposing vehicles would have freed their hands for throwing javelins or shooting arrows with much greater freedom than could have been done from horseback. On the open grasslands these chariots must have been formidable status symbols. They were not entirely nomadic either. Contact with the BMAC to the south had introduced the idea of urbanism and some areas are even quite densely populated, for this time period.
Artists vision of what the town of Arkaim once looked like
One of the settlements is a place called Arkaim. This was a circular fortified settlement consisting of two concentric rings of walls, with houses and workshops in between. There were bronze working areas included in the city and it may have been something more akin to a factory city than a normal settlement. The site of Arkaim has been taken up by many neo-pagans who make some wild speculations about it. It is almost certainly not the birthplace of Zoroaster. However, the Sintashta peoples almost certainly were Indo-Iranian speakers and their religion probably had some similarities with the later religious practices described in the Rig Veda and the older parts of the Avesta.
The Indo-Iranian speakers of the Sintashta and Andronovo cultures were mingling with the people of the Bactro-Margiana Archaeological Complex and were probably migrating southwards in certain instances. The relationship between the steppe peoples and the sedentary peoples of what is now Turkmenistan seems to have been fairly peaceful. We have no evidence for the steppe people destroying the cities of the BMAC. The BMAC maintained trade relations with the people of the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation. This means that as the steppe people came into contact with the BMAC, that they would also have come into contact with the traders and diplomats of the cities of the Indus Valley.
Artwork from the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological
Complex
The climate was beginning to change over the course of this century. The monsoon systems, which had reached far to the north, into what is now Afghanistan, began to shift further south in unpredictable fashion. This may have caused the abandonment of the city of Shahr-e-Sukhteh, on the far eastern edges of what is now Iran. The loss of the rains would have led to the drying of the Ghaggar-Hakra River, which was relied upon by the Indus Valley Civilisation.
Around the century of the 1700’s BC the shifting of the monsoons began to take its toll. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) seems to have ceased to exist around this time. The largest city of the region, Gonur Tepe, was abandoned. The river it had been situated on had moved and the lack of rains made it pointless to re-found the city elsewhere. The peoples of the BMAC probably adapted the ways of the life of the steppe people among them. The Indo-Iranian languages of the steppes were probably adopted and some religious and linguistic elements adopted and fused into the new culture.
Also around this time, the Srubna (or Srubnaya) Culture, began to flourish on the steppes north of the Caspian and the Black Seas. These were another variant of the steppe cultures. They used bronze weapons and implements. They were very similar to the Andonovo culture to the east, but they buried their dead in timber-lined graves (which is what "Srubnaya" means in Russian).
Reconstructed timber hut of the Srubna culture
In Elam, the Elamite monarchs had become powerful enough to be regional hegemons over lower Mesopotamia, until they were defeated by the Amorites of Babylon under Hammurabi. Hammurabi had made an alliance with the city-state of Larsa to help him defeat the Elamites and once he had confined their influence to Susa and the mountains of Iran, Hammurabi turned on his previous allies. After breaking the power of Larsa and Eshnunna, Hammurabi seems to have tried to conquer Elam itself. It’s unlikely that he fully succeeded, but Elam may have paid tribute to Babylon for some decades.
Around the century of the 1600’s BC the Trialeti culture ended, in the region that is now part of the country of Georgia. This was a kurgan culture, meaning that they buried their important deceased in large earthen mounds raised above the plains. Like the earlier Maykop culture, they had been a transitional region between the Mesopotamian city-dwellers to the south and the steppe cultures to the north. It is possible that the Trialeti culture had been led by Indo-European speaking peoples.
Around the century of the 1500’s BC, the Epartid Dynasty in Elam ended and was replaced by the Kidinuid Dynasty. The end of the Epartid Dynasty marks the end of what has been termed the Old Elamite Period and the beginning of the Middle Elamite Period. The Kidinuid Dynasty is not particularly well known either however, unfortunately.
Elamite artwork
Near the Caspian Sea, south of where the BMAC culture had flourished, the Yaz culture began to become evident. This was in some ways the first distinctively Iranian culture. Plenty of ancient cultures had existed in the Iranian Plateau but they spoke non-Iranian languages. The Yaz culture almost certainly spoke an Iranian language that had begun to split from the Indic languages. The Yaz culture was settled, but with remnants of nomadism. Their towns were mixtures of Sintashta and BMAC structures. They clearly had horses and chariots, but they do not seem to have buried their dead. The aversion to burial of the dead seems to reflect the earliest beginnings of the Iranian religious tradition that would eventually become Zoroastrianism.
The Indo-Iranian language family seems to have split around this time, with the Indic languages arising around this time period. This century probably saw the composition of the earliest parts of the Rig Veda, as the speakers of Sanskrit moved from central Asia into the subcontinent. Just to be clear, I do not believe that the speakers of Sanskrit invaded India. I believe that they probably had been involved in the subcontinent for many centuries. As they were trading and intermingling with the BMAC culture, they would have been aware of the area now known as India. When the climate shifted and the rivers dried up for the Harappan civilisation, the speakers of Sanskrit moved into the vacuum. With their new culture and status symbols like horses and chariots, they would have been people to emulate. There were not even necessarily that many of them who moved, at least not at once. But I believe that some form of migration from central Asia had to have happened. But here is not the place for a full discussion. Below is a video giving an idea of how the Vedic chanting sounds today.
Another migration of sorts, which might be similar in certain respects to the migration into India, was the emergence of the mysterious Mitanni kingdom. This kingdom was a Hurrian kingdom in the north of Mesopotamia, near the Khabur Triangle. The people spoke Hurrian, a language of the Hurro-Urartian family. It was not related to the other languages around it, or to any that are spoken today. But while the people and the kingdom spoke Hurrian, were culturally Hurrian and had Hurrian gods, the rulers did not. The rulers of the land had Indo-Iranian names and seem to have worshipped at least a few of the Indo-Iranian gods. They were also skilled charioteers, used an Indo-Iranian word for warrior, “maurya” and were experts on horsemanship. The occurrences of the names of Mitanni kings and their gods on treaty documents are the earliest instances of Indo-Iranian languages preserved to us. It’s not clear exactly who they were or how they got there but my own theory is that they were a group of mercenaries who had been hired by the Hurrians and who took control of the land. Sadly we know almost nothing of the Mitanni and everything we do know is from the writings of their enemies. Perhaps one day we shall find out more of these mysterious charioteer kings.
Mitanni era cylinder seal
This is the five hundred years of the period briefly described. The period sees continued linguistic evolution, with languages breaking into groups that we recognise today. Elam continued to be a force to be reckoned with, albeit a poorly documented one. The climate shifts that disrupted the Harappan and BMAC civilisations continued, with the monsoons moving almost entirely south into the subcontinent. This led to the downfall of many of urban cultures of central Asia and allowed the semi-pastoral steppe cultures to expand. We shall continue the story in the next blog.
