Model of a Bactrian Camel from
the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
This post will look at the years 3000-2000BC 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.
Carved item from Konar Sandal
Possibly a forgery
To speak of the history of the regions of the centre of the Eurasian landmass, we must speak of what this world looked like in the year 3000BC. North of the Caucasus Mountains the Maykop culture was possibly ending. Further north than this, in the Pontic Steppes, the Yamna culture, a possible homeland of the Proto-Indo-European speaking peoples, was flourishing. Possibly the Yamna culture was in conflict with the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in what are now the lands of Ukraine. Further east in the Altaic region, the Afasanevo culture, which seems to have had a similar material culture to the Yamna culture, was also flourishing. At the southern edges of the Ural Mountains, the speakers of the Uralic languages seem to have been active around this time, with the dialect of Proto-Finno-Ugric possibly branching off around this date. The Tibetan Plateau was populated by Sino-Tibetan speakers from the northern Chinese Plains around this date.
South of the Caucasus, the Kura-Araxes culture flourished, with settlements such as Shengavit being strongly fortified. The Kura-Araxes culture may have been in the ascendant at this time, with the settlement of Arslantepe in Anatolia burned at this time, possibly by the Kura-Araxes peoples.
In Iran itself, Proto-Elamite script was in use. It is hard to pinpoint exactly the time that this region moves from history to prehistory, as the scripts are mostly indecipherable. It is however fair to say that peoples of south-western Iran had become at least partly literate at this point. Large urban settlements that can with justification be called cities exist in Susa, Godin Tepe and Tepe Sialk. A possible settlement existed at this time at Konar Sandal, but the Jiroft culture, of which Konar Sandal is part, is poorly studied (having only been discovered in 2001).
Possible ziggurat at Tepe Sialk
Around 2900 a huge mudbrick structure that may have been intended as a ziggurat was constructed in Tepe Sialk, in what is currently north-western Iran. This may be the oldest existing ziggurat in the world, if this is indeed the case. Around this time vessels have been found in nearby Godin Tepe that show signs of fermentation, which was probably intentional. This is perhaps the oldest indication of humans using alcohol, although it is likely that this long predates this find.
Around 2800 Shahr-e-Sukhteh seems to have been burned (thus ending the period known as Shahr-e-Sukhteh I). This was a city that was in eastern Iran, near the present-day border with Afghanistan. This was the largest city of the Helmand culture, which seems to have had contact with the Indus Valley Civilisation and to have formed a bridge between the Indus Valley culture and the cities and cultures to the west, like Susa and Tepe Sialk. "Shahr-e-Sukhteh" means "The Burnt City" and it lives up to its name, being burned down four separate times over the millennia. But it was also a vibrant cultural hub and was a very large settlement for its time.
Buildings at Shahr-e-Sukhteh
Around 2700 Elamite culture evolved from Proto-Elamite culture. It influenced, and was heavily influenced by, the nearby Sumerian culture of Lower Mesopotamia, but the Elamites certainly spoke their own language and had their own gods and political organisations. The writing script Linear Elamite, which is yet another untranslated Elamite script, dates from around this time. The interaction between Susa and Sumer seems to have been quite hostile at times, with Mesopotamian texts indication a possible war between the city of Kish and Susa during this era.
Also around this time, the Indo-Iranian languages may have begun to split off from Proto-Indo-European as a dialect. Of course this is very conjectural, but it is a plausible date.
Around the time of 2600 the Yamna culture, that had inhabited the steppes north of the Black Sea, seems to have evolved into what is known as the Poltavka culture, which might possibly be identified as the culture or homeland of the Indo-Iranian branch of Proto-Indo-European. This might suggest that other branches, such as Proto-Hittite, Proto-Tocharian, Proto-Germanic etc., had speakers that had migrated away from that particular area of the steppes, but caution is always needed in applying such broad brushes to complex language shifts.
Animation on pot from
Shahr-e-Sukhteh
Around this time Shahr-i-Sukhteh was flourishing and reaching perhaps the high point of its culture. One of the most fascinating artefacts to emerge from this period was a jar with four similar images on it, which when spun on a wheel would produce an image of a goat leaping up to a tree. This is the world’s earliest known attempt at animation. The Burned City was effectively producing the Photoshop or After Effects of the ancient world.
There were a number of other wonderful things that were being done here at this time though, with evidence that the inhabitants practiced a form of brain surgery (or cranial surgery to be more accurate). Much survives of the city because of a large graveyard outside the city, which may contain up to 40,000 burials. The remains of the city are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around the year 2500 a great many things seem to have been happening. This is probably an illusion, as archaeologists will, in the absence of fixed dates, round their dates to the nearest half millennium. So if something happened between 2700 and 2300 and you were unsure, you might just say it happened in 2500. So with that caveat in mind, let’s see what things archaeologists’ record happening for these years.
In the eastern steppes, the Afanasevo culture seems to have come to an end around this time and the Okunev culture seems to have come to prominence. The people of the Okunev culture may have come from further east, from the region near Lake Baikal. They raised sheep and cattle and buried their dead in slab tombs; buried face upwards towards the sky and with their earthly goods surrounding them.
Yamna Arrowheads
After the gradual decline of the Yamna culture, the Potapovka culture and the Abashevo cultures began to flourish to the north of where the Yamna culture had been before. These cultures resembled the Yamna cultures to some extent and used a similar pottery type, although again, it must be remembered that “pots are not people”. The Potapovka cultures in particular began to show horse remains in their kurgans, which were impressive and occasionally had wheeled vehicles as well.
Tepe Sialk appears to have been burned around this time, although the nearby Kura-Araxes culture may not have been at fault, as the settlement of Shengavit appears to be abandoned around this period as well.
In Elam, the semi-mythical Dynasty of Awan seems to have come to power around 2500. Awan may have been the city of Godin Tepe and the names of their kings survive from a king list. But like many king lists of the ancient world, even if the names are right, the order may be confused. It’s unclear if the kings of Awan controlled all of Elam and also not clear if they actually controlled Susa, which was a semi-independent city-state in its own right. The writing system known as “Elamite cuneiform”, as opposed to other systems such as Linear Elamite, or Proto-Elamite, was probably in use around this time, although no texts are extant from that exact era. Around this time the city of Lagash seems to have been dominant in southern Mesopotamia and the ruler, Eannatum, claims laconically to have conquered Susa.
Around this time the Kulli culture in Baluchistan began to flourish. This had some similarities with the other cultures such as the Jiroft and the Helmand cultures to the west and north but was most influenced by the Indus Valley Civilisation to its east. Numerous Indus Valley seals have been found and the art styles are very similar to each other. The main cultural difference is that the main Kulli site of Nindowari seems to have had a monumental mound, like a proto-ziggurat, that rose to 25 metres. This is in contrast to the Indus Valley sites, which do not seem have monumental architecture.
The city of Konar Sandal, in the Jiroft culture, seems to have reached the peak of its cultural output around this time, as does the nearby Helmand civilisation. However, true to its name of “The Burnt City”, Shahr-e-Sukhteh appears to have been burned down again around this time.
Around the year 2400, far away from Elam, or the steppes, or even the Tibetan Plateau, in the Arctic Ocean north of the Bering Straits, the last woolly mammoth on earth died. I find it astonishing that this last remnant of megafauna could have coexisted with the building of Stonehenge and the pyramids. It has nothing really to do with the rest of this blog, but I felt it was worth mentioning somewhere and it might as well be here.
Clay goddess figurines from Helmand Culture
Object on left from Mundigak
In what is present-day Afghanistan, the city of Mundigak flourished around this time, having close trade relations with the Indus Valley, but differing from them in having large mounds (possibly for temples or palaces) prominent in their city. Around this time, the cities of Tepe Yahya and Bampur (in present day south-eastern Iran) became prominent. It appears that not only did they trade with each other, but that they also traded across the straits with the civilisations on the Arabian Peninsula. This, along with evidence from Mesopotamia, is yet more evidence of a strong trade network connecting the Indus and the Tigris/Euphrates.
Stele of Naram-Sin,
an Akkadian conqueror
Around the year 2300, Susa moves very definitely into the realms of history, as the conqueror Sargon of Akkad conquered the city and its hinterland. The descendants of Sargon would have further campaigns in this area. Shahr-i-Sukhteh was once again burned, marking the end of the Shahr-i-Sukhteh III period, but this is unlikely to have been by the Akkadians, as it is very far from Mesopotamia.
This time period is also a possible date for the Maikop kurgan, north of the Caucasus. This was described in the last blog post in detail and the fact that the dates assigned to it are up to a thousand years apart means we must be very cautious with dating in this era.
Also around this time the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex emerges. This is often shortened to the BMAC for convenience. This was a culture in present-day Turkmenistan and northern Afghanistan. It was an urban civilisation, possibly a blending of Neolithic farmers from the region and migrants from what is now Iran. This area had been urbanised previously but around this time the cities, particularly the large city of Gonur Tepe, become very prominent. They had trading relationships with the cultures of Iran and the Indus Valley civilisation. They were possibly the first people to domesticate the Bactrian camel.
Most intriguingly a small seal has been found that was incised with hitherto unknown characters that vaguely resemble later Chinese characters. Some people extrapolate that the BMAC was a literate culture and that it was through them that the idea of writing passed eastwards towards the Chinese plains. This is extremely conjectural and should be treated with extreme scepticism. But the level of culture displayed by the BMAC, particularly at their “capital” Gonur Tepe, would certainly allow one to believe that they were literate.
Around the year 2200 the Helmand culture and the cities of Shahr-i-Sukhteh and Mundigak began to go into a decline. It is possible that the monsoon cycle was changing and that rains no longer reached as far north as they previously had. This is interesting as the Indus Valley Civilisation begins to experience some difficulties around this time. The rain-fed Ghaggar-Hakra River (sometimes referred to conjecturally as the Sarasvati River) seems to have begun drying at this time.
Susa Kinglist describing Awan Dynasty
The first definite texts of Elamite cuneiform date from this time, although as mentioned earlier, it was probably in use significantly earlier. The first texts seem to be treaties between the Akkadian kings and unknown vassals in the Elamite heartlands.
Around the year 2100 the Poltavka culture in seems to have come to an end and evolved into the Sintashta culture north of the Caspian Sea. Again, the Sintashta did not differ greatly from the Poltavka, nor the Poltavka from the Yamna. The main difference is that the Poltavka had substantially greater grave goods in their tombs. The Sintashta by contrast also had large amounts of grave goods in their tombs, but also chariots. The Lake of Krivoye Ozero was a place of burial for the Sintashta culture and the first true chariot burial in the world is there. The chariot was the first indisputable example of the horse as a weapon. Prior to the development of the chariot we have no way of knowing if horses were rode and it seems likely that they were more of a draught animal. But with the chariot, individuals could fight from a stable platform and move at great speeds in battle. A new age of warfare had begun.
Statue of goddess
dedicated by Kutik-Inshushinak
Further south, in Susa, the last king of the Awan Dynasty according to the Susa Kinglist, Kutik-Inshushinak, shook off the yoke of the fading Akkadian Empire and made Susa independent. He conquered Anshan, a city somewhere to the east of Susa, but whose location is not securely known. He then embarked on a building program and fostered the use of Linear Elamite. However, after the death of Kutik-Inshushinak the use of Linear Elamite would fade away, leaving Elamite cuneiform as the main writing method of the Elamites. After his death the Shimashki Dynasty, which may not have been a dynasty in any real sense of the word, ruled Elam. However, as is so often the case with Elam, we know very little about them.
As our period comes to a close, around the year 2000BC, 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 comes to an end around this time and the Trialeti culture, based in what is now Georgia, come to prominence. The Trialeti are known for their spectacular kurgan burials and might possibly be counted as a steppe culture.
Gold goblet from Trialeti 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, where it seems to have influenced the culture.
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.
Graveyard from Shahr-i-Sukhteh
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.
Ornament from Bactria-Margiana Archaeoligical Complex
Thus the period comes to a close, with Elam locked in a perpetual conflict with their Mesopotamian neighbours. The steppe cultures have mastered the two-wheel chariot and used it to expand greatly. The Indo-European languages have broken up into their main constituents, with the gradual eastwards movements of the Indo-Iranian speakers, possibly tied in with the Andronovo culture. A new and vibrant civilisation has arisen in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, but is threatened by the chariot cultures to the north and changing climate patterns. The changing climate and trade patterns also threaten the Helmand and Jiroft cultures of south-eastern Iran. While there is a very great deal that can be written about the central area of the Eurasian landmass at this time, it must be remembered that what we write is nearly all taken from archaeology and linguistics and only a tiny fraction of the area, Elam and its hinterlands, are able to provide us texts for history proper. Hopefully this has shed some light however.
This post will look at the years 4000-3000BC 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. I have not spoken in great detail about Iran before and it is certainly worth including so I shall include it here.
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, everything presented here 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.
Goblet and cup of the Susa I type
To speak of the history of the regions of the centre of the Eurasian landmass, we must speak of what this world looked like in the year 4000BC. On the Iranian Plateau and north into the steppes west of the Urals, agriculture had been adopted and farming villages had developed into towns. Urbanisation was beginning in what is now Iran, spurred on by similar developments in the neighbouring Indus and Mesopotamian river valleys. The greatest of these cities, or proto-cities, was probably Susa, which was in the phase known as Susa I, where the two nearby settlements had merged to form a single walled settlement, with geometric style pottery abundantly placed in the graves of the inhabitants.
Further to the north was the city/proto-city of Tepe Sialk, which was at this time in the cultural period known as Tepe Sialk III. Somewhat surprisingly the climate of Iran seems to have been wildly different to what we think of today. What is now the vast desert of Dasht-e-Kavir, the Great Salt Desert, seems to have been a huge inland lake that could be sailed on as if a sea, and the monsoons of the Indian Ocean seem to have stretched up into the Iranian Plateau to water this paradise.
Lapis lazuli
Nearby Godin Tepe was established on an extremely early trading route where the beautiful blue stone of lapis lazuli was imported from Badakhshan (in what is now Afghanistan) to Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians prized lapis lazuli highly and its brilliant hues illuminate many of their artworks. It might be compared to how our culture values diamonds, with the exception that lapis lazuli was perhaps rarer. To the ancient world, the only source of lapis lazuli were the mines of Badakhshan and any occurrence of lapis lazuli in archaeology is a sign of interconnections with this trading network.
To the east of Susa was the small settlements of Tall-i-Bakun and Rahmatabad Tepe, which, like the other settlements in what is now Iran, seems to have been involved in trade with the surrounding world and the burgeoning proto-urban centres of southern Mesopotamia. Doubtless the Iranian Plateau holds many such centres that are as yet under-studied. These are the ones that we will mention for now to give an idea of a landscape that was moving towards urbanisation and civilisation but, like its neighbours, was not quite there yet.
In the Pontic Steppes, north of the Black Sea, the speakers of Proto-Indo-European languages had begun to split up. The speakers of Proto-Anatolian, the parent language of Hittite, and the oldest branch of Indo-European, had probably already split at this point. As of this point however, the Indo-European speakers were probably just minor pastoralist tribes roaming on the grasslands with no inkling of the future of the languages they spoke or the mythologies they believed.
Further to the east through the vast steppes of Central Asia, through the deserts of the Gobi, we know less of the peoples who lived on this land. It is probable that the taiga was nearly uninhabited.
Around the year 3900 Susa seems to have come more heavily under the influence of nearby Mesopotamia and this period is usually referred to as Susa II. Many of the trappings of the Uruk period culture of Mesopotamia would be evident in Susa over the following centuries. While there were always substantial differences between Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau, in some ways it makes sense to think of them, or at least the periphery regions like Susa, as a single cultural area.
Figurines from the Kura-Araxes culture
Around this time as well the Kura-Araxes culture began to form. This was a mountain culture that flourished in the highlands of what is now Azerbaijan and Armenia. This culture seems to have had dealings with the steppe dwellers to the north but also trade links with the agricultural centres to the south. The culture also seems to spread quite rapidly throughout the mountain regions, and there is a strong possibility that the Kura-Araxes culture was spread through violence. It’s not clear what language these peoples spoke but it is a possibility that they spoke some version of Hurro-Urartian, or Proto-Kartvelian, as the speakers of these languages later inhabited these lands. But this is merely a hypothesis.
Around the century of 3700 the Botai culture began in what is now northern Kazakhstan. These people built small houses of wood and earth and had enclosures of fence poles. But their actual settlements were quite small. We shall speak more of this culture later.
Cromlech of the Maykop culture
Around this time, the Maykop Culture (also referred to as the Maikop Culture) began to flourish in the Kuban River basin, a territory that roughly corresponds to the area just north and west of modern Georgia, between the Black Sea and the Caspian. Here the burial practices were rather similar to the later Indo-European burial practices, with the prominent members of society being buried in holes that were later covered with large mounds. The grave goods of the Maykop culture were quite elaborate, including many beautifully carved items that are honestly some of the most beautiful pieces of art anywhere in the world from this time. The Maykop culture would exist between the later Yamna culture to the north and the Kura-Araxes culture in the Armenian Highlands to the south and may have served as a cultural bridge between the two.
Around the year 3500 it seems likely that the wheels were in use among the Maykop culture and other cultures in the area. The Mesopotamians also had developed the wheel, as had the Balkans cultures in Europe. Perhaps these inventions were independent or perhaps there was a common source. At this stage we don't know for sure. Some have assumed that this means that horses were domesticated around this time, but we know that the Sumerians at least did not have domesticated horses. It is likely that the first wheeled vehicles were pulled by oxen (donkeys were probably only domesticated some centuries after the wheel had already been invented).
Around this time, the Tocharian languages, a branch of Indo-European probably broke off from the main language family. The speakers of these languages were probably moving eastwards, towards the towards and around the lands of the Botai culture. Eventually they would settle in the Tarim Basin in what is now present-day China. Their languages have gone extinct but are known through (much, much later) manuscripts. Their existence is a reminder that much language data has simply been lost to us. Had the manuscripts of the Tocharians not come down to us we might never have known that their language had ever even existed.
The settlements of the Bakun culture, such as its type site of Tall-i-Bakun (near the later Persian capital of Persepolis) seem to have fallen into decline and disuse around this time, as cultures overlapped, grew, struggled and merged over the centuries in a ceaseless whirl that we can only glimpse at by examining their pottery sherds.
Circa 3400 the Botai culture, in what is now Kazakhstan seem to have given us the first real evidence of the domestication of the horse. Horses could be used for meat, for their hides and for their milk (depending on whether the people of this culture were lactose tolerant). Cultures that had mastered the use of the wheel for human or oxen driven transport could also turn their captive horses to pulling carts. It is unlikely however that the earliest domesticated horses were ever ridden. The horses would have been quite small and may have been unable to bear the weight of riders. So, it would be a mistake to picture the Botai culture as a society of nomadic cavalry warriors. But it did lay the foundations for further developments.
Przewalski’s Horse on the Mongolian steppe
Now, it’s not exactly clear when and where the horse was first domesticated, but it would seem that the horses domesticated by the Botai culture were actually a rare breed of horse known as Przewalski’s Horse, or the Dzungarian horse. After the disappearance of the Botai culture these horses became feral and became effectively a wild species. So, we’re still not sure exactly where modern horses were domesticated, but it cannot have been too long after the Botai culture had domesticated the Przewalksi’s horses.
We should not picture the Botai as cavalry warriors. but we do know that they took great pride in the appearance of their horses and that they apparently bred horses for their colours. The pattern that they seem to have selected for was a white coat with small black spots on it. So, we can picture the Botai as effectively trying to domesticate their horses to look like Dalmatian dogs, which is an interesting mental image.
Around the year 3300 the Yamna culture began to thrive on the Pontic Steppes, north of the Maykop culture in the Caucasus. This is usually seen as the homeland for the Indo-European speakers and the place where they were able to either domesticate, or obtain domesticated, horses. These horses would allow the tribes to become highly mobile, as their hardy creatures would provide them with milk, hides and food while also pulling along goods and supplies behind them on carts. As these horses became more useful, the people of the Yamna culture would have tried to refrain from killing them (at least immediately), turning them into almost sacred creatures, but also relying more on oxen for their meat. These two animals, the horse and the cow, would become extremely important for the Indo-Europeans.
Pot from Yamna culture
It’s not totally clear that the Yamna were Indo-European speakers, but there are a number of clues that strongly suggest it, such as the fact that their land is near the centre of the Indo-European speaking lands, and thus would be a plausible homeland for them. There are certain genetic arguments as well, but as I am even less of a geneticist than a historian, I will simply say that there are some genetic reasons to believe that the Yamna are probably the original Indo-European speakers. However, it is important to remember that peoples are not languages and languages are not cultures, so identifying the Yamna as the "homeland" of speakers of Proto-Indo-European must be done with caution.
If these were the Indo-European speakers then we can speak a little about their religion. They worshipped a sky god who was king of the gods, whose name meant “Sky Father”. They also worshipped the sun or the moon, but not as their most important gods, as sometimes the gender of the he-god or she-god of the sun would differ from culture to culture. There were hero twins associated with horses, some myths of dragons and a world tree, a vague idea of a dark underworld where humans went after they died and other myths and legends. We can guess at a lot more, based on the mythologies of the later peoples who followed after but I feel that we cannot know much more than I have stated for certain. And that whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.
We can hear and read reconstructions of what some linguists believe this language to have sounded like. Here is a Youtube video of someone reading a fable in Proto-Indo-European. The fable was written by a linguist called August Schleicher in 1868 and is not ancient. But the constituent words are ancient and it is a fascinating window into a reconstructed ancient world. The translation is below:
The Sheep and the Horses A sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses." The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool." Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.
Around the same period as the Yamna Culture was beginning to thrive, the Afanasevo Culture (or Afanasievo Culture) began to flourish in southern Siberia, farther to the east than the Botai Culture. These may have been the first farmers in the region, bringing with them oxen and shortly afterwards, horses. Possibly these are to be associated with the Proto-Tocharian speakers whose language has been previously mentioned as separating off from the main Proto-Indo-European language group some centuries earlier. If this is the case then this would be a sign of rapid expansion by the speakers of the Indo-European languages.
Settlement at Shengavit, near Yerevan
Around the year 3200 the settlement of Shengavit was founded near present-day Yerevan by the Kura-Araxes culture. This was a small urban settlement, surrounded by a wall. It is possibly the most important settlement of the Kura-Araxes culture and contains a number of graves. Some believe that horses were found at this site, but these are probably from later burials that were sank into the ground through the archaeological strata, thus possibly appearing earlier than they in fact are. The fact that the walls were so large would suggest that they were for more than demarcation or keeping in livestock. It would suggest that the Kura-Araxes culture was a warlike one and that the builders of the proto-city believed that they would possibly face some form of attack.
Proto-Elamite writing
Around the year 3100 the Botai culture seems to come to an end, although it is not clear why this is the case. Far to the south, the city or proto-city of Susa enters the Susa III period, which is also the beginning of the Proto-Elamite Period. Most importantly, the Proto-Elamite script came into use in Susa around this time. This is a largely untranslated script but we can know that it was influenced by the cuneiform writing of the Mesopotamians, as it used a number of their number symbols. The exact language is unknown but is likely to have been the Elamite, or Proto-Elamite, language, which is not well known in any case. There is a possibility of an earlier script originating from Jiroft, but this is marred by the possibility of forgery and its archaeological context is not clear.
It has been believed that the Maikop Kurgan, a large ceremonial burial centre, in the Kuban River Basin, and the type site for the Maykop culture, was built around this time. The grave goods here are spectacular. There is also the more sinister addition of two women skeletons, who may have been sacrificed at the funeral of the dead ruler. If this date is correct then it may mean that this was the most elaborate burial from that time that has been discovered. The Hermitage Museum in Russia preserves some of their golden statues and clothing decorations. The man who was buried here must have been a chieftain or a king of great wealth. I will quote from the book “The Horse, the Wheel and Language” where the author, David W. Anthony, describes the contents of the kurgan.
With him were eight red-burnished, globular pottery vessels, the type collection for Early Maikop; a polished stone cup with a sheet-gold cover; two arsenical bronze, sheet-metal cauldrons; two small cups of sheet gold; and fourteen sheet-silver cups, two of which were decorated with impressed scenes of animal processions including a Caucasian spotted panther, a southern lion, bulls, a horse, birds, and a shaggy animal (bear? goat?) mounting a tree. His tunic had sixty-eight golden lions and nineteen golden bulls applied to its surface. … Around his neck and shoulders were 60 beads of turquoise, 1,272 beads of carnelian, and 122 golden beads. Under his skull was a diadem with five golden rosettes of five petals each on a band of gold pierced at the ends. … The turquoise almost certainly came from north-eastern Iran near Nishapur or from the Amu Darya near the trade settlement of Sarazm in modern Tajikistan, two regions famous in antiquity for their turquoise. The red carnelian came from western Pakistan and the lapis lazuli from eastern Afghanistan. Description of the Maykop Kurgan from "The Horse, the Wheel and Language"
The author correctly points out that these items almost certainly came from the south, in that the lion was a Mesopotamian symbol of power and that the lands of the Maykop culture lay beyond the original range and habitat of the Asiatic lion. So, this ruler dressed himself in beads acquired through trade and bedecked himself with the symbols of royal power from another culture. We will almost certainly never know who they were, but the resplendence of the burial is worth remembering. It should be noted however that this date is far from certain for the Maikop kurgan and it may date from a later period, perhaps as late as 2300BC. This would still be impressive, but would certainly give a different context to the kurgan.
Around the end of the fourth millennium, around 3000BC, some believe that the Maykop culture drew to a close. This is obviously debateable. Clearly if the Maikop kurgan is from 2300BC then the culture continues for far longer, but all of the dates given here are by their nature speculative.
To the north of this region the language group Proto-Finno-Ugric may have branched off from Uralic. There is no real agreement as to exactly where these people lived (and languages do not correspond exactly with ethnic groups, and certainly not with genetics). But it is important to remember that all of the language groups that would come to be spread across Eurasia were in existence and spreading and splitting and changing, as language groups always have and always will.
Mountains in the Tibetan Plateau
In the Tibetan region there seems to have been an influx of migrants to the Tibetan Plateau around this time. These people seem to have come from what is now the northern Chinese Plains. However they also may have brought with them a unique adaptation for the mountains. There is a gene, which may be inherited from the Denisovans; that helps control red blood cell production and allows humans to function better at high altitudes without developing oxygen sickness. This gene allowed the inhabitants of the plateau to function and thrive where others would have surely perished. The original inhabitants of the mountains may possibly have had this gene, EPAS1, as well (remember that I am not a geneticist), but certainly the newcomers thrived with its help.
Finally, in Anatolia, the city of Arslantepe was burned around this time. This city was probably a trading colony, or possibly even an actual colony, of the Uruk culture from Mesopotamia. Later on the site would be rebuilt and would once again feature in the story of mankind but for now it was thoroughly destroyed. The culprits would appear to be the warriors of the Kura-Araxes culture, whose pottery now begins to appear in Anatolia and then to spread down into the Levant. The direct Mesopotamian influence on the region would fade around this time.
Before bringing the blog to a close I think it would be useful to discuss some historical issues that sometimes come up from looking at this period of history. Firstly, the question as to what is the oldest civilisation. A lot of countries currently lay claim to having the original civilisation, or the origins of civilisation, within their borders. A lot of these claims are quite legitimate. Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, India and others have quite legitimate claims in this regard. Even European countries like Malta, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova or Ukraine could make similar claims: The difficulty lies in deciding what makes a civilisation.
Iraq is home to ancient cities and is probably the origin of writing. Syria, Iran and India all have urban centres that unquestionably are earlier than the southern Mesopotamian cities (although Mesopotamia also has towns from this era). Many cultures have symbols that could potentially be interpreted as proto-writing. The Egyptian kingdom founded by Narmer/Menes is the world’s first unquestioned state. The site of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is the oldest known temple or sacred site in the world and Turkey/Iran is the probable home of agriculture in Eurasia.
The splendour of the burials in the Varna Necropolis of Bulgaria would give Bulgaria a good claim to the crown of civilisation, while the Cucuteni-Trypilia culture in present day Romania/Moldova/Ukraine had probably the largest urban settlements in the world in the year 3200BC, although they were abandoned shortly thereafter. Malta, with its ancient temples of the Stone Age, long before the Pharaohs ruled, could claim that this was civilisation and that it was the first. And surely the great megalithic constructions of Western Europe, with giant works like Knowth or Avebury could be considered the works of a civilisation?
So we can see that the question has many possible answers and that, while there are definite wrong answers (anyone who claims that civilisation started in Antarctica or the Azores would be wrong), there is no single right answer. What we should do instead is to question what we mean by civilisation, break it down into its constituent parts, and figure out where the constituent parts started. Questions like “Where was the wheel first used?” have an answer, even if we may not know it for certain right now. Questions like “Where did civilisation start?” do not really have a well-defined answer.
Later artwork of the Jiroft culture, c2500BC
It should be noted that I have not discussed the Jiroft culture in south-eastern Iran in this blog. This is because it has only recently been discovered and there is much work to be done on it. Unfortunately I was unable to find much solid information on this culture, as it was apparently discovered by a looter, who was afterwards caught, which spurred excavation of the site. However, there are few major papers on this that I could find, and those that I could find seemed to require confirmation. It has been speculated that Jiroft is as important a civilisation as the Indus Valley or Mesopotamia, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and at this moment, that is lacking. Hopefully more information will be available soon.
While discussing the Maykop culture I mentioned the book, The Horse, the Wheel and Language, which is an interesting book but, while I would recommend reading it, I would give some notes of caution about it. Firstly, I am wary of the idea that the steppe tribes such as the Botai actually rode their horses. Horses that we know today have been shaped by the selective breeding from domestication and their physical shapes have changed. Because no wild horses exist today, we do not know what the original horses looked like, but it is a plausible guess that they were unable to support a fully grown man on their backs. Evidence of bit-wear on teeth is not good evidence here. Horses may have had bits to help them in drawing sleighs, ploughs or later wagons.
Proto-Elamite Pottery found near Susa
exhibited in the Louvre
We know that when horses came to the Middle East around 1600BC that the people of the Middle East used them for chariots and that cavalry was only introduced much later. Similarly, we know that later steppe cultures used chariots, suggesting that cultures like the Botai could not ride their horses (or at least could not ride them into battle). The author suggests that rather than developing into cavalry the steppe tribes used the horses to raid in a more disorganised fashion. But it is still interesting that the cultures of the Middle East never developed this behaviour. The domestication of the horse was probably more as a source of meat/milk/skins/draught animal and only later as a weapon of war. On this point I could of course be proved wrong.
So this sums up some of the crucial developments in the history of the world that occurred between 4000-3000BC in the vast stretches of Central Asia. For the next blog we will be looking at the same region but for the millennium that follows it.
This post will look at European history for the period from around 3000-2000BC. Due to the lack of sources we will have no written records to rely upon and the time period is too distant for ancient legends to be of much use. This means that to look at history for this place and time, we have to rely on the archaeological record. This is fine and useful, but like all methods of looking at history it has its flaws and caution must be used. The dates in particular must be treated with caution. Some of the issues with dating have been dealt with in the previous post on European history.
In the previous post looking at European history for the previous millennium we have seen Europe gradually move into the later stages of the Neolithic period, with farming becoming ever more established, megalithic architecture becoming more prevalent, possible Indo-European influence from the east and the increasing use of small quantities of copper that were used by the Neolithic farmers for decoration and occasionally to augment their stone tools. These trends would continue during this millennium. When the millennium began it is estimated that the world population was between 15 and 65 million people. By comparison 65 million people today live in the UK alone, making this a sparsely populated planet.
Cucuteni Figurines
To recap, around 3000BC, the Maykop culture in the Caucasus and the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Romania, came to an end. These may have been affected by the expanding Yamna culture from the northeast. The step pyramid site in Sardinia, Monte d’Accoddi, was also burned or destroyed around this time. Around this time larger Neolithic/Chalcolithic settlements appear on Crete.
In England, the large megalithic complex of Avebury was begun around this period but would not have reached its present form until later. Later generations would add more stone circles, alignments and banks of earth to the site until it reached the impressive proportions that it has today.
Around 2900 a new culture appears in Europe, sometimes referred to as the Beaker culture. This shows up in the archaeological record as a new style of burial, with a particular type of pottery often placed in the grave. The graves were usually single burials and with weapons, whereas previously collective graves were quite common in many parts of Europe.
It is unclear where the culture came from and it has been tentatively identified as being part of the Indo-European spread. But it could also have come from the Iberian Peninsula. It’s also unclear if this was a new people group who had migrated to the region, or if this was merely a style that was spreading and being adopted by pre-existing cultures. The answer is probably both, but if one had to choose, I believe that it is more likely that it was a style rather than a major population shift. As the style became more prevalent throughout Europe it was adopted by existing cultures in Ireland who took some elements of it but not others. But there probably was a mix of cultural diffusion and actual migration of peoples. The spread of Beaker culture took place over the next millennium and would continue until about 1800BC.
Baden culture axe
Around 2800 the Baden culture, a possibly Indo-European culture associated with the Corded Ware/Globular Amphora culture and the Yamna culture, in Central Europe, comes to an end. This culture had used wheels to possibly make ox-driven carts, but this is not entirely certain.
On Sardinia, the pyramidal temple of Monte d’Accoddi was rebuilt in something like its current form. Meanwhile in Spain the settlement of Los Millares, complete with fortifications, possibly had up to one thousand inhabitants around this time. Towns in Europe were not large at this point however.
It would perhaps be useful to talk about the pyramid of Monte d’Accoddi. Firstly, it is not quite a pyramid. Its current form is of a roughly square platform of earth, faced with mortarless stonework to prevent the earth from moving outwards, with a smaller platform atop it. Some believe that the smaller platform contained a building atop it that would have been roofed. Others believe that the current reconstruction is wrong and that the second platform was part of earthworks slanting upwards to a small flat space at the top, leading it to resemble the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur. Leading up to the first level of the pyramid is a gently sloping ramp. This ramp makes the structure closer to a ziggurat than a pyramid and it certainly is very unusual for the Mediterranean region.
Temple of Monte d'Accoddi in Sardinia
To the right, as one ascends the ramp, are two spherical stones, one much larger than the other, which may have been moved from their original position. There is also a large flat table of stone to the right of the causeway, around 10m², which may once have served for sacrifices. There do not appear to have been burials associated with this site. The ramp is on the southern end of the site, which is roughly oriented to the north, but this orientation is not exact. To the southeast of the structure are two menhirs, which have been speculated to be tied to astronomy. The menhirs appear to be tied to the cycles of Venus and the rising of the star Sirius but this is conjectural. This is merely the roughest guide to the site of Monte d’Accoddi, but it is too easy to simply mention a site and then neglect to describe what makes it interesting.
In Crete the First Early Minoan phase ended and the Second Early Minoan Phase begins. However, the Minoan culture as we know it was not yet present on the island, merely the precursors to it. The Early Helladic culture began on mainland Greece, with settlements at Manika and Thebes that reached considerable size. Overall the Bronze Age can be said to have begun in Greece, Central Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. The Balkans had had bronze technology for some time but the Greek islands were probably at least as influenced by the Near East as the Balkans.
Keros-Syros artwork
from the Cyclades
Around 2700 the Keros-Syros culture (also known as Early Cycladic II) in the Cycladic islands in the Aegean Sea began. This was a culture that produced beautiful abstract statuary (that may have originally been painted). Unfortunately this statuary has been seen as highly valuable by art collectors, so much of this culture’s work has been stolen or looted and less is known about these people than we would like.
In what is now Portugal there was a large settlement at Castro of Vila Nova de São Pedro, more usually referred to as VNSP, which started around this time. It was contemporary with the settlement at Los Millares and shows the continuing complexity of the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age cultures on the Iberian Peninsula. Also around this time, the Beaker culture reached Britain. While there does seem to have been some population movement associated with this culture, it seems to have been relatively peaceful rather than an invasion. The reason for this is that, despite the presence of the Beaker people, large monumental constructions, of the same type as had gone before, continued.
Around 2600 the Yamna culture (north of the Caspian Sea, which arguably is not strictly speaking in Europe, but is interesting to us regardless) came to an end. It was succeeded by the Poltavka culture. This was probably an evolution of the Yamna culture, as the two cultures are archaeologically very similar.
Ring of Brodgar
Around 2500 the Ring of Brodgar, a large and impressive Neolithic stone circle was completed in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. This was corresponding to more development at the nearby Neolithic village of Skara Brae. Also around this time in Britain, bronze working appears in the archaeological record, so some count this as the beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain, while others date it to a few centuries later when it became more wide-spread.
In Malta the Tarxien temple building phase came to an end and evolved into the Tarxien Cemetery Phase. This phase saw the end of the large megalithic structures and the beginning of smaller dolmens and tombs being built in their stead. We have a tendency to think of massive building works as a sign of civilisation, but the later Neolithic seems to see a move away from huge building works and the beginning of the Bronze Age has few works to match the previous millennium. Why there was this change away from monumental construction we do not know.
However, there were still giant construction projects happening elsewhere in Europe. Around 2400 construction ended in Avebury, which was a gigantic construction of ditches and megalithic stones, with causeways marked with menhirs leading away from the site. Around this time the nearby Silbury Hill was constructed as an artificial hill of chalk, which may have been a fortification of sorts, but would have certainly glowed in the sunlight with the white soil.
To correspond with the building phase at Avebury, the nearby site of Stonehenge saw the iconic sarsens set in place at this time. This is possibly the most iconic piece of Stone Age architecture and still the quintessential Stone Age monument in the public imagination today.
West Kennet Avenue at Avebury
Avebury and Stonehenge deserve some further description, as they are respectively the largest and perhaps the most complex stone circles in the world. Avebury is a huge henge (earthen bank and ditch), roughly circular, with a circumference of around 1000m. The original ditch may have been as deep as 9m and the material from the ditch was used to create the outer bank. Inside the ditch is a large array of megalithic stones, not capped as in the case of Stonehenge, merely single stones arrayed in a circle. The henge had four openings with a main opening to the south. Inside the main stone circle were two other circles beside each other.
Running to the south is a causeway lined with menhirs that links the Avebury circle with the nearby monument of the West Kennet Long Barrow and a now destroyed monument known as the Sanctuary. West Kennet Long Barrow is a megalithic tomb that has preserved a number of bodies until modern times. There were probably originally four causeways that radiated outwards like spokes from the hub of a wheel. The Sanctuary was probably an unroofed henge made of wood, but with a stone circle interlinked within the wooden structure. This seems to have had human remains associated with it and may have had bodies exposed throughout the year, before disposal after a ceremony, perhaps at the winter solstice.
Silbury Hill, Avebury
Nearby was the huge artificial mound of Silbury Hill, constructed in a series of phases, but eventually becoming a nearly conical mound. Now it is covered in grass but even today one can see traces of the white chalk underneath the greenery. Nearby is the ancient track of the Ridgeway, one of the earliest roadways in Britain. It was a track that avoided any marshy ground by winding along the tops of hills through the Chalk Downs in the south of England.
About forty miles to the south lies the monument of Stonehenge. It is inconceivable that the builders of Stonehenge and Avebury were unaware of each other and very odd that there would be two cultures with the populations needed to build such monuments within a twenty mile radius of each other’s sites. So I imagine that the builders of Avebury were probably also the builders of Stonehenge, or closely associated with them. Stonehenge is a circle of large stones, some of which were quarried in Wales and transported overland to Stonehenge, which is a remarkable feat. Inside the circle are two rings of smaller stones and five sets of arches (two huge stones supporting a lintel). Surrounding the entire affair is a bank and ditch. A number of postholes have been found, indicating that there were wooden posts placed there.
The inimitable Stonehenge
The site was used for cremations with some of the post holes containing cremated human remains. Nearby are a large number of small burial mounds, known as barrows, as well as a causeway lined with earthen banks leading towards the nearby River Avon. To the north-east of the site lies the site of Woodhenge and Durrington Walls. Woodhenge was a multi-ringed monument, similar in design to Stonehenge but built with timber circles rather than stone circles. Just beside it is a large village called Durrington Walls. This is a confused site as it was both ritual, but also a dwelling space and when dwellings were removed, ceremonial structures sometimes replaced them. This village may have had up to four thousand inhabitants at its peak.
Finally, there is the nearby spring of Blick Mead, which has shown traces of human activity since the Mesolithic period. This is a spring that never freezes and which has unusual algae living in the water. When stones are taken out of the water, they turn red upon exposure to oxygen. This may have been seen as magical.
I would not like to try and put meaning on these landscapes. Many have tried and there is yet no definitive answer. Future archaeological explorations will doubtless show us more. But I wanted to give an idea of the scale and complexity of at least some of these sites that I have been mentioning.
Close by, in Ireland, this era sees the beginning of copper use in the south of Ireland (with archaeological attestation at Ross Island) and copper mines at Mount Gabriel, which may have been for export to Britain and the continent.
Walls of Los Millares in Spain
Around 2300 the Keros-Syros culture on the Cycladic islands evolved into the Phylakopi culture (which is also known as Early Cycladic III). Around this time the fortified settlement of Los Millares in the southern Iberian Peninsula was abandoned.
The Unetice culture, named after a type site in what is now the Czech Republic, began around this time and covered much of what is now the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland.
Also in this century, the body of the man known as the Amesbury Archer was buried not far from Stonehenge in what is now England. This burial was a Beaker culture burial. There were many artefacts buried with him and analysis on his skeleton suggests that he may have been originally from Central Europe. He had suffered from an abscess in his jaw and had a missing kneecap. The quality and number of his grave goods suggest that he was a person of some importance and possibly also a copper smith. Some have suggested that this burial and other similar ones, are the burials of those who had come to the site of Stonehenge on a healing pilgrimage. This is possible, but it is risky to overstate the case.
Around 2200 the 4.2 kiloyear event occurred. I really dislike the naming of this, but effectively it was a major climate disruption event that affected all the civilisations from Egypt all the way to India. Europe would have been affected but does not seem to have suffered in a major way from this. In fact it may actually have helped the inhabitants of Crete, as the Third Early Minoan Phase begins around this time, which sees the beginning of large settlements and palaces being constructed.
In the southeastern portion of the Iberian Peninsula the Argaric culture, named after the type-site of El Argar, arose around this time. This was a Bronze Age civilisation whose inhabitants traded across Iberia but also across the sea. They left behind large quantities of bronze artefacts and also built fortified settlements across their lands.
Around 2100 the Poltavka culture north of the Caspian, was succeeded by the Sintashta culture. This is seen by some as the culture of the Indo-Iranian speakers. They had mastered the horse, as had the cultures before them, and were now effectively some of the first chariot warriors in the world.
Giant's Church in Finland
The Polada culture began to flourish in what is now northern Italy. This seems to be a culture that probably included immigrants or inspiration or both from the Unetice culture north of the Alps. They built houses on the edges of lakes or in marshes and their houses often had stilts to prevent them from being affected by flooding.
In Crete the earliest forms of Minoan writing were being used during this century. These are known as Cretan Hieroglyphs. Sadly they cannot be read. We can make some guesses as to their sound content but the language that they preserve is lost to us. While there are some other symbols that have survived, which some have suspected as being proto-writing, the Cretan Hieroglyphs of this time are the first definite writing that has been discovered in Europe.
Phylakopi artwork from the Cyclades islands
In the century around 2000BC Newgrange was abandoned, although the site of Knowth would see ritual use by other later cultures. In Finland large megalithic monuments known as Giant’s Churches were built.
In Greece, the Phylakopi culture came to an end on the Cycladic islands and the Middle Helladic began on mainland Greece. On Crete however the palace of Knossos began to be built, which would be the focal point of the first indisputable civilisation in Europe.
So, this millennium in Europe has seen the continued westwards migration of Indo-European speakers, who merged and mingled with pre-existing populations. The use of copper and bronze spread across much of the continent, even while the building of huge megalithic structures became less common. Finally we see the beginning of a major civilisation in the south of Europe in what will become known as Minoan Crete.
