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Srubna (Timber-grave) culture (c. 1800-1200 BCE)

Quick Facts

  • Succeeded to the Late Catacomb culture, the Poltavka culture, and the Potapovka culture. The Srubna culture may represent the southward expansion of the Abashevo and Sintashta-Petrovka cultures (both carrying predominantly R1a-Z93 male lineages), who are linked to the Proto-Indo-Iranian people. This would have occured soon after the invention of the spoke-wheeled horse chariots used for war c. 2000 BCE in the the Sintashta-Petrovka culture.
  • Extended all over the steppe and the forest-steppe zones, above the northern shore of the Black Sea from the Dnieper eastwards along the northern base of the Caucasus to the area abutting the north shore of the Caspian Sea, west of the Ural Mountains.
  • Contemporaneous and somewhat related Andronovo culture.
  • Dwellings were partially sunken in the ground and built with wooden posts and gable roofs. Walls were made of wood, turf, and occasionally stone.
  • Srubna pottery was characterised by geometric designs in the form of horizontal and diagonal lines, zigzags, herringbone patterns and other geometric shapes. The upper part of vessels were sometimes embellished by a variety of ornament signs in the form of corded patterns, crosses, solar signs, rectangles, as well as zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images. Some researchers regard them as primitive pictographic letters.
  • The economy was based on a mix of cereal agriculture and livestock breeding. Cattle were the dominant domesticated animals, followed by horses. Many villages had a blacksmith and a metallurgical foundry. The metallurgical industry was based on the mining of copper-bearing sandstones in the Urals (Kargaly field) and the Donets Ridge (Bahmutskiy field).
  • The dead were inhumed in timber-framed (or cруб in Russian) graves inside kurgans (burial mounds). Sacrificed animals were buried with the body.
  • The Srubna culture could possibly be ancestral to the Cimmerians and/or the Mycenaeans.
Reconstruction of a dwelling from the Srubna culture (photo by Vodnik from Russian Wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0)
Pottery from the Srubna culture (photo by EvgenyGenkin - CC BY 2.5)
Knives from the Srubna culture (photo by EvgenyGenkin - CC BY 2.5)

Historical context of the Srubna (Timber-grave) culture

Map of middle Bronze Age cultures in Europe between 2000 and 1500 BCE - Eupedia

Genetic Analysis

Y-DNA & mtDNA

MtDNA samples from the Srubna (Timber-grave) culture
Hg N1a R0/HV H HV0/V J T1 T2 U2 U3 U4 U5 K I W X Others
N=27 0 0 7 2 2 1 2 1 0 2 6 2 1 0 0 0
% 0% 0% 27% 7.5% 7.5% 4% 7.5% 4% 0% 7.5% 23% 7.5% 4% 0% 0% 0%

The following mtDNA and Y-DNA samples were tested by Mathieson et al. (2015).

Samples from the Volga-Ural region (Samara)

Sample Y-DNA mtDNA Location Date
I0232 R1a1a1b2 (Z93) U5a1f2 Novoselki, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0234 - I1a1 Rozhdestveno, Samara 1850-1600 BCE
I0235 - K1b2a Rozhdestveno, Samara 1850-1600 BCE
I0259 - U5a2a1 Spiridonovka IV, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0260 R1a1 (M459) U5a1 Spiridonovka IV, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0261 R1a1a (L168) U5a1a Spiridonovka IV, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0354 - U5a1 Spiridonovka II, Samara 2016-1692 BCE
I0358 - H6a1a Spiridonovka IV, Samara 1913-1629 BCE
I0421 - H3g Spiridonovka II, Samara 1850-1600 BCE
I0422 - T1a1 Barinovka I, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0423 R1a1a1b2 (Z93) J2b1a2a Barinovka I, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0424 R1a1a1b2 (Z93) T2b4 Barinovka I, Samara 1850-1200 BCE
I0430 R1a1a1b2a2a (Z2123) H3g Spiridonovka II, Samara 1850-1600 BCE
I0431 - H2b Spiridonovka II, Samara 1850-1600 BCE

The following mtDNA and Y-DNA samples were tested by Krzewinska et al. (2018).

Samples from the southern trans-Urals region

Sample Y-DNA mtDNA Location Date
kzb001 - U4b1a1a1 Kazburun 1 1735-1565 BCE
kzb002 R1a1a1 J1c3a Kazburun 1 1875-1665 BCE
kzb003 R1a1a1 H Kazburun 1 1765-1630 BCE
kzb004 - U5b2a2 Kazburun 1 1750-1620 BCE
kzb005 R1a1a1 HV0a Kazburun 1 1880-1690 BCE
kzb006 - U2e2a1a2 Kazburun 1 1745-1620 BCE
kzb007 R1a1a1 U5a1 Kazburun 1 1755-1630 BCE
kzb008 R1a1a1 HV0a Kazburun 1 1880-1690 BCE
kzb009 - U4b1a1a1 Kazburun 1 1745-1620 BCE
mur001 - H2a1 Muradym 8 -
mur002 - K1a4b Muradym 8 -
mur003 R1a1a1? T2a1 Muradym 8 1880-1685 BCE
mur004 - J1c5e Muradym 8 1885-1695 BCE

Dodecad K12b admixtures of Srubna people

Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA are useful tools to follow prehistoric population migrations. However, as uniparental markers, they have their limitations and do not inform us about the whole genome composition of individuals, which can evolve very differently due to the randomness of chromosomal recombination, natural selection for specific genes, and of course to the fact that some men can have more children with multiple women, especially in the context of highly unequal prehistoric societies. The Dodecad K12b admixture calculator used here gives estimates of the ultimate region of origin of chromosomal segments outside of the X and Y chromosomes. This page provides a description of each K12b component with a distribution map among the present-day population. Average values for various ancient European populations can be found here.

Sample ID Gedrosia Siberia NW Africa SE Asia Atlantic Med North Europe South Asia East Africa SW Asia East Asia Caucasus Sub-Saharan Africa
kzb001 12.46 2.50 2.64 1.76 22.63 47.36 2.83 1.29 0.00 0.82 5.72 0.00
kzb002 21.09 3.59 0 0 18.79 54.68 0.81 0 0 0 0.91 0.12
kzb003 20.86 0.61 1.59 0 27.72 47.14 2.09 0 0 0 0 0
kzb004 9.17 8.33 0 0 24.07 58.42 0 0 0 0 0 0
kzb005 17.86 1.95 0.00 0.00 13.60 56.88 0.00 1.68 0.00 0.00 7.96 0.06
kzb006 18.13 1.71 0 0 22.3 51.06 1.34 0 0 0 4.15 1.3
kzb007 18.39 1.92 0 0 21.93 52.11 0 1.15 0 0 3.94 0.57
kzb008 19.26 2.85 0 0.02 14.65 56.62 0.35 1.24 0.00 0.00 4.84 0.16
kzb009 18.12 2.94 0 0 22.91 51.61 0 0 0.27 0 3.22 0.93
mur001 21.99 3.22 0 0 18.4 55.26 0 0 0 0 0.84 0.29
mur002 20.07 0.70 0.00 4.28 16.77 54.31 1.06 2.80 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
mur003 19.28 2.35 0 0 22.87 53.76 0 0 0 0 1.1 0.64
mur004 17.15 3.53 0.00 0 16.72 54.14 0 0 0 0 7.68 0.78
I0232 18.86 0.97 0.00 0.00 21.90 51.89 0.48 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.51 1.39
I0234 16.39 1.79 0.00 0.00 20.71 53.63 0.00 0.00 0.99 0.00 5.12 1.38
I0235 17.26 2.03 0.00 0.00 22.05 51.62 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6.18 0.86
I0354 28.17 9.01 0.00 0.00 0.00 57.02 5.47 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.33
I0358 20.66 1.22 0.00 0.00 24.21 52.49 1.09 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.32
I0359 15.93 0.83 0.00 0.00 24.31 52.05 1.05 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.13 0.70
I0360 18.13 4.75 0.00 0.00 14.01 57.98 5.13 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
I0361 20.92 2.64 0.00 0.00 19.72 51.13 0.00 0.05 0.00 0.00 4.20 1.34
I0421 12.30 0.00 0.00 0.00 15.84 59.08 2.43 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.34 0.00
I0422 21.04 2.50 0.00 0.00 17.38 55.33 0.17 0.03 0.00 0.00 2.93 0.63
I0423 19.84 0.97 0.00 0.00 25.41 52.96 0.00 0.03 0.00 0.00 0.55 0.24
I0424 17.98 0.29 0.00 0.00 20.12 51.11 1.77 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.60 1.13
I0430 17.81 0.00 0.00 0.41 26.50 49.90 1.44 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.07 0.87
I0431 18.72 1.28 0.00 0.00 22.38 52.75 2.96 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.92 0.00
Srubna culture 18.44 2.39 0.16 0.24 19.92 53.42 1.13 0.31 0.05 0.03 3.40 0.52

Comparison with modern populations

Using the modal values above and comparing it with the Dodecad K12b averages for modern populations on Vahaduo, the genetic distance between populations can be compared. The smaller the value for the genetic distance, the most similar the population (1 being a perfect match). Under 5 is considered very close, 5 to 10 moderately similar, while over 10 is not genetically similar. No modern population is genetically similar to the Srubna people, but the closest would be modern Uralic populations such as the Mordovians and the Finns, but also Northeast Poles and Northwest Russians.

  • Mordovians : 15.7
  • Poles from Warmia-Masuria : 16.0
  • Russians from Ural : 16.2
  • Russians from Ryazan : 16.4
  • Sorbs from Lusatia : 16.7
  • Russians from Kostroma and Oryol : 16.8
  • West Finns : 16.9
  • Russians from Tver : 17.2

Follow-up

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