Abashevskaya culture

Archaeological sites of the Abashev culture were discovered on the territory of Chuvashia ^[1] (actually the village of Abashevo), Mari El , Bashkortostan , as well as the Voronezh ^[2] and Lipetsk regions ^[3] .

The most western monument-barrow is open in the basin of the Upper Oka, in the area "Mikhailova Gora" near the village. An ugub of the Maloyaroslavsky district of the Kaluga region . A large group of barrows was examined in the Upper Volga region, near Lake Pleshcheyev in the region of Pereslavl-Zalessky. In 1939, 3 mounds of this group were excavated by P.N. Tretyakov , they found Abashev ceramics and jewelry. The southern distribution area of ​​the Abashev burial grounds covers the modern Voronezh region . In the southern Urals, villages of the Abashevites were opened. In 1951, K.V. Salnikov explored the Balanbash settlement, discovered back in 1934. In 1948-1950. he unearthed the Malokizilskoe settlement and the remains of the burial, which gave Abashevsky material, in which analogies with Andronov’s and carcass things are traced. In 1951, in the river basin. Belaya KV Salnikov discovered a number of settlements with ceramics of the Balanbash type (Unyak, Salikhovo, Akhmerevo), belonging to the late stage of the Abashev culture .

Thus, the Abashev tribes occupied a vast territory, covering the Upper and Middle Volga, Kama and Southern Urals, the modern republics of Chuvashia, Mari El, Tatarstan , Bashkortostan, Perm Territory, Kirov, Ulyanovsk , Samara and Voronezh Regions. Numerous mound groups have been identified in these areas; in the eastern part of the range, in the Southern Urals, late Abashev settlements are located. Abashevtsy occupied this whole territory with a solid mass. The main groups of monuments of Abashev culture are concentrated in the Middle Volga region - in the basin of the rivers Ileti, Civil, Sviyaga, the lower reaches of the Kama .

According to some researchers, the Abashev culture, like the Fatyanov culture , is related in its origin to the Middle Dnieper culture ^[4] .

Currently, there are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the Abashev culture. O. N. Bader claimed that the Abashev culture was successively connected with the Fatyanovo monuments . Subsequently, he departed from this point of view, believing that a genetic link between the Balanian and Abashev cultures is unlikely. According to O.A. Krivtsova-Grakova, the Abashev culture and Fatyanovskaya are related not only by the similarity of the shape of the ornament of vessels, but also by the method of burial of the dead in soil pits laid on top of the deck. Abashev’s axes, as OV Kuzmina established, are a development of the Fatyanovsky type axes ^[5] . A.P. Smirnov , N.F. Kalinin, K.V. Salnikov and other archaeologists point to the genealogical relationship of the Abashevites with the Balanians. EE Kuzmina points out that it is likely that the Abashev culture belongs to a wide range of cord ceramics cultures. ^[6]

The Balanian tribes apparently constituted one of the components of the formation of the Abashev ethnocultural community. The coincidence of the territory of distribution of cultural monuments of the Balanians and Abashevites, of the same type of tools and jewelry (copper spearheads with rolled-up bushing, temporal rings made of copper, bronze piercing, bent ax axes, etc.), similar ornaments (arrangement of patterns by zones, divided lines, common elements of ornament - rhombus, triangle, zigzag, rectangle, vertical panels descending on the walls of the vessel, etc.); similar features of the funeral rite (burial in a cramped position in soil pits), the successive development of cattle breeding and farming, etc. - all these parallels speak quite convincingly about the genetic ties of the Abashevites with the Balanians, between whom there were close cultural ties. It is no coincidence that the Late Balan monuments coexisted with the Abashevsky burial grounds (Tokhmeevsky burial ground and the Shorkinsky settlement, the Abashevsky burial ground and the Abashevsky settlement of the Khulasyuch time, etc.)

P.P. Efimenko and P.N. Tretyakov are looking for the origins of the Abashev culture in the Middle Dnieper, where at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. bell-shaped, ribbed and cylindrical vessels with an admixture of shells ornamented with pits, a checkerboard and a metopic pattern became widespread. N. Ya. Merpert denies the presence of a genetic connection between the Abashev culture and the Middle Dnieper , suggesting the existence of a common basis for both of them, dating back to the Eneolithic massif of the Dnieper. G. Vekon connects the origin of the Abashevites with the Srednestogovskaya culture ^[7] .

Abashevtsev belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family ^[8] .

The basis of the economy was cattle breeding, including horse breeding . Tools made of stone, copper and bone of domestic and wild animals testify to hunting and farming .

Places of settlements of the Abashev culture were found in the Urals and on the Don. The villages consisted of slightly dug into the ground buildings with two- and four-gable roofs, covered with reeds.

In the mounds , burials were opened with ornamented pottery, copper and silver ornaments. They knew how to make chariots ^[9] .

The cult of fire and the sun (an analogue of Zoroastrianism ) was extremely developed among the Abashev tribes.

In their way of life, the Abashevites were close to the tribes of Andronovo culture ^{[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]} . The Abashevites of the South Urals closely contacted their eastern neighbors - Andronovites ^{[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]} . Abashevtsy borrowed some patterns of Andronovo tribes to decorate clay vessels. Such vessels were found at the excavations of the Metevtamak burial ground . At the same time, some features inherent in the culture of the Abashevites are being transferred to the Andronovites. This explains the numerous cases of finds of Abashev metal jewelry in Andronovo monuments.

The funeral rite, which is one of the defining signs of archaeological culture, was very stable among the Abashevites. The bones lay, as a rule, on the back with bent legs. During the burial, the legs seemed to be pulled up by the heels to the pelvis and knees up. The arms are bent at the elbows, with the hands lying on the chest and pelvic bones, and sometimes laid on the shoulders, rarely elongated along the body. There are crouched on the left and right side (Abashevo, Vasyukovsky burial ground), as well as elongated on the back (Abashevo, Katergino). For the most part, the deceased are oriented with their heads to the southeast and east, in rare cases - to the northeast and northwest, and the south orientation is very rare.

Grave pits usually have a rectangular shape on average 1.5 × 0.8 m in size, large graves are rarely found (2x1.5 m, the depth of the pits varies from 0.35 to 0.9 m to the bottom. The bottom is lined with birch bark, sometimes covered with a tree sand or a layer of lime. The walls of the grave pits were lined with wood or covered with clay (Katergino). In some cases, a rectangular wooden chamber 1.75 × 0.75 m in size was inserted inside the oval shape of the grave pit (Tebikasy).

Coals and ash are found in the filling of the grave pits; under the burial mound, remains of bonfires are traced. From these memorial bonfires laid out near the graves, coals were taken to perform the funeral ritual. Fire served as a symbol of the cleansing of the deceased during the transition to another world. The graves were blocked with wood and left without an embankment, like burial mounds. Subsequently, a common mound was poured over the graves. Under one mound are one or two burials, rarely there were collective graves. The height of the mounds is usually 0.8-1.2 m. On the right coast of the Volga, burial grounds number several dozen mounds (Taushkasy, Pikshiki), and 50 mounds in the Tokhmeevsky burial ground.

Separately, it is worth highlighting aristocratic (elite) burials, such as the Kondrashkinsky mound (Voronezh region), Selezni-2 (Tambov region), etc.

• Andronovo culture
• Battle Ax Culture
• Logging culture
• Arkaim
• Sintashta culture
• Pit culture

• Monograph about Abashev culture
• Abashevskaya culture (inaccessible link)
• Abashevskaya culture
• Abashevskaya culture (inaccessible link)
• List of publications on Abashev culture