Sredny Stog culture
The
Sredny Stog culture (named after the Ukrainian village of Serednyi Stih where it was first located, for which Sredny Stog is the conventional Russian-language designation) dates from the
4500-
3500 BC. It was situated just north of the
Sea of Azov between the
Dnieper and the
Don.
It seems to have had contact with the agricultural
Trypillian culture in the west, and was a contemporary of the
Khvalynsk culture. There is a suggestion (by
Yuri Rassamakin) that it should be considered an
areal term, with at least four distinct cultural elements. The foremost expert on this culture (Dmytro Telegin) has divided Sredny Stog into two distinct phases.
Most notably, it has perhaps the earliest evidence of horse domestication (in phase II, ca. 4000-3500 BC) with finds suggestive of cheek-pieces (
psalia).
Inhumation was in a ground level pit, not yet capped by a tumulus (kurgan). The deceased was placed on his back with the legs flexed.
Ocher was used. Phase II also knew corded ware pottery, which it may have originated, and stone battle-axes of the type later associated with expanding IE cultures to the West.
It was succeeded by the
Yamna culture.
In the context of the modified
Kurgan hypothesis of
Marija Gimbutas, this pre-kurgan archaeological culture could represent the
Urheimat (homeland) of the
Proto-Indo-European language.
*
Dereivka*
J. P. Mallory, "Sredny Stog Culture",
Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
