Andronovo Problem: Studies of Cultural Genesis in the Eurasian Bronze Age

Stanislav Grigoriev

doi:10.1515/opar-2020-0123

Abstract

Abstract Andronovo culture is the largest Eurasian formation in the Bronze Age, and it had a significant impact on neighboring regions. It is the important culture for understanding many historical processes, in particular, the origins and migration of Indo-Europeans. However, in most works there is a very simplified understanding of the scientific problems associated with this culture. The history of its study is full of opposing opinions, and all these opinions were based on reliable grounds. For a long time, the existence of the Andronovo problem was caused by the fact that researchers supposed they might explain general processes by local situations. In fact, the term “Andronovo culture” is incorrect. Another term “Andronovo cultural-historical commonality” also has no signs of scientific terminology. Under these terms a large number of cultures are combined, many of which were not related to each other. In the most simplified form, they can be combined into two blocks that existed during the Bronze Age: the steppe (Sintashta, Petrovka, Alakul, Sargari) and the forest-steppe (Fyodorovka, Cherkaskul, Mezhovka). Often these cultures are placed in vertical lines with genetic continuity. However, the problems of their chronology and interaction are very complicated. By Andronovo cultures we may understand only Fyodorovka and Alakul cultures (except for its early stage); however, it is better to avoid the use of this term.

Highlights

The Andronovo culture of the Bronze Age is the largest archaeological formation in the world, except for the cultures of the Scytho-Sarmatian world of the Early Iron Age
In the 2nd millennium BC, it was distributed in the center of Eurasia, within a huge territory from the Southern Urals in the west to the Yenisei River in Southern Siberia and western Xinjiang in the east
Its border is the zone of southern taiga, and in the south, the Andronovo sites were studied in the south of Central Asia, in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (Fig. 1). This culture is always used when generalizing works on the Bronze Age of Eurasia; it is the main object in discussing the Indo-European problem, in discussing the history of Eurasian metallurgy, the formation of the Scytho-Sarmatian culture, the origin of ancient Chinese metallurgy and many others

Summary

Introduction

The Andronovo culture of the Bronze Age is the largest archaeological formation in the world, except for the cultures of the Scytho-Sarmatian world of the Early Iron Age. Its border is the zone of southern taiga, and in the south, the Andronovo sites were studied in the south of Central Asia, in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (Fig. 1). This culture is always used when generalizing works on the Bronze Age of Eurasia; it is the main object in discussing the Indo-European problem, in discussing the history of Eurasian metallurgy, the formation of the Scytho-Sarmatian culture, the origin of ancient Chinese metallurgy and many others. These mutually exclusive points of view coexisted in the Andronovo studies for many decades The content of the concept “Andronovo culture” in the representations of various specialists involved in these studies is so different that this term is not used as a scientific term or is used by people who are poorly familiar

Stanislav Grigoriev

New Problems and Approaches in the Andronovo Studies

Problems of Sargari Culture

Problems of Chronology

Social Aspects of Cultural Genesis in Eurasia

Conclusion