Abstract
The stock-breeding cultures of the Eurasian “steppe belt” covered approximately 7-8 million square km 2 from the Lower Danube in the West to Manchuria in the East (a distance of more than 8000 km). The initial formation of the “steppe belt’cultures coincided with the flourishing of the Carpatho-Balkan metallurgical province (V millennium BC). These cultures developed during the span of the Circumpontic metallurgical province (IV-III millennium BC). Their maturation coincided with the activity of the various centers of the giant Eurasian and East-Asian metallurgical provinces (II millennium BC). The influence of these stock-breeding nomadic cultures on the historical processes of Eurasian peoples was extremely strong. The collapse of the “steppe belt” occurred as late as the XVIII th and XIX th centuries AD.
Highlights
The stock-breeding cultures of the Eurasian “steppe belt” covered approximately 7-8 million square km2 from the Lower Danube in the West to Manchuria in the East
Tripol’ye C1 period entirely post dates that apogee and corresponds to the dissolution of this most ancient Eurasian metallurgical province. (We shall return to the question of the synchronization of Tripol’ye C1 with the beginning of the functioning of the Circumpontic province of the article.)
Nowhere in the southern sector of the early CMP, in any of the numerous Early Bronze Age (EBA) cultures and sites of the Near East, do we find anything equal to the bronze, gold and silver productions of the Maikop “royal” complexes either qualitatively or quantitatively (Fig. 6) (Chernykh et al 2002: 5-15, Fig. 3)
Summary
Modern research shows that at their apogee the stockbreeding cultures of the Eurasian “steppe belt” covered a gigantic territory. The second bloc consists of cultures of the Tripol’ye (or Cucuteni-Tripol’ye) group (0.16-0.18 million km2) and should be regarded as peripheral in relation to the northern Balkan/Carpathian CBMP bloc (Fig. 2B) This certainly seems to be the case with respect to metal production. The third, easternmost (or northeasternmost) and definitely marginal bloc of the CBMP occupied a territory some 0.4-0.5 million km2 It was composed entirely of cultures or, to be more exact, archaeological communities of steppe stockbreeders. The known dates for sites of the other blocs are much fewer: 139 dates for the three basic cultures of the Tripol’ye complex and 101 dates for the steppe communities In this case we must draw attention to the character of distribution of the sums of probabilities of the calibrated radiocarbon dates in all three blocs: the diagrams slightly reveal a rather diverse picture. The culture of the dates all belonging to the two easternmost burial grounds of the steppe bloc (Fig. 4)
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