THE YAMNA CULTURE: ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FRONTIER THEORY

Abstract

In the IV millennium BC the tradition of erecting burial mounds (kurgans) began to spread in various parts of Europe. A wide distribution of this tradition is associated with the tribes of the Yamnaya culture (YC) in the early Bronze Age. An analysis of the main components of the YC shows that the carriers of the YC were primarily united by the commonality of the worldview and religious-mythological ideas.Reflected in a unified funeral rite, the «new ideology» became the basis for the formation of a new cultural and historical community, characterized by the bringing together a diverse population based on the adoption of an innovative worldview.There are obvious material culture differences among the local groups of YC, which are manifested in ceramics and other artifacts. The data from genetics also show certain heterogeneity of the carriers of the YC, at the same time indicating core genetic features that most likely reflect the common origin of the representatives of the YC from the Meso-Eneolithic Ponto-Caspian populations infused with genetic determinants characteristic of hunters and gatherers of the Caucasus and Iranian farmers, with varying genetic admixture of Anatolian and European Neolithic farmers.