Andronovo culture
 |
|
| Geographical range | Eurasian steppe |
|---|---|
| Period | Bronze Age |
| Dates | c. 2000 BC – 900 BC |
| Preceded by | Corded Ware culture |
The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished ca. 2000–900 BCE in western Siberia and the west Asiatic steppe. It is probably better termed an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon.
The older Sintashta culture (2100–1800), formerly included within the Andronovo culture, is now considered separately, but regarded as its predecessor, and accepted as part of the wider Andronovo horizon.
Most researchers associate the Andronovo horizon with early Indo-Iranian languages, though it may have overlapped the early Uralic-speaking area at its northern fringe.
According to genetic study conducted by Allentoft et al. (2015), the Andronovo culture and the preceding Sintashta culture are partially derived from the Corded Ware culture, given the higher proportion of ancestry matching the earlier farmers of Europe, similar to the admixture found in the genomes of the Corded Ware population.
The name derives from the village of , Krasnoyarsk Krai (55°53′N 55°42′E / 55.883°N 55.700°E), where the Russian archaeologist discovered its first remains in 1914. Several graves were discovered, with skeletons in crouched positions, buried with richly decorated pottery. The Andronovo culture was first identified by the Russian archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov in the 1920s.
At least four sub-cultures of the Andronovo horizon have been distinguished, during which the culture expands towards the south and the east:
...
Wikipedia