Scythian complexes of barrows 5 and 6 from the "Garden" group on the left bank of the Lower Dniester = Скифские комплексы курганов 5 и 6 группы "Сад" на левобережье Нижнего Днестра

The authors analyze the evidence obtained during the excavation of barrows 5 and 6 from the “Garden” group near the Glinoe village in the Slobodzeia district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. These barrows demonstrate not only Thracian and Greek influence on the material culture of Scythians of the northwestern Black Sea region, but also the fact that Scythian steppe culture developed continually in the Dniester region throughout the fourth to second centuries B

Scythian complexes of barrows 5 and 6 from the "Garden" group on the left bank of the Lower Dniester = Скифские комплексы курганов 5 и 6 группы "Сад" на левобережье Нижнего Днестра

The authors analyze the evidence obtained during the excavation of barrows 5 and 6 from the “Garden” group near the Glinoe village in the Slobodzeia district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. These barrows demonstrate not only Thracian and Greek influence on the material culture of Scythians of the northwestern Black Sea region, but also the fact that Scythian steppe culture developed continually in the Dniester region throughout the fourth to second centuries B

Палеопедологические исследования курганов у с. Глиное / Paleopedological studies of the barrows near Glinoe village

В 2013 г. приднестровско-украинской археологической экспедицией были продолжены исследования курганов эпохи бронзы, расположенных около с. Глиное Слободзейского района Приднестровской Молдавской республики. В ходе работ были раскопаны два кургана эпохи бронзы, содержавшие 46 погребений, 44 из которых были совершены в эпоху бронзы (конец IV—II тыс. до н.э.), и только два — в средневековье (X—XIII вв.). Обнаружены 22 погребения ямной культурной общности эпохи ранней бронзы, 12 погребений катакомбной культурной общности, 10 погребений эпохи поздней бронзы. В кургане 1 группы «ДОТ» и кургане 1 группы «Сад» были проведены палеопедологические исследования погребенных почв, законсервированных насыпями этих курганов. Реконструкция палеообстановок времени сооружения кургана предполагала сравнение почвенных профилей прошлого с полными профилями современных почв соответствующего геоморфологического уровня. Всего было описано шесть расчисток — по две расчистки подкурганных почв и одной фоновой для каждого кургана. Современная почва короткопрофильная, с интенсивной переработкой материала лугово-степной растительностью, измененная почвообразованием, может быть определена как обыкновенный чернозем, что подтверждается как характером профиля, так и чертами микроморфологии, отличается довольно резким переходом гумусированной массы к корбонатному иллювию. Погребенная почва раннего бронзового века во всех четырех расчистках по сравнению с фоновой имеет более темноокрашенный гумусовый горизонт, более четкие переходы между гумусовыми горизонтами. Условия раннего бронзового века были несколько более влажными по сравнению с современными. Территория находилась в пределах степной зоны с некоторым (но не значительным перемещением границ зон к северу). Условия были сухостепными, о чем свидетельствует карбонатность профилей, высокое положение карбонатных иллювиев. / In 2013 the Pridnestrovian-Ukrainian archaeological expedition continued study of Bronze Age barrows located near Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district, of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. In the course of the work two Bronze Age barrows were excavated. They contained 46 burials, 44 of which were made in the Bronze Age (end of the IVth — IInd millennium BCE) and only two — in the Middle Ages (X—XIII centuries). 22 burials of the Pit cultural community of the Early Bronze Age, 12 burials of the Catacomb cultural community, and 10 burials of the Late Bronze Age were found. In the barrow 1 of the “DOT” group and the barrow 1 of the “Sad” group were held paleopedological studies of buried soils, preserved by the mounds of these barrows. Reconstruction of the environment in the time of barrows construction presupposed the comparison soil profiles of the past with full profiles of modern soils from the corresponding geomorphological levels. Total six clearings has been described — two clearing of under-barrow soil and a background for each mound. Modern soil is short-profiled, with intensive processing of material by the meadow-steppe vegetation, and is changed by the pedogenesis. It can be defined as an ordinary black earth, which is confirmed by both the character of the profile and features of micromorphology, has a rather abrupt transition of humified mass and carbonate illuvium. Buried soil of the Early Bronze Age in all four clearings over background has more dark-colored humus horizon, more clear transitions between the humus horizons. Early Bronze Age conditions was somewhat wetter than today's. The territory was within the steppe zone with slightly displaced boundaries (but not significantly) of the areas to the north. Carbonate profiles and high position of the illuvium shows that the conditions were dry steppe

A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom’s northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra?West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe. Stories about the peopling?and people?of Southern Europe and West Asia have been passed down for thousands of years, and these stories have contributed to our historical understanding of populations. Genomic data provide the opportunity to truly understand these patterns independently from written history. In a trio of papers, Lazaridis et al. examined more than 700 ancient genomes from across this region, the Southern Arc, spanning 11,000 years, from the earliest farming cultures to post-Medieval times (see the Perspective by Arbuckle and Schwandt). On the basis of these results, the authors suggest that earlier reliance on modern phenotypes and ancient writings and artistic depictions provided an inaccurate picture of early Indo-Europeans, and they provide a revised history of the complex migrations and population integrations that shaped these cultures. ?SNV A web of migrations between Anatolia, its neighbors, and the Steppe suggests a West Asian origin of Indo-Anatolian languages

Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia

A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom's northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region