Researcher(s)
- Sophie Matthews, Anthropology, University of Delaware
Faculty Mentor(s)
- Sarah Lacy, Anthropology, University of Delaware
Abstract
The Eurasian continent is dominated by the Indo-European language family. The spread and origin of its earliest form, Proto-Indo-European, which was spoken in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, has been a question within the fields of archaeology and linguistic anthropology since the late nineteenth century. In the 1950s, archaeologist Marija Gimbutas proposed the Kurgan Hypothesis (also known as the Steppe Theory). In it, she traces the spread of several characteristics, including the eponymous earthen burial mounds, from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe into Europe and Asia during the eneolithic period. More recently, anthropologist David Anthony has further investigated the spread of Proto-Indo-European language through the Yamnaya culture and the influence of horse domestication and the invention of the wheel on cultural expansion. My research seeks to build on the works of both scholars as I investigate whether mortuary trends can be used to trace cultural diffusion in Central Asia during the Bronze and Iron Ages. This research bridges the gap between Gimbutas, who considers aspects of human burial in the region during the Neolithic and Eneolithic, and Anthony, who focuses on the integration of horse domestication into pastoral communities in the Bronze Age. I conducted a literature review of archaeological excavations at Bronze and Iron Age burial sites in the Central Eurasian Steppes. I focused on cultural characteristics, including visible structures, type of burial, directional orientation, gravegoods, and the treatment of the remains. My survey involved over one hundred sites across Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia that dated to four time periods: the Early-Middle Bronze Age (EMBA), Middle-Late Bronze Age (MLBA), Early Iron Age (EIA) and Late Iron Age (LIA). Mapping software will help illustrate the spread of these mortuary traditions over time.