- Karasuk culture
The Karasuk culture describes a group of
Bronze Age societies who ranged from theAral Sea or theVolga River to the upper Yenisei catchment, ca. 1500-800 BC, subsequent to theAfanasevo culture . [ [http://home.earthlink.net/~waluk/Alekseev/Lecture13.doc home.earthlink.net/~waluk/Alekseev/Lecture13.doc] ] The remains are minimal and entirely of the mortuary variety. At least 2000 burials are known. The Karasuk period persisted down to c. 700 BC. From c. 700 to c. 200 BC, culture developed along similar lines. Vital trade contact is traced from northernChina and theBaikal region to theBlack Sea and theUrals , influencing the uniformity of the culture. [ [http://search.eb.com/eb/article-52383 Encyclopædia Britannica] ]The
economy was mixedagriculture andstockbreeding . Arsenical bronze artefacts are present. They succeeded theAndronovo culture in this region and were farmers who primarily raisedsheep .Their settlements were of pit houses and they buried their dead in stone
cist s covered bykurgans and surrounded by square stone enclosures.Industrially, they were skilled metalworkers, the diagnostic artifacts of the culture being a bronze knife with curving profiles and a decorated handle and horse bridles. The pottery has been compared to that discovered in Inner Mongolia and the interior of China, with bronze knives similar to those from northeastern China. [ [http://home.earthlink.net/~waluk/Alekseev/Lecture13.doc home.earthlink.net/~waluk/Alekseev/Lecture13.doc] ]
Notes and references
*JP Mallory , "Karasuk Culture", "Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture ", Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
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