Mezhovskaya culture

Mezhovskaya culture

-1000 Karasuk Irmen Begazy-Dandybai culture Mezhovskaya culture Cimmerians Iranian pastoral people Slab- graves Kuban culture ASSYRIA ELAM Mumun Arameans Painted Grey Ware Swat Kuru Chust Subeshi Upper Xiajiadian Siwa culture Shanma Deer stones ZHOU DYNASTY San- xingdui Ulaan- zuukh KUSH 21st Dynasty of Egypt class=notpageimage| The Mezhovskaya culture and contemporary culturesc. 1000 BC
Geographical range	Eurasian steppe
Period	Bronze Age
Dates	XIII cent. b.c. - VII cent. b.c.
Preceded by	the local variantAndronovo cultureandCherkaskul culture
Followed by	Itkul culture,Sauromatians

TheMezhovskaya culture(mistranscribed asMeshovskaya culture) is an archaeological culture of the lateBronze Age(13th to the beginning of the 7th century BCE). It was localized in theSouthern Uralsand named after the village ofMezhovkaon the banks of theBagaryak riverin the northern part of theChelyabinsk Oblast.

The ancestors of the Mezhovskaya culture were the people of theCherkaskul culturewith the participation of the people of theToboltaiga,with traditions and ceramics of the steppe zone of theUralandKazakhstan(Andronovo culture), especially the Sargarino-Alexis culture.

The Mezhovskaya culture reflects the further stages of development of theUgriccommunity in active contact with theIndo-Iranianpopulation of the Ural steppes.

Archaeogenetics and origins

The Mezhovskaya culture formed from the admixture of localSrubnaya-likeancestry (c. 74%) with additionalNganasan-like(c. 18%) andAncient North Eurasian(c. 8%) admixture. The later proto-Ugric genepool is inferred to have formed by further Eastern influc, resulting in a gene pool of c. 48% Srubnaya-like, c. 44% Nganasan-like and c. 8% ANE-like ancestry. It is thus considered that the Mezhovskaya culture was composed of a mixed population ofIndo-European(Andronovo culture) andUgrian(Cherkaskul culture) tribes.

Genetic makeup of Bronze and Iron Age Steppe populations

In 2015, a genetic study of ancient dwellings of the Mezhovskaya culture was made of people found at theKapova Cave(Shulgan-tash). Three individuals (RISE523, RISE524, RISE525) of the Mezhovskaya inSouthern Uralfrom 1400 BC to 1000 BC were studied.The analysis of their paternal haplogroups determined one individual to belong to the haplogroupR1a1a1,while the other two were determined to belong toR1b,which historians had thought were the result of migrations of earlyIndo-Europeansfrom theBlack SeatoSiberiaandMiddle Asiavia the Urals.

Theautosomalgenetics does not seem to have died out, but contributed in part to the later Ugric-speaking groups.

Stages

The Mezhovskaya culture developed through two stages:

• The Mezhovsky stage (13th-9th centuries b.c.)
• The Berezovsky stage (8th-7th century b.c.).

The dwellings

Dwellings were excavated at Mezhovka, Kapova cave, Berezovka and other locations. The dwellings were unfortified with an area of 1 - 35 sq. m., and were more likely to occur in the forest-steppe of the Urals, and rarely in the Ural forests proper. The number of dwellings ranged from 1 to 10–15. They were usually shallow huts built with frame-pillar design.

The Mezhovsky culture had a diversified economy with a combination of production (especially cattle, metal) and assigns (hunting, fishing, gathering) forms of economy.

Cemeteries were small in size (up to 36 graves) and are found mainly in the forest-steppe regions ofBashkortostan.Most were composed of earthen mounds over elongated holes in the ground, with corpses on their backs with the head to the west-northwest. Cremation was rare. Equipment was often included in the graves, usually vessels, less often tools and weapons, and the remains of the funerary feasts.

The Mezhovsky culture exemplified the final phase of the Bronze Age of Ural forest zone and had a significant influence on the formation of the transition of the Ural cultures from the Bronze Age to the earlyIron Age.