English for history students. Karlygash Aisultanova
in the South. This culture was one of the most significant during the Bronze Age in Europe and Asia. This culture characterized Old and Middle Bronze Age and changed to other cultures only in the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C. Long-term investigations of scientists rather clearly defined the main features of the economy and way of life of the Andronovo tribes lived the steppe zone from the Ural to the Yenisei. Predominantly, people of Andronovo culture had settled way of life. People constructed their dwelling along the banks of free and quite steppe rivers with wide flood-plain grassland. Fertile soil here produced good harvest for that period that is why the economy had combined agro-pastoral character. These tribes lived in big patriarchal families; earth-houses served as a dwelling with a great number of economic extensions and enclosures for livestock. Despite the fact that they knew how to gain a part of natural treasures, many natural processes remained mysterious and absolutely inexplicable. Religions appeared, had the period of flourishing, sometimes spread on huge territories, afterwards along with the expansion of frontiers of man’s knowledge gradually declined and died. Ancient man was not able to explain natural phenomena. They were incomprehensible for ancient people. Therefore, human beings lead by the fear and hope inevitably attributed thousands of reasons, reflected in the great number of beliefs and religious superstitions to the facts surpassed his knowledge. Cult of the dead had significant role in life of the Andronovo people. Lev Nikolayevich Gumilyov expressed, as it seems to be, very paradoxical but true, in essence, idea that people belonging to different nations diverge less by the way of life than by their attitude to the death. Belief in immortality of dead relatives and fellow tribesman, in the existence of other world, describes the need to organize funerals of congeners as a complicated and magnificent ritual where the customs and rules of the clan were observed. It is quite natural that they were not equal for the dwellers of different regions of the planet.
Essential Vocabulary
Tasks:
1. Read the text «Steppe Andronovo Сulture». Write and memorize unknown words and word combinations.
2. Translate the text into Russian.
Answer the following questions:
1. What was the area of Andronovo culture habitation?
2. What Ages does this culture characterize?
3. According to the investigations of scientists what steppe zone did they live in?
4. Where did they construct their dwelling?
5. How can you explain their cult of the dead?
BOTAI ARCHAEOLOGICAL CULTURE
Botai culture – the archaeological culture allocated with V.F. Zaybert (1983) on the basis of materials of the studied monuments of Northern Kazakhstan of an eneolit era. During the research of the eneolit settlements in the area of the rivers Tobol and Irtysh it became clear that at that time in this territory there was an original archaeological culture with peculiar lines of economic way. Botai civilization was the first to domesticate horses. This research has set back the date of domestication, ~1,000 years earlier than previous research unveiled (about 5,500 years ago). This site is an optimal case for study because the Botai sites are located within the geographic range of the Tarpan, the European wild horse. The Botai culture existed from 3700-3100 b.c., in current Kazakhstan. Horses were a large part of the culture, with the occupations of the Botai people closely connected to their horses.
The Botai people based their whole economy on the horse, with their huge, permanent settlements yielding large collections of concentrated horse remains. They may have also been the earliest known horse riders, this would have allowed the Botai people to move longer and faster than on foot. The analysis of bone remains using a technique to search for ‘bit damage», researchers have discovered wears on the teeth, suggesting the horses were harnessed or bridled. The Botai people also used horses as their main source of food and drink, as well as a resource to further technology. Pottery fragments have been analyzed to identify fat from horses milk that used to be stored in those containers, horse milk was even fermented into a kind of alcohol. Research has uncovered that the Botai were similar in shape and disposition (shown through ancient bones) to a Bronze Age domestic horse, with a significant difference from the wild horses found in that region. This also suggests that they were selecting wild horses and enhancing their physical characteristics through breeding.
The pottery of the culture had simple shapes, most examples being gray in color and unglazed. The decorations are geometric, including hatched triangles and rhombs as well as step motifs. Punctates and circles were also used as decorative motifs.
Asko Parpola believes that the language of the Botai culture cannot be identified with any known language or language family. He speculatively suggests that the Proto-Ugric word *lox for «horse», reconstructed on the basis of Hungarian ló, Mansi lū and Khanty law, all meaning «horse», whose origin is unclear and which might be related to german Ross, is a borrowing from the language of the Botai culture.
Current research is being conducted by Alan Outram of Exeter University in association with other institutes, the Bristol (UK), Winchester (UK), and Kokshetau (Kazakhstan) universities, and the Carnegie Museum. Along with students, Outram conducted a magnetometer survey of the Botai site in 2008, and is looking into conducting further research into the Botai culture's role into the development of horse domestication.
Essential Vocabulary
Tasks:
1. Read the text «Botai archaeological culture». Write and memorize unknown words and word combinations.
2. Translate the text into Russian.
Answer the following questions:
1. What was the main feature of the Botai culture?
2. What region was Botai culture found in?
3. What period of time did Botai culture exist?
4. How did the researchers discover that Botai people had domesticated horses?
5. Which era does this culture belong to?
BEGAZY-DANDYBAI CULTURE
Begazy-Dandybai culture is Bronze Age culture of mixed economy in the territory of ancient central Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, dated from the 2nd millennium BC to 8th century BC, centered at (Sary-Arka) desert river. The culture, with its majestic megalithic mausolea, flourished between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. The culture was discovered, first excavated, and published in the 1930s-1940s by M.P. Gryaznov, who took it for a local version of Karasuk culture. In 1979 the Begazy-Dandybai culture was described and analyzed in detail in a monograph by A.Kh. Margulan, who systematically reviewed accumulated material and produced description of the archeological culture. The most famous monuments of Begazy-Dandybai culture are Begazy, Dandybai, Aksu Ayuly, Akkoytas, and Sangria, it was named after the first two archeological sites.
Begazy-Dandybai culture is known from the 2nd millennium BC with mining copper, tin, and gold. At that time in steppe oases along small rivers lived fairly numerous Andronovo culture population with farming, pastoral animal husbandry, mining, metallurgy and metal processing economy. Prosperity of Central Kazakhstan Andronov culture was provided by livestock and bronze casting production. A rise of Bronze Age culture falls at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, 10th-8th centuries BC, the highlight of the Begazy-Dandybai archaeological culture. It grew in vast hilly steppe, spread over approximately 2 million square kilometers, with immense pastures and numerous ore deposits.
Archeological research of the post-1980s expanded the known locations of Begazy-Dandybai culture to 60 settlements and 200 cemeteries. Archeological attention shifted from fairly well studied megalithic mausolea as main attraction to the settlements and kurgan cemeteries of the commoners. Excavated settlement area amounts to several tens of thousands square meters, burial kurgans of ordinary tribal people have been partially uncovered.
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