Andronovo culture
Main article: Andronovo culture
The Andronovo culture's approximate maximal
extent, with the formative Sintashta-Petrovka culture (red), the location of the
earliest spoke-wheeled chariot finds (purple), and the adjacent and
overlapping Afanasevo, Srubna, and BMAC cultures (green).
The Andronovo culture is a collection of similar local Bronze Age Indo-Iranian cultures
that flourished c. 1800–900 BC in western Siberia and the west Asiatic steppe.[53] It is
probably better termed an archaeological complex or archaeological horizon. The name
derives from the village of Andronovo (55°53′N 55°42′E), where in 1914, several graves
were discovered, with skeletons in crouched positions, buried with richly decorated
pottery. The older Sintashta culture (2100–1800), formerly included within the
Andronovo culture, is now considered separately, but regarded as its predecessor, and
accepted as part of the wider Andronovo horizon. At least four sub-cultures of the
Andronovo horizon have been distinguished, during which the culture expands towards
the south and the east:
Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim (Southern Urals, northern Kazakhstan, 2200– 1600
BC)
o the Sintashta fortification of ca. 1800 BC in Chelyabinsk Oblast
o the Petrovka settlement fortified settlement in Kazakhstan
o the nearby Arkaim settlement dated to the 17th century