See more
Where did the Kurgan come from?
The Kurgan (in Russian, a kurgan, курга́н, is a barrow-hill)—who was taken in by the Kurgan tribe and named Victor—was born in what is now Russia on the border of the Caspian Sea.
What does the Kurgan theory state?
The Kurgan hypothesis describes the initial spread of Proto-Indo-European during the 5th and 4th millennia BC. As used by Gimbutas, the term "kurganized" implied that the culture could have been spread by no more than small bands who imposed themselves on local people as an elite.
What did the kurgans do?
Dating back to around 4300 B.c, the Kurgan travelled and conquered much of Europe and South Africa. According to the Nomadic Warrior Thesis, they were the first to speak the Proto-Indo-European Ancestral Language and diffuesed it while travelling.
Did the Yamnaya speak pie?
The bulk of the Indo-European languages developed from late PIE, which was spoken within the Yamnaya horizon on the Pontic–Caspian steppe around 3000 BCE.
Where were the pastoral communities in the Kurgan culture located?
Kurgan culture, seminomadic pastoralist culture that spread from the Russian steppes to Danubian Europe about 3500 Bc, . By about 2300 bc the Kurgans arrived in the Aegean and Adriatic regions. The Kurgans buried their dead in deep shafts within artificial burial mounds, or barrows.
Can you stop Kurgan Warband?
The Kurgan Warband is a frequent threat if you are playing as The Northern Provinces under Miao Ying. If possible, capture and rebuild the Snake Gate of the Grand Bastion and fortify it to stop the Kurgans from threatening you and bringing more Chaos armies to destroy Cathay.
Who made the Kurgan theory?
Archaeologist Marija GimbutasArchaeologist Marija Gimbutas first proposed the Ukrainian origin, known as the kurgan hypothesis, in the 1950s. Gimbutas traced the language back to the Yamnaya people, herders from the southern grasslands of modern-day Ukraine who domesticated the horse.
Where are the Indo-Europeans from?
Eastern EuropeThe Indo-Europeans were a people group originating in the plains of Eastern Europe, north of the Black and Caspian Seas in present day Ukraine and southern Russia. They are descendants of the Yamnaya culture.
What is Renfrew's theory?
Professor Renfrew's Anatolian hypothesis suggested that modern Indo-European languages originated in Anatolia in Neolithic times, and linked their arrival in Europe with the spread of farming.
What is the Anatolian hearth theory?
Anatolian Hearth Theory. Theory of how language first began to diffuse. According to this theory, Indo-European diffused along with agricultural innovations west into Europe and east into Asia. Diffusion based in Agriculture.
What are the two theories on the origin of the Indo-European language family?
We test two theories of Indo-European origin: the 'Kurgan expansion' and the 'Anatolian farming' hypotheses. The Kurgan theory centres on possible archaeological evidence for an expansion into Europe and the Near East by Kurgan horsemen beginning in the sixth millennium BP.
Who spoke Proto-Indo-European?
The Proto-Indo-Europeans are a hypothetical prehistoric population of Eurasia who spoke Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the ancestor of the Indo-European languages according to linguistic reconstruction.
Where did the Kurgans live?
Kurgan culture, . By about 2300 bc the Kurgans arrived in the Aegean and Adriatic region s. The Kurgans buried their dead in deep shafts within artificial burial mounds, or barrows. The word kurgan means “barrow,” or “artificial mound,” in Turkic and
What is the Kurgan culture?
The Kurgan culture, however, was only one of a number of related steppe cultures extending across the entire Black Sea–Caspian Sea region, an area that was transformed after 4000 bce …
Where did the Kurgans live?
Scholars who follow Gimbutas identify a "Kurgan culture" as reflecting an early Proto-Indo-European ethnicity that existed in the steppes and in southeastern Europe from the 5th millennium to the 3rd millennium BC. In Kurgan cultures, most burials were in kurgans, either clan or individual. Most prominent leaders were buried in individual kurgans, now called "royal kurgans". More elaborate than clan kurgans and containing grave goods, royal kurgans have attracted the most attention and publicity.
What is a Kurgan?
A kurgan (Russian: курга́н, Ukrainian: курга́н, висока могила) is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses.
What are some examples of Kurgans?
They were decorated with carved geometrical ornamentation of rhombuses, triangles, crosses, and on one slab, figures of people. Another example has an earthen kurgan under a wooden cone of thick logs topped by an ornamented cor nice up to 2 m in height.
What is the Kurgan hypothesis?
The Kurgan hypothesis is that Proto-Indo-Europeans were the bearers of the Kurgan culture of the Black Sea and the Caucasus and west of the Urals. Introduced by Marija Gimbutas in 1956, it combines kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the peoples who spoke the Proto-Indo-European language.
When were Kurgans excavated?
Some excavated kurgans include: The Ipatovo kurgan revealed a long sequence of burials from the Maykop culture c. 4000 BC down to the burial of a Sarmatian princess of the 3rd century BC, excavated 1998–99.
How tall is the Kurgan?
The height of the kurgan is 80 meters. Here were found remains of people from Bronze Age, Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Nogai people. The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, near the town of Kazanlak in central Bulgaria, is a Thracian kurgan of c. the 4th century BC.
Where is the Maikop Kurgan?
The Maikop kurgan dates to the 3rd millennium BC. The Novovelichkovskaya kurgan of c. 2000 BC on the Ponura River, Krasnodar region, southern Russia, contains the remains of 11 people, including an embracing couple, buried with bronze tools, stone carvings, jewelry, and ceramic vessels decorated with red ocher.
What is Kurgan race?
The Kurgan are a people of mystery and fear, a savage race that ride such fleet steeds as to allow them to fly across the land as fast as birds. Their domains lie far from civilized borders and yet their speed of movement is such that one can never be sure where or when their next attack shall fall.
Who is the greatest Kurgan?
Asavar Kul, the greatest Kurgan to have ever lived.
How did the Great Kurgan draw his sons to his side?
In the legends of the steppesmen, it is said that the Great Kurgan drew his sons to his side after gaining victory in a great battle. There, within his ger, the warlord spoke of the favour he had been granted, and how by the grace of the gods he had been allowed to forge the Kurgan peoples into a mighty empire, driving before them the hosts of Man, Orc and Dwarf to ruin. With this, his sons roared their battlecries and boasted of how they would expand their father's domain yet further and spill the blood of his foes. Yet, the chieftain cast a grim look upon his beloved sons, highest joys of his life, and also spoke of debts that cannot but be repaid, and of how it pleases the gods to take from a man that which he loves above all. In great despair did the mighty Zar fall to his knees as the children of the dark powers began to walk amongst his people, driving many to the darkest depths of insanity and debased obeisance. Within his tent, the emperor's myriad trophies and battle-honours were cast contemptuously down, a portent of what was to come. The daemons seized the screaming sons of the Great Kurgan, spiriting them away from their father's city, and transfiguring and corrupting their bodies with the stigmatas of the Four Gods the Kurgan would serve forevermore: Khorne -- Gore-clad Lord of Battle, Slaanesh -- Prince of Fell Pleasures, Nurgle -- Corrupt Father of Plagues, and Tzeentch -- Changer of Ways. [4a]
What is the Kurgan's tattoo?
The Kurgan are also notorious slavers. As part of the battle’s spoils, they collect the survivors and tattoo them on the face with the marks of a particular Zar. The ink used almost always includes some amount of Warpstone to start the mutation process and to dissolve the slave’s previous loyalties.
What tribes are there in the Old World?
Although there are countless tribes, the most famous include the Kvelligs, Gharhars, Tahmaks, Hastlings, Tokmars, Yusak, Khazags, Avags, Dolgans and the terrible Kul. [1d] A vicious and bloodthirsty woman of the Kurgan. In the Old World, there’s much confusion as to who and what the Kurgan are.
What is the most infamous warlord in Kurgan?
Tamurkhan would become one of the most infamous Kurgan Warlord in recent history. The Maggot Lord, as he called himself was not as other warlords and warriors of Chaos, but was subject to a terrible mutation, as truly hideous as it was rare. In mortal form he had been transformed into a befouled, maggot-like creature the size of a human child, grey-green and rotting, studded with lambently glowing corpse-light eyes and a needle-like snout that split open to reveal rows upon row of glassy, razor-barbed teeth. More awful yet than even his form was the creature's ability to fall upon a human or near-human victim and spear into its flesh, bore deep within and devour it from the inside out, inhabiting its dead flesh like a puppet, turning his victim into a stolen second skin in which to do battle. Thus empowered did Tamurkhan prove all but unstoppable, and many mighty foes fell before him. [4b]
What is the Kurgan's emphasis?
Since the body is the physical expression of divine will, the Kurgan place special emphasis on strength and mastery of the physical form. [1c] Savage-hearted, inured to violence and horror, and touched by Chaos, the Kurgan are among the most formidable peoples of the North, as well as the most numerous.
Where are the Kurgans?
This article is dedicated to the phenomena called ‘kurgans’, the monumental burial mounds of riding nomads of the Scythian period. Kurgans were first investigated in southern Ukraine and southern Russia, the core area of Scythian tribes according to Herodotus. East of the Ural Mountains, however, the kurgans are less known, as only very few of these monumental burial mounds have been decently excavated. In the last 20 years, however, several Russian–German projects under the author’s leadership have been dedicated to a better understanding of monumental kurgans in the steppe belt of Eurasia—Kazakhstan, southern Siberia, the Ural region and the northern Caucasus—contributing an enormous amount of new information about the complexity of these burial monuments. It has become clear that these elite burial monuments are not only important for rich funerary goods but also for the complex structure of the kurgans themselves, which only can be fully understood if they are considered as rituals which became architecture.
Where is the Kurgan located?
This kurgan is located in the north Kazakhstan steppe, far to the east of the Ural Mountains. It stood in the middle of an expansive Scythian cemetery of kurgans. As the excavation results show, this complex was not a real kurgan but, far more, a sanctuary, in which a complex ritual had taken place, leaving behind archaeologically discernible traces (Parzinger et al. 2003).
What are the kurgans in the Eurasian steppe?
Despite the sometimes considerable differences in structure and design of monumental large kurgans in various cultural spheres of the Eurasian steppe between the Dnieper in the west and the upper Yenissei in the east, certain basic principles are apparent: underneath the monumental mounds, erected with an enormous effort of labour, are subterranean grave chambers with luxurious furnishings. As described by Herodotus (IV 71), a Scythian prince had to be accompanied to the grave by his wife, his attendants, his horses, his weaponry, his jewellery and his costly clothes, as well as his most important and valuable possessions. Thereby, gold objects played a special role.
How were Kurgans built?
The kurgans were built on the grass sod of the steppe, and most were stabilised with an additional stone circle at the base . The slopes were often finished with mud packing and a stone mantle. It is estimated that in Chertomlyk on the Lower Dnieper River, one of the largest kurgans, the grass sod had to be cut over a surface area of more than 75 ha in circumference in preparation for construction. This also relays an impression of the actual aim of kurgan structures: the prince symbolically took his pasture with him into death, or into life after death. The pasture was thus a personal possession of the prince, just like his personal objects, followers and horses (Rolle 1979, Grakov 1980: 60ff., Rolle et al. 1998: 28ff.).
What are the kurgans in the Dnieper region?
Large kurgans with large grave inventories rich in gold objects are no rarity in the lower Dnieper region and may be deemed characteristic of the Scythian elite in this area. Such monuments include the Tolstaya Mogila, Soboleva Mogila, Babina Mogila, and the Oguz kurgans, as well as complexes in Aleksandropol, Melgunov, Ryzhanovka and many more places. All date mainly to the 4th century BC (Rolle 1979; Grakov 1980: 53 ff.; Mozolevskiy & Polin. 2005). These royal Scythian kurgans, listed here as representative of many others, demonstrate, on the one hand, that in all parts of the Eurasian steppe the leading class of rider-nomads received special treatment upon their death, while, on the other hand, the particularities of grave construction and funerary equipment could follow quite different traditions. The status of the ruling class was likely the same everywhere, yet the symbols that expressed this status differed considerably in the various regions. This is underlined by the results of the research projects that we began in the late 1990s in various parts of southern Siberia; these were especially concerned with the architecture of these monuments.
How was the Baikara Kurgan built?
The erection of the Baikara kurgan in the 5th/4th century began with the preparation of the surface for the later mound (phase 1). An approximately circular ditch was dug that surrounded an area cleared of steppe grass and topsoil, and with the subsurface clay exposed everywhere. An entrance in the southeast led from above to the kurgan’s interior. It extended into a dromos, which led downwards like a ramp, then ran for a few metres as an underground, tunnel-like, passage only large enough to crawl through, and finally to two steps at the end, near the centre of the mound and the former earthen surface. There the passage was adjoined to a short plank walkway that ended in front of 27 stone net-weights in the centre of the mound’s original surface. The weights were from a fishing net that had been deposited there. To the north of the weights was a rather shallow oval pit, laid out with bast mats. Eleven postholes were found in the western half of the kurgan’s surface. Apparently eleven wooden posts had been positioned there, onto which perhaps objects had been attached that were of significance for cultic activities (Parzinger et al. 2013: 12 ff.).
How tall is the Barsuchiy Log Kurgan?
The Barsuchiy Log kurgan, still ca. 10 m in height, is a peculiarity among Eurasian large kurgans due to its pyramidal shape. In addition, it has a ca. 55 × 55 m large enclosure with an entrance in the east, built of massive stone slabs, a characteristic feature of the Tagar culture in this region.
4.3.1 Kurgan immigrants
From the east, a foreign IE-speaking population intruded into Europe, soon to be diluted by genetically mixing with the natives, and totally assimilated before they, or rather their language and culture, reached Europe’s western shores. However, it stands to reason that they were still genetically distinct when their entry began.
4.3.2. Eastern origins
While V.
When was Kurgan I?
Kurgan I, Dnieper / Volga region, earlier half of the 4th millennium BC. Apparently evolving from cultures of the Volga basin, subgroups include the Samara and Seroglazovo cultures. Kurgan II–III, latter half of the 4th millennium BC. Includes the Sredny Stog culture and the Maykop culture of the northern Caucasus.
When was Kurgan culture introduced?
Gimbutas defined and introduced the term " Kurgan culture " in 1956 with the intention of introducing a "broader term" that would combine Sredny Stog II, Pit Grave, and Corded ware horizons (spanning the 4th to 3rd millennia in much of Eastern and Northern Europe).
What are the stages of Kurgan culture?
Gimbutas's original suggestion identifies four successive stages of the Kurgan culture: 1 Kurgan I, Dnieper / Volga region, earlier half of the 4th millennium BC. Apparently evolving from cultures of the Volga basin, subgroups include the Samara and Seroglazovo cultures. 2 Kurgan II–III, latter half of the 4th millennium BC. Includes the Sredny Stog culture and the Maykop culture of the northern Caucasus. Stone circles, anthropomorphic stone stelae of deities. 3 Kurgan IV or Pit Grave (Yamnaya) culture, first half of the 3rd millennium BC, encompassing the entire steppe region from the Ural to Romania.
What did Gimbutas believe about the Kurgan culture?
Gimbutas believed that the expansions of the Kurgan culture were a series of essentially hostile military incursions where a new warrior culture imposed itself on the peaceful, matrilinear, and matrifocal (but not matriarchal) cultures of " Old Europe ", replacing it with a patriarchal warrior society, a process visible in the appearance of fortified settlements and hillforts and the graves of warrior-chieftains:
What is the Kurgan model?
The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins identifies the Pontic–Caspian steppe as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) urheimat, and a variety of late PIE dialects are assumed to have been spoken across the region. According to this model, the Kurgan culture gradually expanded until it encompassed the entire Pontic–Caspian steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Yamnaya culture of around 3000 BC.
What was the wave of Kurgan I?
Wave 1, predating Kurgan I , expansion from the lower Volga to the Dnieper, leading to coexistence of Kurgan I and the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture. Repercussions of the migrations extend as far as the Balkans and along the Danube to the Vinča culture in Serbia and Lengyel culture in Hungary.
Where did the Kurgan language come from?
It postulates that the people of a Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). The term is derived from the Russian kurgan ( курга́н ), meaning tumulus or burial mound.
Overview
Archaeological remains
The most obvious archeological remains associated with the Scythians are the great burial mounds, some over 20 m high, which dot the Ukrainian and Russian steppe belts and extend in great chains for many kilometers along ridges and watersheds. From them much has been learnt about Scythian life and art.
Some excavated kurgans include:
Etymology
According to the Etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language the word "kurhan" is borrowed directly from the "Polovtsian" language (Kipchak, part of the Turkic languages) and means: fortress, embankment, high grave. The word has two possible etymologies, either from the Old Turkic root qori- "to close, to block, to guard, to protect", or qur- "to build, to erect, furnish or stur". According to Vasily Radlov it may be a cognate to qorγan, meaning "fortification, fortress or a cas…
Origins and spread
Some spectre graves could have been covered with a tumulus, placing the first kurgans as early as the 5th millennium BC in eastern Europe. However, this hypothesis is not unanimous. Kurgans were used in Ukrainian and Russian steppes, their use spreading with migration into southern, central, and northern Europe in the 3rd millennium BC. Later, Kurgan barrows became characteristic of Bronze Age peoples, and have been found from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Altay Mo…
Kurgan hypothesis
The Kurgan hypothesis is that Proto-Indo-Europeans were the bearers of the Kurgan culture of the Black Sea and the Caucasus and west of the Urals. Introduced by Marija Gimbutas in 1956, it combines kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the peoples who spoke the Proto-Indo-European language. She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after its distinc…
Usage
Burial mounds are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. The structures of the earlier Neolithic period from the 4th to the 3rd millenniums BC, and Bronze Age until the 1st millennium BC, display continuity of the archaic f…
See also
• Animal sacrifice, Ashvamedha
• Kleczanów Forest
• Kurgan stelae
• Mamayev Kurgan, used during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Sources
• Hugh Honour and John Fleming, A World History of Art, 1st edn. 1982 (many later editions), Macmillan, London, page refs to 1984 Macmillan 1st edn. paperback. ISBN 0333371852
• Govedarica, Blagoje (2016), Conflict or Coexistence: Steppe and Agricultural Societies in the Early Copper Age of the Northwest Black Sea Area
History
Culture
- The Kurgan are a people of mystery and fear, a savage race that ride such fleet steeds as to allow them to fly across the land as fast as birds. Their domains lie far from civilised borders and yet their speed of movement is such that one can never be sure where or when their next attack shall fall. Those few cartographers who recognise the Kurgan'...
Tribal Hierarchy
- Though there are differences between each of the Kurgan tribes, most notably the Chaos God whom they serve, they all value strength over any other virtue. They are a people of hardened warriors. Courage, skill, and brawn are their celebrated traits. The most powerful warrior of the tribe is called the "zar," their name for their chieftain and in imitation of the tzars of Kislev. The z…
Society
- The Kurgan are nomads. They prowl the Eastern Steppes following the herds for food. They have no sense of a permanent home since the world is ever-changing. And so, they are content to wander and live off the land. A common mistake made by most Old Worlders is to lump the Kurgan into one group, and it's easy to make this mistake since the Kurgan are constantly on th…
Religion
- The Kurgan venerate the Ruinous Powers over all other deities. They see these gods as aspects of the natural world. A stroke of lightning might be the will of Tchar, the Changer of Ways, whilst an outbreak of sickness is the blessing of Nieglin, the Father of Plagues.[1d] Every stone, every plant, and the very clouds that float through the skies hold the secrets of the gods. No one Ruinous Po…
Warfare
- For the Kurgan, it is their duty to wage war, for war brings about the greatest change of them all: death. Such forays are opportunities for plunder, to advance one's position within their tribe, or even to gain the favour of the Dark Gods. Further west, the tribes of the Kul, Dolgans, and Hastlings regularly harass Kislev, sending raiders through the high pass to savage the stanista s…
Notable Kurgan
- The Great Kurgan - The first great zar of the Kurgan hordes, the Great Kurgan united all the tribes of the Eastern Steppes into a single, indivisible whole, a feat unrivalled by all his successors,...
Trivia
- The Kurgan may loosely be based upon ancient Turkic and Scythian nomads. Some Kurgan tribes, such as the Khazags, are named after real-world Turkic groups such as the Kazakhs. Many of these cultures even share a similar tradition using burial-mounds to bury their dead which are known as kurgans. The Kurgan share many similarities with the Cimmerians from the world of R…
Sources