Yamnaya << yam NAY uh >> is the name for a prehistoric culture known from archaeological remains found in the steppes (vast prairies) around the Don and Volga rivers in eastern Europe. Yamnaya culture thrived in the region from about 3300 B.C. to 2500 B.C. Archaeologists recognize Yamnaya communities primarily through shared burial customs and other evidence of a shared way of life.
Yamnaya remains represent what archaeologists call a horizon. This term means that distinctive Yamnaya artifacts are found over a wide area, mixed with the objects from other local cultures. Consequently, the name Yamnaya refers to diverse communities in the region that were in contact and shared many characteristics but were not a single unified culture.
Archaeologists recognize Yamnaya sites from the distinctive burial customs and pottery. Yamnaya pottery was decorated with comb stamps and cord impressions. The pottery was decorated by pressing the teeth of a comb or twine into wet clay. High-status Yamnaya dead were typically buried in earthen mounds called kurgans. Yamnaya kurgans typically contain multiple burials, which may have been added over centuries. The mounds vary in size and the richness of the grave goods (items buried with the body) they contain. The body was commonly placed into the grave on its back with the knees raised. Most Yamnaya graves contained only the body along with clothing, a few beads, and reed mats. However, the richest graves included such objects as oval ceramic pots; bronze daggers; metal axes; gold rings; copper tools; copper and bone pins; wagons; carts; and animal bones from cattle, horses, and sheep. Archaeologists discovered one Yamnaya burial that had 40 horse skulls placed near the body.
Yamnaya lifestyle was largely based on seasonal movement between valleys and the steppes in the region. The Yamnaya traveled on horseback and on wheeled wagons. Archaeological discoveries in southwestern Asia show that by 4800 B.C., people had domesticated horses for meat. Archaeological evidence shows people rode horses by about 3700 B.C. in Yamnaya regions of what is now Kazakhstan. This combination of wagons and horseback riding allowed Yamnaya people to spread into western Europe. In some areas, including what is now Ukraine, people of the Yamnaya horizon developed a more settled lifestyle.
The horses and wheeled wagons of the Yamnaya horizon are also associated with the spread of Indo-European languages. This large group of related languages includes many of the languages spoken in India, western Asia, and Europe. English, German, Greek, Hindi, Latin, Persian, Russian, and Urdu are some of the more than 400 known Indo-European languages. Scholars believe that Yamnaya communities spoke an ancestral language called Proto-Indo-European. They believe that this language spread by a complex process in which people began speaking the new language introduced by wealthy and high status Yamnaya migrants because it had become useful and important. The spread of the new languages led to a gradual replacement of the Indigenous (native) languages by Proto-Indo-European. The language of the Yamnaya spread widely, eventually evolving into the many Indo-European languages that are spoken today.
