The Yamnaya or Yamna people occupy the Ponti-Caspian Steppe about 3300 BCE. Before the Yamnaya the known world is inhabited by hunter-gathering tribes or kin groups. The ancestors of these modern humans evolved in Africa, arriving in Europe about 42,800 BCE.
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They carry on a semi-nomadic lifestyle based on herd-following, hunting, gathering of wild food such as berries, roots or nuts. Weapons in the early century include clubs, spears, axes, arrows and knives made of wood, flint or other stone.
The Yamnaya or Yamna people evolved in the late Copper Age to early Bronze Age c. 3300 BCE. Archaeological evidence dates the finds in Yamna settlements and burial sites to 3300–2600 BCE.
Some of the pre-existing tribes they absorbed. The Yamnaya covered such an area, when they migrated in the 3rd millennium BCE it was in all directions, and had strong effects on the cultures of other lands and regions.
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Also called Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, the Yamnaya are closely connected to Final Neolithic groups, specifically the Corded Ware people and Bell Beaker people. As the Stone Age caved in to the Bronze Age, people migrated and met and moved and settled.
Tribal or kin group cultures preceding or co-existing with the Yamnaya on the Steppe include:
Samara, 5th millennium BCE, Volga at the Samara Bend
Khvalynsk, 4900 - 3500 BCE, Middle Volga
Dnieper - Donets, 5000 - 4200 BCE, Neolithic & Mesolithic
Sredny Stog, 4-5th millennia BCE, Ukraine
Repin, c. 4000 BCE, evolved from earlier people; later evolved into the Yamnaya
Maykop, c. 3700 - 3300 BCE, central steppe to Black Sea coast
Cucuteni - Trypillia, c. 5500 to 2750 BC, Neolithic copper age culture, SE Europe
Cernavodă, 4000 - 3200 BCE Bulgaria & Romania
Usatove, 4th millennium BCE, NE coast of Black Sea
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Around 6000 BCE, Neolithic farmers from the area of Turkey (Anatolia, Mesopotamia) join up with the people in the south of Europe. The tribes make deeper progress into the continent.
The Yamnaya descend from Russia. Their name, Я́мная, means 'related to pits (yama)' due to the custom of burying a corpse in a kurgan or tumulus, a pit grave within a burial mound.
Yamnaya people practice animal husbandry, fishing, foraging, manufacture of ceramics, weapons and tools. They live primarily as tribal nomads or semi-permanent settlers, with a chiefdom system. Use of wheeled carts and wagons helps manage larger herds of goats and sheep. Some bone distortions suggest long horseback rides.
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Domestication of the horse happened in c. 3800 BCE, and is credited to the Steppe people. Yama were already using oxen to pull two-wheeled carts and four-wheeled carts, well adapted to life on the move. Agriculture developed near sources of water, such as rivers, and a few fortified sites survive, such as Mikhaylvika in eastern Russia.
Characteristics of the Yamnaya culture include burials in pit graves under a mound, often with animal offerings, grave goods and personal items. In graves of important people whole wagon are found. Some graves contain figures, or stelae, with carved human heads, arms, hands, belts, and weapons.
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The body is in a flexed position with knees bent, covered in ochre. Some grave mounds contain several layers of burials. Metallurgists and other craftsmen have special status among the buried. Graves attributed to the elite contain a vast number of metal objects. New technologies of metalwork and weapon designs appear.
Animal sacrifices are common, including those of horses and oxen. Stone stellae or funerary statues are found in certain gravesites, sometimes in abundance depending on the perceived rank of the deceased.
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According to anthropologists the typical diet of Yamna people is meat, milk, yogurt, cheese, soups, seeds, wild vegetables, and probably mead. The use of ochre in graves suggests a symbolic return to the earth. Yellow and red ochre are both iron oxides. The exact origin of the Yamnaya is still under debate.
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