Karasuk culture

The Karasuk culture (Карасукская культура) describes a group of late Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea to the upper Yenisei in the east and south to the Altai Mountains and the Tian Shan in ca. 1500–800 BC.

Overview
The distribution of the Karasuk culture covers the eastern parts of the Andronovo culture, which it appears to replace. It is considered that the Karasuk culture primarily formed out of the Andronovo culture with influences from the Okunevo culture.

The remains of settlements are minimal, and entirely of the mortuary variety. At least 2000 burials are known. The Karasuk period persisted down to c. 700 BC. From c. 700 to c. 200 BC, culture developed along similar lines. Vital trade contact is traced from northern China and the Baikal region to the Black Sea and the Urals, influencing the uniformity of the culture. The Karasuk was succeeded by the Tagar culture.

The economy was mixed agriculture and stockbreeding. Its culture appears to have been more mobile than the Andronovo. The Karasuk were farmers who practiced metallurgy on a large scale. Arsenical bronze artefacts are present. Their settlements were of pit houses and they buried their dead in stone cists covered by kurgans and surrounded by square stone enclosures. Industrially, they were skilled metalworkers, the diagnostic artifacts of the culture being a bronze knife with curving profiles and a decorated handle and horse bridles. The pottery has been compared to that discovered in Inner Mongolia and the interior of China, with burials bronze knives similar to those from northeastern China. Their realistic animal art probably contributed to the development of the Scytho-Siberian animal art style (Scythian art).

The origins of the Karasuk culture are complex, but it is generally accepted that its origins lie both with the Andronovo culture and local cultures of the Yenisei. The ethnic identity of the Karasuk is problematic, as the Andronovo culture has been associated with the Indo-Iranians while the local cultures have been considered as unconnected to the steppe. Nevertheless, a specifically Proto-Iranian identity has been proposed for the Karasuk culture. The Karasuk tribes have been described by archaeologists as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid/Europoid features. George van Driem has suggested a connection with the Yeniseian and Burushaski people, proposing a Karasuk languages group.

The contemporary Deer stones culture to the southeast may have been built in part by nomads from the Karasuk culture.

Chariots


The Karasuk culture had horse-drawn spoke-wheeled chariots, a technology first attested in the Sintashta culture (c. 2000 BC) which spread eastwards with the Andronovo culture. Although no Karasuk chariots have been found, their existence is indicated by petroglyph drawings, chariot equipment, horse bridles and 'charioteer burials'. These have close similarities to chariots and equipment from the Shang dynasty in China (c. 1200 BC), such as the use of wheels with numerous spokes and bow-shaped rein holders. Both Karasuk and Shang chariots also have close similarities to chariots from Lchashen in Armenia, dating from c. 1500 BC. According to Wu (2013) Shang chariots and their associated equipment originated from the Karasuk culture and can be understood as "a local version of the Karasuk set."

Metallurgy
The metallurgy of the Karasuk culture may have derived from the earlier Seima-Turbino tradition. It expanded on this tradition, and became the core of a regional hub in metallurgy, sometimes called the "East Asian Metallurgical Province".

Seima-Turbino had a westward expansion, encountering the Abashevo and Sintashta cultures during the 2200-1700 BCE period. On the contrary, the expansion of the Karasuk metallurgical culture was eastward. Karasuk styles were copied throughout Central and Eastern Asia, reaching China where numerous bronze objects on the Karasuk model have been excavated. In particular the royal complex of the Anyang Cemetery from the 13-11th centuries BCE during the Shang dynasty period is known for numerous such imitations.

It is thought that these metallurgical innovations from the Karasuk culture were transmitted by steppe nomads, within a context of rather conflictual relations between China and its northern neighbours. The Shang mainly imitated the curved one-edged knives with animal handles, and placed them in their tombs among other bronze paraphernalia. Altogether, these influences travelled over a distance of more than 3,500 kilometers, from the Sayan-Altai region to the heart of ancient China beyond the Yellow River.

Weapons of the contemporary Deer stones culture, as seen in their petroglyphs, are generally derived from those of the Karasuk culture, and belong to the Karasuk typology.

Comparisons of Karasuk and Chinese Shang-Zhou blades
Many bronze blades of the Shang dynasty (13th-11th centuries BCE) and Zhou dynasty were derived from Karasuk designs.

Genetics
Keyser et al. (2009) published a genetic study of ancient Siberian cultures, the Andronovo culture, the Karasuk culture, the Tagar culture and the Tashtyk culture. They surveyed four individuals of the Karasuk culture of four different sites from 1400 BC to 800 BC. Two of these possessed the Western Eurasian mtDNA U5a1 and U4 lineages. Two other ones exhibited the Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1, which is thought to mark the eastward migration of the early Indo-Europeans. The individuals surveyed were all determined to be Europoid and light-eyed.

Sites
Sites are not numerous, and are mainly found southwest of the Minusinsk basin. They consist in semi-subterranean houses and larger winter houses about 100-200 m2 in area, with domed or pitched roofs covered with earth to protect against the cold.