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Concept
Potapovka culture
Summary
Potapovka culture (Potapovskaya kul'tura) was a Bronze Age culture which flourished on the middle Volga in 2100—1800 BC.
The Potapovka culture emerged out of the Poltavka culture with influences from the Abashevo culture. It had close relations with the Sintashta culture in the east, with whom it shares many similarities. Like the Sintashta culture, its people are believed to have spoken a form of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It was directly ancestral to the Srubnaya culture, and probably influenced the emergence of the Andronovo culture.
The Potapovka culture emerged on the middle Volga around 2100 BC. It came to flourish around the middle Volga, the southwest Urals and western Kazakhstan. Potapovka sites are eventually found also on the Don and the Dnieper. The Potapovka culture has been considered a western variant of the Sintashta culture, with which it is closely related.
The Potapovka culture is thought to have emerged as a northern outgrowth of the Poltavka culture, with possible influences from the Abashevo culture. Influences from the Catacomb culture and the Multi-cordoned ware culture have also been detected. It is considered to have been part of an eastward expansion of cultures originating on the Pontic steppe. The expansion of the Potapovka culture, Sintashta culture and other cultures ultimately of Eastern European origin into western Kazakhstan and the southern Urals is believed to have occurred as an elite dominance migration.
The Potapovka culture came to an end about 1800 BC. The Potapovka culture and the Sintashta culture played major roles in the emergence of the Andronovo culture. The Andronovo culture is in turn considered ancestral to the Indo-Iranians. The early phases of the Srubnaya culture grew out of the Potapovka culture and the late Abashevo culture.
The Potapovka culture is especially distinguished by the presence of bone cheek-pieces for controlling horses. One cheek-piece of the Potapovka culture was found to be decorated with a Mycenaean ornament.
Official source
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