Karasuk culture

The Karasuk culture (Russian: Карасукская культура, romanized: Karasukskaya kul'tura) 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.

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.

[2] 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.

[3] George van Driem has suggested a connection with the Yeniseian and Burushaski people, proposing a Karasuk languages group.

[13][14][15] 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.

It expanded on this tradition, and became the core of a regional hub in metallurgy, sometimes called the "East Asian Metallurgical Province".

[26] 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.

[25] 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.

[27] 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.

Eurasian archaeological cultures in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1500–750 BCE) with their approximate ranges (Cultures in the Seima-Turbino zone are indicated with blue letters). [ 7 ]
Bronze rein holder for chariots. [ 11 ]
Shang dynasty curved bronze knives with animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE. Such knives were the result of contacts with the northern people of the Mongolian steppe. [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ]
Historical influences on Chinese metallurgy. After a small early copper industry in the Neolithic, China was influenced by the metallurgy of the steppes ( Andronovo culture ), the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and the Karasuk culture down to the Shang dynasty period. [ 33 ]
Genetic makeup of Bronze and Iron Age Steppe populations
Minusinsk Basin cultures (Summed probability distribution for new human bone dates, Afanasievo to Tagar cultures). [ 37 ]