Re: Tolos & Kurgan

Gerry

Regarding your post

> (If I've posted portions of this to you before, please disregard)
>
> Taken from Lecture 7 of The Alekseev Manuscript:
> "In the Caucasus in the pre Neolithic, both caves and stone houses are
> used as primitive dwellings. In the Neolithic, there are houses made

of

> clay bricks. These are approximately eight feet in height and called
> "tolos". The tolos is also used as a grave. As graves, each contain
> 5-20 bodies. The "living tolos" (house) is distributed in Iran and in
> Turkmenistan and other mountain areas of Central Asia. They are never
> found on the Arabian Peninsula.
>
> In the northern areas of Russia, people are buried in soil fifty
> centimeters deep. In some cases stone markers indicate graves, in

other

> cases there are no visible markers. In the Tripolie Culture,

cemeteries

> are located not far from the village i.e. between the village and the
> fields. Graves are marked by stones. In the Neolithic Period because
> of a population increase, single graves are an exception. Graves

range

> from 30/40 burials to several hundred. In the Early neolithic, graves
> do not exceed 30-40; there are only two cases where graves contained
> more. The Tripolie settlements are replicated as cemeteries. In
> distinguishing a living tolos from a cemetery tolos, the living tolos
> has a larger area and in cemeteries there are no skeletal remains
> between toloses.
>
> Geoksyr is located on the border of Iran and Turkmenistan in a desert
> area. The vegetation is sparse and the only rich time is in spring.

At

> Geoksyr there is a hill with a surface height of 11-12 meters and
> several tolos with the diameter of 4-5 meters. There are single
> skeletons buried between the toloses. Thus Geoksyr is a settlement

and

> not a cemetery.
>
> In southern Siberia, nothing definite is known regarding housing but
> much is known pertaining to cemeteries. There are no local

differences

> in cemeteries. The graves are simple, in soil, and very seldom are
> marked. Southern Siberia differs from the north area and shows a
> similarity to Mongolia and southern China. There is much jade which

is

> used both for art and for small implements such as arrows. Southern
> Siberia is similar to the north in economic development; however, the
> only evidence comes from cemeteries. Little is known about the social
> forms of life of the Neolithic people. Some scholars claim a
> matrilineal social form based on the presence of female figurines and
> from ethnographic data. Others claim a patrilineal social form

because

> husbandry and agriculture require lots of labor; labor by men. As per
> Alexeev: "the New Archaeologist Lewis Binford should believe not only

in

> fact; he should consider the subtleties about fact".
>
> [taken from Lecture 8 of the Alekseev Manuscript]
> The Pit Grave Culture is located in the southern Russian Steppe area
> (Ukraine) and replaces the Tripolie Culture in the mid third

millennium

> BC. Its roots are in the Neolithic and continue to the beginning of

the

> second millennium BC. We have no knowledge of housing or settlement
> patterns, only graves have been found. There graves reveal a new
> tradition burial, the burial mound.
>
> These mounds or kurgans (a Turkic word) are made of stone in

mountainous

> areas and made of soil in flat areas. Today kurgans are found both
> singly and in groups. The height of kurgans vary. In southern Russia
> and southern Siberia, these kurgans are never more than 10 meters

high,

> usually averaging 2-4 meters. A circle of kurgans may be as great as
> one hectare. In the middle of a kurgan are usually one or two burials
> but the number can be as great as fifteen to twenty. Different

objects

> and tools are found in the graves. Bronze is known but is very rare.
> Scholars think this is the beginning of bronze usage. Also present in
> kurgans are bones of domestic pig and horse (no sheep). Some scholars
> think the Pit Grave Culture did not know agriculture. There is also

the

> absence of permanent sites; scholars are not sure about settlements,

the

> size and types of houses etc.
>
> Geographically kurgans have been found from Romania to the Steppe

areas

> of southern Russia to the Volga with some findings in Kirghizistan.

Now

> more than 2,000 kurgans have been excavated many of which contain only
> pottery.

Cultures found without settlements and characterised only by cemetaries
are usually nomadic. This is also the view of the recently publiched
Prehistory of Europe, which tends to take a pro-systemic view and
supports the secondary products view. Christian's book on the History
of Russia till the Mongol Period also takes the view that because of
the absence of settlements - Kurgans were nomadic - but he also
suggests that there was a dependence upon agriculturists in nomadic
cultures for certain items and the shift from agriculture to nomadism
and back again was something that occurred repeatedly along the steppe
and semi-arid margins of agriculture.

Hope this helps

John