Bulan-Koba culture
Ancient community of southern Siberia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bulan-Koba culture (2nd century BCE to 5th century CE) is an archaeological culture in the Altai Mountains which replaced the Pazyryk culture.[1] The time period of this culture occurs in the so-called Huno-Sarmatian period in Russian archaeology (2nd century BC to 5th century AD).[2] The bearers of this culture lived during the time of Xiongnu Empire, Xianbei state and Rouran Khaganate. this culture was replaced by Turkic burial traditions in Altai [3]
| Geographical range | Altai Mountains |
|---|---|
| Dates | 2nd century BCE to 5th century CE |
| Major sites | Sary-Bel, Ust-Edigen, Bulan-Koba |
| Preceded by | Pazyryk culture |
| Followed by | First Turkic Khaganate, Kok-Pash culture |
Archaeology
V.V. Radlov was the first to scientifically study the monuments of the Bulan-Koba culture in 1865 with excavations near the village Katanda and near the village Berel. absence of settlements in this culture points to a nomadic lifestyle.[4] The burial tradition of Bulan-Koba culture consists of oval shaped mounds over stone cists and sacrificed horses were buried along with the deceased in most of the adult burials [5] The Bulan-Koba bearers erected cenotaphs for warriors who died in distant battles.[6] The Bulan-Koba culture was a part of Xiongnu, Xianbei and Rouran political unions and received material influence from all aforementioned cultural cores.[7]
Genetics and Anthropology
Analysis of skeletal remains suggests that the Bulan-Koba culture bearers were anthropologically mainly of Europoid stock,[8] similar to preceding Iron age Eastern Scythians and different from Mongoloid groups such as Slab Grave and Xiongnu. At the end of the period of this culture, the Bulan-Koba people engaged in heavy clashes with foreign peoples.[9]
A genetic study published in Nature in 2015 examined the remains of three Bulan-Koba samples,[10] the three Y-DNA samples extracted belonged to Q1a-M25/YP844 (samples RISE600 and RISE601[11] from Verkh-Uimon site dated to 350-450 CE) and J2a-PH358 (sample RISE602[12] from Sary-Bel site dated to 200 BCE to 100 CE) and three mtDNA belonged to K2a5, M8a1 and C4+152.[13] the autosomal composition of the Bulan-Koba samples resemble preceding Iron age Eastern Scythians (50% RUS_Sintashta_MLBA, 40% RUS_Baikal_EBA, 10% BMAC) with few gene flow from Xiongnu and Slab Grave.