The Koban culture or Kuban culture (c. 1200 to 350 BC),Boulygina, Eugenia, et al., (2020). "Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the prehistoric Koban culture of the North Caucasus", in: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 31, June 2020, 102357, Introduction: "The Koban culture was widespread on both sides of the Great Caucasus Range during the 13th/12th – 4th centuries BC. It is widely known because of its advanced metallurgy as well as developed terraced agriculture (Korobov and Borisov, 2013)." is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the northern and central Caucasus. It is preceded by the Colchian culture of the western Caucasus and the Kharachoi culture further east.
It is named after the village of Koban, Northern Ossetia, where in 1869 battle-axes, daggers, decorative items and other objects were discovered in a kurgan. Later, further sites were uncovered in the central Caucasus.
To the north, the culture extended as far as the Terek River, and to the Laba River in the Krasnodar area.Kozenkova 1977, 2004; Tsokur 2004
The Koban culture settlements (as opposed to isolated cemeteries) have been little studied, with the exception of those located in the modern Chechnya, such as near Serzhen-Yurt, and near Bamut; these were major centers from around 11th century BC to around the 7th century BC.Evgeni Chernykh, Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR: The Early Metal Age. CUP Archive, 1992, p278
The remains include dwellings, cobble bridges, altars, iron objects, bones, and clay and stone objects. There were sickles and stone grain grinders. Grains that were grown included wheat, rye and barley. Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs and horses were kept. There were shops, where artisans worked on and sold pottery, stone-casting, bone-carving, and stone-carving. There is evidence for an advanced stage of metallurgy. There was differentiation of professionals organized within clans.
The earliest burials at Tli cemetery go back to the 16th-14th centuries BC (pre-Koban period). Then the cemetery was used for almost the entire period of existence of the Koban culture.
Johanna Nichols has written that, "There is fairly seamless archeological continuity for the last 8000 years or more in central Daghestan, suggesting that the Nakh-Daghestanian language family is long indigenous."
A genetic study in 2020 analysing samples from Klin-Yar communities, including the Koban culture, found that the ancient population had one sample of Haplogroup D-Z27276, which is associated with the modern Tibetan people. Other haplogroups were Haplogroup J1 and Haplogroup G-M285.
Tli cemetery
Ethnic affiliation
The arts
See also
Bibliography
External links
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