Pontic–Caspian steppe

Pontic–Caspian steppe
The Pontic–Caspian Steppe, extending across Eastern Europe to Central Asia, is formed by the Caspian and Pontic steppes, which stretches from the northern shores of the Black Sea (the Pontus Euxinus of antiquity) to the northern area around the Caspian Sea, where it ends at the Ural-Caspian narrowing, which joins it with the Kazakh Steppe in Central Asia, making it a part of the larger Eurasian Steppe. Geopolitically, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe extends from northeastern Bulgaria and southeastern Romania through Moldova and eastern Ukraine, through the Northern Caucasus of southern Russia, and into the Lower Volga region where it straddles the border of southern Russia and western Kazakhstan. Biogeographically, it is a part of the Palearctic realm, and of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome.
The area corresponds to Cimmeria, Scythia, and Sarmatia of classical antiquity. Across several millennia, numerous tribes of nomadic horsemen used the steppe; many of them went on to conquer lands in the settled regions of Eastern and Central Europe, Western Asia, and Southern Asia.
The term Ponto-Caspian region is used in biogeography with reference to the flora and fauna of these steppes, including animals from the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, and Azov Sea. Genetic research has identified this region as the most probable place where horses were first domesticated.
According to the most prevalent theory in Indo-European studies, the Kurgan hypothesis, the Pontic–Caspian steppe was the homeland of the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language.
Geography and ecology
The Pontic-Caspian steppe covers an area of of Central and Eastern Europe, that extends from northeastern Bulgaria and southeastern Romania, through Moldova, and southern and eastern Ukraine, through the Northern Caucasus of southern Russia, and into the Lower Volga region of western Kazakhstan, to the east of the Ural Mountains. The steppe is bounded by the East European forest steppe to the north, a transitional zone of mixed grasslands and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests.
To the south, the steppe extends to the Black Sea, except the Crimean and western Caucasus mountains' border with the sea, where the Crimean Submediterranean forest complex defines the southern edge of the steppes. The steppe extends to the western shore of the Caspian Sea in the Dagestan region of Russia, but the drier Caspian lowland desert lies between the steppe and the northwestern and northern shores of the Caspian. The Kazakh Steppe bounds the steppe to the east.
The Ponto-Caspian seas are the remains of the Turgai Sea, an extension of the Paratethys which extended south and east of the Urals and covering much of today's West Siberian Plain in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
Prehistoric cultures
Linear Pottery culture 5500–4500 BC
Cucuteni-Trypillian culture 5300–2600 BC
Khvalynsk culture 5000–3500 BC
Sredny Stog culture 4500–3500 BC
Maykop culture 3700–3000 BC
Yamna/Kurgan culture 3500–2300 BC
Kura-Araxes culture 3000–2000 BC
Catacomb culture 3000–2200 BC
Srubna culture 1600–1200 BC
Koban culture 1100–400 BC
Novocherkassk culture 900–650 BC
Historical peoples and nations
Indo-Europeans 4th millennium BC – now
Cimmerians 12th–7th centuries BC
Dacians and Thracians (Getae) 11th century BC – 3rd century AD
Scythians 8th–4th centuries BC
Sarmatians 5th century BC – 5th century AD
Ostrogoths 3rd–6th centuries
Huns and Avars 4th–8th centuries
Bulgars, Onogurs, and Bulgarians 4th–21st centuries:
Great Bulgaria 7th century
First Bulgarian Empire 7th–11th centuries
Second Bulgarian Empire 12th–15th centuries
Principality of Karvuna
Alans 5th–11th centuries
Eurasian Avars 6th–8th centuries
Göktürks 6th–8th centuries
Sabirs 6th–8th centuries
Khazars 6th–11th centuries
Magyar tribes (Hungarians) 7th–9th centuries attested but probably from earlier
Rus' people (Kievan Rus') 8th–13th centuries
Pechenegs 8th–11th centuries
Kipchaks and Cumans 11th–13th centuries
Mongol Golden Horde 13th–15th centuries
Cossacks, Kalmyks, Crimean Khanate, Volga Tatars, Nogais, and other Turkic states and tribes 15th–18th centuries
Russian Empire 16th–20th centuries
Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus 19th–20th centuries
Soviet Union 20th century
See also
Forest steppe
Indo-European migrations
Crimean–Nogai raids into East Slavic lands
Eurasian Steppe
Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA)
Haplogroup R1b1 (Y-DNA)
Kurgan hypothesis
Late Glacial Maximum
Steppe Route
Tarim mummies
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands
Kurgan stelae
References
External links
Google maps: Pontic-Caspian steppe
North Caucasus
Central Asia
Ecoregions of Asia
Ecoregions of Bulgaria
Ecoregions of Europe
Ecoregions of Kazakhstan
Ecoregions of Moldova
Ecoregions of Romania
Ecoregions of Russia
Ecoregions of Ukraine
Eurasian Steppe
Geography of Southern Russia
Grasslands of Asia
Grasslands of Europe
Grasslands of Moldova
Grasslands of Romania
Grasslands of Russia
Grasslands of Ukraine
Iranian nomads
Natural history of Central Asia
Nomadic groups in Eurasia
Palearctic ecoregions
Scythia
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands