Slab-grave culture

Slab-grave culture
The Slab-Grave culture is an archaeological culture of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Mongolia. The Slab-Grave culture formed one of the primary ancestral components of the Xiongnu, as revealed by genetic evidence. The ethnogenesis of Turkic peoples and the modern Mongolian people is, at least partially, linked to the Slab-Grave culture by historical and archaeological evidence. and further corroborated by genetic research on the Slab Grave remains.
The Slab-Grave culture is dated from 1100 to 300 BC. The origin of this slab-grave culture is not definitively known, however genetic evidence is consistent with multiple hypotheses of a local origin dating back to at least the Bronze Age. In particular, the people of the Ulaanzuukh culture and the Slab Grave culture are closely associated with the Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA). The genetic profiles of individuals from the Ulaanzukh LBA and the Slab Grave culture are identical, which is in agreement with the archaeological hypothesis that the Slab Grave culture emerged from the Ulaanzukh.
To the west, the Slab-Grave culture was adjacent to, and essentially contemporaneous with, various Saka cultures such as the Tagar culture, the Pazyryk culture and the Aldy-Bel culture for a period of several centuries. The Slab-Grave culture was superseded by the Xiongnu culture, which formed a vast empire stretching across much of the Eurasian world, and saw the hybridization of Western and Eastern Eurasian populations and cultures.
Area
Slab-grave cultural monuments are found in northern, central and eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Northwest China (Xinjiang region, Qilian Mountains etc.), Manchuria, Lesser Khingan, Buryatia, southern Irkutsk Oblast and southern and central Zabaykalsky Krai. The name of the culture is derived from the main typology of the graves, its graves have rectangular fences (chereksurs) of vertically set slabs of gneiss or granite, with stone kurgans inside the fence. Were found settlements, burial and ritual structures, rock paintings, deer stones, and other remains of that culture.
The most recent graves date from the 6th century BC, and the earliest monuments of the next in time Xiongnu culture belong to the 2nd century BC. The gap is not less than three centuries, and the monuments that would fill this chronological gap are almost unknown.
Burials
The slab graves are both individual and collective in groups of 5–8 to large burials with up to 350 fences. Large cemeteries have a clear plan. In Aga Buryat District were found more than three thousand fences. Most of the graves are burials, some are ritual fences – cenotaphs. Graves are oriented along west-east axis. Deceased are laid on the back, with the head to the east.
The fences vary from 1.5 m to 9.6 m, a height of the slabs vary from 0,5 m to 3 m. The grave pits under some kurgan mounds are covered with slabs that often are of considerable sizes. The depth of the burial pits vary from 0,6 m to 2,5–3 meters, in deep graves the side slabs were stacked and covered with several slab layers. In places within the fence sometimes were installed deer stones, single slabs with images of deer, less frequently of the horses, accompanied with solar signs and armaments.
A burial complex on the Lami mountain in the Nerchinsk area consisted of graves about 30 meters in length, divided into 4 sections. Not plundered fence was covered by several slabs each weighing up to 0,5 tons. Under cover slabs was an altar with skulls of horses, cows and sheep. Below were five burial chambers for inhumation.
Most of the graves were looted. The buried clothing and footwear is colorful, with various ornaments of bronze, bone and stone: plaques, buttons, necklaces, pendants, mirrors, cowrie shells. The accompanying tools are rare: Needles and needle beds, knives and axes-celts. Even less common are weapons: arrowheads, daggers, bow end caps. In some graves are horse harnesses, whip handles. There are bronze objects, fewer iron and precious metals.
Jars are round-bottom earthenware, some tripods. Vessel ornament are impressions, rolled bands, indentations. The art of the slab-grave culture belongs to the "animal style" art that depicts domesticated and wild animals, daily life and main occupations. The slab-grave culture art has many common features with cultures of Southern Siberia: Karasuk, Tagar, and others.
Graves in East Baikal
Thousands of graves can now be seen in the southern Baikal area. In some cases they form a cemetery, with a clear plan and a strict order. For example, at lake Balzino about a hundred graves formed circles and rectangles. They are usually located at higher elevation, exposed to sun. Monumental burials mark greatness of the people who once lived there. They became an integral part of the East Baikal steppes cultural and historical landscape.
Genetics
Autosomal genetic evidence from several slab-grave fossils suggests that they were largely formed from Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA) populations. However, uniparental genetic evidence suggests the slab-grave population had some West Eurasian ancestors.
As of 2022, all sequenced slab-grave males have been identified as belonging to East Eurasian paternal haplogroups. On the other hand, slab-grave maternal lineages were more diverse, with 65-70% being of East Eurasian origin, while approximately 28-36% were of West Eurasian origin.
East Eurasian maternal lineages in the slab-grave population can be easily traced to Transbaikalian neolithic agriculturalists. On the other hand, West Eurasian maternal lineages are believed to have complex origins, with many tracing back to ancient hunter gatherers who mixed with early agriculturalists in the early Holocene period, or to middle eastern agriculturalists who expanded eastward after the advent of sheep herding. Others could be linked to much later bronze age populations such as Afanasievo or Scythians. The complex diversity of West Eurasian ancestral lineages in the slab-grave population makes it difficult to pinpoint their exact origin.
The transition from the slab-grave culture period to the Xiongnu period was characterized as a massive increase of West Eurasian paternal ancestry, rising from 0% to 46%, which was not accompanied by increased West Eurasian maternal ancestry. This is consistent with a violent expansion of males with West Eurasian paternal ancestry, or possibly marriage alliances that favored such people. According to Rogers and Kaestle (2022), these two scenarios are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but more data is needed to concisely explain why such an expansion took place.
Paternal haplogroups
The predominant Y-DNA haplogroup in slab-grave males has been identified as Q1a.
Maternal haplogroups
65-70% of slab-grave individuals belong to East Eurasian maternal haplogroups such as A, B, C, D, F, M, G, Z.
Up to 36% of slab-grave maternal lineages belong to West Eurasian lineages including K, J, H
See also
Animal Style
Deer stone
History of Mongolia
History of Asia
Lower Xiajiadian culture
Ordos culture
Xiongnu
Xianbei
Literature
Borovka G.I., "Archaeological surveys of the river Tola", in the book: Northern Mongolia, Vol. 2, Leningrad, 1927;
Dikov N.N., "Bronze Age in E.Baikal", Ulan-Ude, 1958
Grishin S. "Bronze and early Iron Age of the E.Baikal, Moscow, 1975
Konstantinov A.V., Konstantinova N.N. "History of E. Baikal (from ancient times to 1917)", Chita-2002.
Kirillov O.I., Stavpetskaya M.N., "Religious and ritual structures of E.Baikal pastoralists in 1st millennia BC", //Young Archaeology and Ethnology oid Siberia, Chita, 1999, Vol. 1.
Kiselev S.V., "Mongolia in ancient times", "Bulletin of USSR Akademy", Series History and Philosophy, 1947, Vol. 4
Okladnikov A.P., Kirillov I.I., "South-East E.Baikal in the Stone Age and Early Bronze Age", Novosibirsk, 1980
Tsibiktarov A.D. "Slab Grave Culture graves of Mongolia and E.Baikal", Ulan-Ude, 1998
D. Tumen. Anthropology of Archaeological Populations from Northeast Asia :user.dankook.ac.kr/~oriental/Journal/pdf_new/49/11.pdf''
References
Archaeological cultures of East Asia
Archaeological cultures of Northern Asia
Bronze Age cultures of Asia
Iron Age cultures of Asia
Archaeological cultures of China
Archaeological cultures in Mongolia
Archaeological cultures in Russia
Archaeology of Inner Mongolia
History of Mongolia