Poltavka culture

Bronze Age
↑ Chalcolithic
Near East (3600-1200 BCE) Caucasus, Anatolia, Levant, Indus valley, Mesopotamia, Elam, Jiroft Bronze Age collapse Europe (3200-600 BCE) Aegean (Minoan) Caucasus (Maykop culture) Basarabi culture Coțofeni culture Pecica culture Otomani culture Wietenberg culture Catacomb culture Srubna culture Beaker culture Unetice culture Tumulus culture Urnfield culture Hallstatt culture Atlantic Bronze Age Bronze Age Britain Nordic Bronze Age Romanian Bronze Age Southeastern European Bronze Age Italian Bronze Age Indian Subcontinent (3300-1200 BCE) China (3000-700 BCE) Korea (800-300 BCE) Upper Oxus (2300-1700 BCE)
arsenical bronze writing, literature sword, chariot
↓ Iron Age

Poltavka culture, 2700—2100 BC, an early to middle Bronze Age archaeological culture of the middle Volga from about where the Don-Volga canal begins up to the Samara bend, with an easterly extension north of present Kazakhstan along the Samara River valley to somewhat west of Orenburg.

It is like the Catacomb culture preceded by the Yamna culture, while succeeded by the Sintashta culture. It seems to be seen as an early manifestation of the Srubna culture. There is evidence of influence from the Maykop culture to its south.

The only real things that distinguish it from the Yamna culture are changes in pottery and an increase in metal objects. Tumulus inhumations continue, but with less use of ochre.

It was preceded by the Yamna culture and succeeded by the Srubna and Sintashta culture. It is presumptively early Indo-Iranian (Proto-Indo-Iranian).

Sources

• J. P. Mallory, "Poltavka Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.

See also

• Yamna culture
• Sintashta culture
• Andronovo culture
• Srubna culture
• Abashevo culture
• Potapovka culture