A warrior is a guardian specializing in combat or warfare , especially within the context of a tribal or clan -based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracy , class , or caste .
66-607: Warriors seem to have been present in the earliest pre-state societies. Scholars have argued that horse-riding Yamnaya warriors from the Pontic–Caspian steppe played a key role during the Indo-European migrations and the diffusion of Indo-European languages across Eurasia. Most of the basic weapons used by warriors appeared before the rise of most hierarchical systems. Bows and arrows , clubs , spears , swords , and other edged weapons were in widespread use. However, with
132-543: A "Kurgan culture" as reflecting an early Proto-Indo-European ethnicity that existed in the steppes and in southeastern Europe from the fifth millennium to the third millennium BC. In Kurgan cultures, most burials were in kurgans, either clan or individual. Most prominent leaders were buried in individual kurgans, now called "royal kurgans". These individual kurgans have attracted the most attention and publicity because they were more elaborate than clan kurgans and contained grave goods. The monuments of these cultures coincide with
198-431: A higher proportion of male burials and more male-centred rituals than western areas. The Yamnaya culture had and used two-wheeled carts and four-wheeled wagons, which are thought to have been oxen-drawn at this time, and there is evidence that they rode horses. For instance, several Yamnaya skeletons exhibit specific characteristics in their bone morphology that may have been caused by long-term horseriding. The evidence
264-690: A mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian -related component, which most closely corresponds to the modern North Siberian Nganasan people of the lower Yenisey River , to varying degrees, but generally higher among Eastern Scythians. Kurgan Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European A kurgan
330-573: A population of " Caucasus hunter-gatherers " (CHG) who probably arrived from the Caucasus or Iran. Each of those two populations contributed about half the Yamnaya DNA. This admixture is referred to in archaeogenetics as Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry. Admixture between EHGs and CHGs is believed to have occurred on the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe starting around 5,000 BC, while admixture with Early European Farmers (EEF) happened in
396-568: A social adjustment to high mobility – the invention of the political infrastructure to manage larger herds from mobile homes based in the steppes. Alternatively, Parpola (2015) relates both the Corded ware culture and the Yamnaya culture to the late Trypillia (Tripolye) culture . He hypothesizes that "the Tripolye culture was taken over by PIE speakers by c. 4000 BC," and that in its final phase
462-517: Is a Russian adjective that means 'related to pits ( yama )', as these people used to bury their dead in tumuli ( kurgans ) containing simple pit chambers. Research in recent years has found that Mikhaylovka , in lower Dnieper river, Ukraine, formed the Core Yamnaya culture (c. 3600–3400 BC). The Yamnaya economy was based upon animal husbandry , fishing , and foraging , and the manufacture of ceramics , tools , and weapons . The people of
528-543: Is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug , Dniester , and Ural rivers (the Pontic–Caspian steppe ), dating to 3300–2600 BC . It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archaeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: Я́мная ( romanization : yamnaya )
594-454: Is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe , kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern , Southeast , Western , and Northern Europe during the third millennium BC. The earliest kurgans date to the fourth millennium BC in the Caucasus , and some researchers associate these with
660-487: Is disputed by archaeozoologist William T. Taylor, who argues that domestication of the horse long postdates the Yamnaya culture. Metallurgists and other craftsmen are given a special status in Yamnaya society, and metal objects are sometimes found in large quantities in elite graves. New metalworking technologies and weapon designs are used. Stable isotope ratios of Yamna individuals from the Dnipro Valley suggest
726-464: Is ongoing. In 1996, Pavel Dolukhanov suggested that the emergence of the Pit-Grave culture represents a social development of various different local Bronze Age cultures, thus representing "an expression of social stratification and the emergence of chiefdom-type nomadic social structures" which in turn intensified inter-group contacts between essentially heterogeneous social groups. The origin of
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#1732764921239792-599: Is the name given in literature to a genetic component that represents descent from the people of the Mal'ta–Buret' culture or a population closely related to them. That genetic component is visible in tests of the Yamnaya people as well as modern-day Europeans. In the Baltic, Jones et al. (2017) found that the Neolithic transition – the passage from a hunter-gatherer economy to a farming-based economy – coincided with
858-569: The Catacomb culture (2800–2200 BC); in the east, by the Poltavka culture (2700–2100 BC) at the middle Volga. These two cultures were followed by the Srubnaya culture (18th–12th century BC). The Yamnaya culture was nomadic or semi-nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers, and a few fortified sites, the largest of which is Mikhaylivka . Characteristic of
924-573: The Corded Ware culture people, with up to 75% Yamnaya-like ancestry in the DNA of Corded Ware skeletons from Central and Eastern Europe. Yamnaya–related ancestry is found in the DNA of modern Central , and Northern Europeans (c. 38.8–50.4 %), and is also found in lower levels in present-day Southern Europeans (c. 18.5–32.6 %), Sardinians (c. 2.4–7.1 %), and Sicilians (c. 5.9–11.6 %). However, according to Heyd, et al. (2023),
990-642: The East Asian mtDNA haplogroup C4 . People of the Yamnaya culture are believed to have had mostly brown eye colour, light to intermediate skin, and brown hair colour, with some variation. Some Yamnaya individuals are believed to have carried a mutation to the KITLG gene associated with blond hair, as several individuals with Steppe ancestry are later found to carry this mutation. The Ancient North Eurasian Afontova Gora group, who contributed significant ancestry to Western Steppe Herders , are believed to be
1056-562: The Indo-European languages were the result of "a dominant language spoken by EHGs that absorbed Caucasus-like elements in phonology, morphology, and lexicon." It has also been suggested that the PIE language evolved through trade interactions in the circum-Pontic area in the 4th millennium BC, mediated by the Yamna predecessors in the North Pontic steppe. Guus Kroonen et al. 2022 found that
1122-405: The Indo-European migrations , that gave rise to the Indo-European languages of today. The Yamnaya culture was defined by Vasily Gorodtsov in order to differentiate it from the Catacomb and Srubnaya cultures that existed in the area, but were considered to be of a later period. Due to the time interval to the Yamnaya culture, and the reliance on archaeological findings, debate as to its origin
1188-830: The Indo-Europeans . Kurgans were built in the Eneolithic , Bronze , Iron , Antiquity , and Middle Ages , with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia. According to the Etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language the word "kurhan" is borrowed directly from the "Polovtsian" language ( Kipchak , part of the Turkic languages ), and means: fortress, embankment, high grave. The word has two possible etymologies , either from
1254-475: The Mongolian epoch. Burial mounds are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots . The structures of the earlier Neolithic period from the fourth to the third millenniums BC, and Bronze Age until the first millennium BC, display continuity of
1320-632: The Old Turkic root qori- "to close, to block, to guard, to protect", or qur- "to build, to erect, furnish, or stur". According to Vasily Radlov it may be a cognate to qorγan , meaning "fortification, fortress, or a castle". The Russian noun, already attested in Old East Slavic , comes from an unidentified Turkic language. Kurgans are mounds of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Popularised by its use in Soviet archaeology ,
1386-588: The Pazyryk culture is included in the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site . Scytho-Siberian classification includes monuments from the eighth to the third century BC. This period is called the Early or Ancient Nomads epoch. " Hunnic " monuments date from the third century BC to the sixth century AD, and Turkic ones from the sixth century AD to the thirteenth century AD, leading up to
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#17327649212391452-570: The Renaissance began to incorporate conscription and raise armies from the general populace. A change in attitude was noted as well, as officers were told to treat their soldiers with moderation and respect. For example, men who fought in the American Civil War often elected their own officers. With the mobilization of citizens in the armies sometimes reaching the millions, societies often made efforts in order to maintain or revive
1518-738: The Scytho-Siberian world ( Saka ) monuments. Scytho-Siberian monuments have common features and sometimes, common genetic roots. Also associated with these spectacular burial mounds are the Pazyryk , an ancient people who lived in the Altai Mountains that lay in Siberian Russia on the Ukok Plateau , near the borders with China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. The archaeological site on the Ukok Plateau associated with
1584-477: The Sredny Stog culture , as opposed to the eastern Yamnaya horizon. The Corded Ware culture may have acted as major source for the spread of later Indo-European languages, including Indo-Iranian , while Tocharian languages may have been mediated via the Catacomb culture . They also argue that this new data contradicts a possible earlier origin of Pre-Proto-Indo-European among agricultural societies South of
1650-412: The elite aristocratic soldiers remained separated from the lower classes of stone-throwers. The samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of Japan from the 12th to the late 19th century. In contrast to the beliefs of the caste and clan-based warrior, who saw war as a place to attain valor and glory , warfare was a practical matter that could change the course of history. That
1716-569: The "North-Western Indian & Pakistani" populations (PNWI) showed significant Middle-Late Bronze Age Steppe (Steppe_MLBA) ancestry along with Yamnaya Early-Middle Bronze Age (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry, but the Indo-Europeans of Gangetic Plains and Dravidian people only showed significant Yamnaya (Steppe_EMBA) ancestry and no Steppe_MLBA. The study also noted that ancient south Asian samples had significantly higher Steppe_MLBA than Steppe_EMBA (or Yamnaya). According to Narasimhan et al. (2019),
1782-526: The "basal Indo-European stage", also known as Indo-Anatolian or Pre- Proto-Indo-European language , largely but not totally, lacked agricultural-related vocabulary, and only the later "core Indo-European languages " saw an increase in agriculture-associated words. According to them, this fits a homeland of early core Indo-European within the westernmost Yamnaya horizon, around and west of the Dnieper , while its basal stage, Indo-Anatolian, may have originated in
1848-487: The Bronze Age, kurgans were built with stone reinforcements. Some of them are believed to be Scythian burials with built-up soil and embankments reinforced with stone (Olhovsky, 1991). Pre-Scytho-Sibirian kurgans were surface kurgans. Wooden or stone tombs were constructed on the surface or underground and then covered with a kurgan. The kurgan tombs of Bronze culture across Europe and Asia were similar in construction to
1914-616: The Caucasus and west of the Urals. Introduced by Marija Gimbutas in 1956, it combines kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the peoples who spoke the Proto-Indo-European language . She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after its distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. The hypothesis has had a significant effect upon Indo-European studies . Scholars who follow Gimbutas identify
1980-594: The Caucasus, rather "this may support a scenario of linguistic continuity of local non-mobile herders in the Lower Dnieper region and their genetic persistence after their integration into the successive and expansive Yamnaya horizon". Furthermore the authors mention that this scenario can explain the difference in paternal haplogroup frequency between the Yamnaya and Corded Ware cultures, while both sharing similar autosomal DNA ancestry. Genetic studies have found that Yamnaya autosomal characteristics are very close to
2046-564: The Corded Ware, Bell Beaker, Sintashta, and Andronovo cultures derived large parts of their ancestry from the Yamnaya or a closely related population. The Yamnaya culture is of particular interest to researchers, as the widely-accepted Kurgan hypothesis posits that the people that produced the Yamnaya culture spoke a stage of the Proto-Indo-European language . The speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language embarked on
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2112-611: The Early Iron Age have grandiose mounds throughout the Eurasian continent. In the eastern Manych steppes and Kuban – Azov steppes during the Yamna culture, a near-equal ratio of female-to-male graves was found among kurgans. In the lower and middle Volga river region during the Yamna and Poltavka cultures , females were buried in about 20% of graves and two thousand years later, women dressed as warriors were buried in
2178-480: The Trypillian culture expanded to the steppes, morphing into various regional cultures which fused with the late Sredny Stog (Serednii Stih) pastoralist cultures, which, he suggests, gave rise to the Yamnaya culture. Dmytro Telegin viewed Sredny Stog and Yamna as one cultural continuum and considered Sredny Stog to be the genetic foundation of the Yamna. The Yamnaya culture was succeeded in its western range by
2244-678: The Yamnaya culture (3300–2500 BC). Further efforts to pinpoint the location came from Anthony (2007), who suggested that the Yamnaya culture (3300–2600 BC) originated in the Don – Volga area at c. 3400 BC , preceded by the middle Volga-based Khvalynsk culture and the Don-based Repin culture ( c. 3950 –3300 BC), arguing that late pottery from these two cultures can barely be distinguished from early Yamnaya pottery. Earlier continuity from eneolithic but largely hunter-gatherer Samara culture and influences from
2310-599: The Yamnaya culture and the contemporary populations of Europe. Klejn has also suggested that the autosomal evidence does not support a Yamnaya migration, arguing that Western Steppe Herder ancestry in both contemporary and Bronze Age samples is lowest around the Danube in Hungary, near the western limits of the Yamnaya culture, and highest in Northern Europe, which Klejn argues is the opposite of what would be expected if
2376-612: The Yamnaya culture are present. Yamnaya material culture was very similar to the Afanasievo culture of South Siberia, and the populations of the two cultures are genetically indistinguishable. This suggests that the Afanasievo culture may have originated from the migration of Yamnaya groups to the Altai region or, alternatively, that both cultures developed from an earlier shared cultural source. Genetic studies have suggested that
2442-533: The Yamnaya culture continues to be debated, with proposals for its origins pointing to both the Khvalynsk and Sredny Stog cultures. The Khvalynsk culture (4700–3800 BC) (middle Volga) and the Don-based Repin culture ( c. 3950 –3300 BC) in the eastern Pontic-Caspian steppe, and the closely related Sredny Stog culture ( c. 4500 –3500 BC) in the western Pontic-Caspian steppe, preceded
2508-642: The Yamnaya culture lived primarily as nomads, with a chiefdom system and wheeled carts and wagons that allowed them to manage large herds. They are also closely connected to Final Neolithic cultures, which later spread throughout Europe and Central Asia , especially the Corded Ware people and the Bell Beaker culture , as well as the peoples of the Sintashta , Andronovo , and Srubnaya cultures. Back migration from Corded Ware also contributed to Sintashta and Andronovo. In these groups, several aspects of
2574-441: The Yamnaya diet was terrestrial protein based with insignificant contribution from freshwater or aquatic resources. Anthony speculates that the Yamnaya ate meat, milk, yogurt, cheese, and soups made from seeds and wild vegetables, and probably consumed mead . Mallory and Adams suggest that Yamnaya society may have had a tripartite structure of three differentiated social classes, although the evidence available does not demonstrate
2640-534: The Yamnaya-related ancestry, termed Western_Steppe_EMBA, that reached central and south Asia was not the initial expansion from the steppe to the east, but a secondary expansion that involved a group possessing ~67% Western_Steppe_EMBA ancestry and ~33% ancestry from the European cline. This group included people similar to that of Corded Ware , Srubnaya , Petrovka , and Sintashta . Moving further east in
2706-735: The Z2103 subclade of R1b-L23, is the most common Y-DNA haplogroup found among the Yamnaya specimens. This haplogroup is rare in Western Europe and mainly exists in Southeastern Europe today. Additionally, a minority are found to belong to haplogroup I2 . They are found to belong to a wider variety of West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups, including U , T , and haplogroups associated with Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers and Early European Farmers . A small but significant number of Yamnaya kurgan specimens from Northern Ukraine carried
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2772-434: The archaic forming methods. They were inspired by common ritual- mythological concepts. In all periods, the development of the kurgan structure tradition in the various ethnocultural zones is revealed by common components or typical features in the construction of the monuments. They include: Depending on the combination of these elements, each historical and cultural nomadic zone has certain architectural distinctions. In
2838-638: The arrival en masse of individuals with Yamnaya-like ancestry. This is different from what happened in Western and Southern Europe, where the Neolithic transition was caused by a population that came from Anatolia, with Pontic steppe ancestry being detected from only the late Neolithic onward. Per Haak et al. (2015), the Yamnaya contribution in the modern populations of Eastern Europe ranges from 46.8% among Russians to 42.8% in Ukrainians . Finland has
2904-541: The central steppe, it acquired ~9% ancestry from a group of people that possessed West Siberian Hunter Gatherer ancestry, thus forming the Central Steppe MLBA cluster, which is the primary source of steppe ancestry in South Asia, contributing up to 30% of the ancestry of the modern groups in the region. According to Unterländer et al. (2017), all Iron Age Scythian Steppe nomads can best be described as
2970-730: The culture are the burials in pit graves surmounted by kurgans ( tumuli ), often accompanied by animal offerings. Some graves contain large anthropomorphic stelae , with carved human heads, arms, hands, belts, and weapons. The bodies were placed in a supine position with bent knees and covered in ochre . Some kurgans contained "stratified sequences of graves". Kurgan burials may have been rare, and were perhaps reserved for special adults, who were predominantly, but not necessarily, male. Status and gender are marked by grave goods and position, and in some areas, elite individuals are buried with complete wooden wagons. Grave goods are more common in eastern Yamnaya burials, which are also characterized by
3036-558: The cultures of Yenisei , Altai , Kazakhstan , southern, and southeast Amur regions. Some kurgans had facing or tiling. One tomb in Ukraine has 29 large limestone slabs set on end in a circle underground. They were decorated with carved geometrical ornamentation of rhombuses , triangles , crosses , and on one slab, figures of people. Another example has an earthen kurgan under a wooden cone of thick logs topped by an ornamented cornice up to 2 m in height. The Scytho-Siberian kurgans in
3102-448: The existence of specific classes such as priests, warriors, and farmers. According to Jones et al. (2015) and Haak et al. (2015), autosomal tests indicate that the Yamnaya people were the result of a genetic admixture between two different hunter-gatherer populations: distinctive " Eastern Hunter-Gatherers " (EHG), from Eastern Europe, with high affinity to the Mal'ta–Buret' culture or other, closely related people from Siberia and
3168-408: The genetic data supports the likelihood that the people of the Yamnaya culture were a "single, genetically coherent group" who were responsible for spreading many Indo-European languages. Reich's group recently suggested that the source of Anatolian and Indo-European subfamilies of the Proto-Indo-European ( PIE ) language may have been in west Asia and the Yamna were responsible for the dissemination of
3234-538: The geneticists' hypothesis is correct. Marija Gimbutas identified the Yamnaya culture with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) in her Kurgan hypothesis . In the view of David Anthony, the Pontic-Caspian steppe is the strongest candidate for the Urheimat (original homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language , citing evidence from linguistics and genetics which suggests that the Yamnaya culture may be
3300-491: The highest Yamnaya contributions in all of Europe (50.4%). Studies also point to the strong presence of Yamnaya descent in the current nations of South Asia, especially in groups that are referred to as Indo-Aryans. Lazaridis et al. (2016) estimated (6.5–50.2 %) steppe-related admixture in South Asians, though the proportion of Steppe ancestry varies widely across ethnic groups. According to Pathak et al. (2018),
3366-620: The homeland of the Indo-European languages, with the possible exception of the Anatolian languages. On the other hand, Colin Renfrew has argued for a Near Eastern origin of the earliest Indo-European speakers. According to David W. Anthony , the genetic evidence suggests that the leading clans of the Yamnaya were of EHG (Eastern European hunter-gatherer) and WHG (Western European hunter-gatherer) paternal origin and implies that
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#17327649212393432-411: The latter. Reich also argues that the genetic evidence shows that Yamnaya society was an oligarchy dominated by a small number of elite males. The genetic evidence for the extent of the role of the Yamnaya culture in the spread of Indo-European languages has been questioned by Russian archaeologist Leo Klejn and Balanovsky et al., who note a lack of male haplogroup continuity between the people of
3498-486: The methods of house construction in the culture. Kurgan Ak-su - Aüly (twelfth–eleventh centuries BC) with a tomb covered by a pyramidal timber roof under a kurgan has space surrounded by double walls serving as a bypass corridor. This design has analogies with Begazy, Sanguyr, Begasar, and Dandybay kurgans. These building traditions survived into the early Middle Ages, to the eighth–tenth centuries AD. The Bronze Pre-Scytho-Sibirian culture developed in close similarity with
3564-469: The more agricultural Dnieper–Donets II are apparent. He argues that the early Yamnaya horizon spread quickly across the Pontic–Caspian steppes between c. 3400 and 3200 BC : The spread of the Yamnaya horizon was the material expression of the spread of late Proto-Indo-European across the Pontic–Caspian steppes. [...] The Yamnaya horizon is the visible archaeological expression of
3630-420: The new findings of metallurgy , the aforementioned weapons had grown in effectiveness. When the first hierarchical systems evolved 5000 years ago, the gap between the rulers and the ruled had increased. Making war to extend the outreach of their territories, rulers often forced men from lower orders of society into the military role. That had been the first use of professional soldiers, a distinct difference from
3696-457: The people of the Yamnaya culture can be modelled as a genetic admixture between a population related to Eastern European Hunter-Gatherers (EHG) and people related to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus (CHG) in roughly equal proportions, an ancestral component which is often named " Steppe ancestry ", with additional admixture from Anatolian, Levantine, or Early European farmers. Genetic studies also indicate that populations associated with
3762-522: The same region. David Anthony notes, "About 20% of Scythian – Sarmatian 'warrior graves' on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle... a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons ." In Ukraine, the ratio was intermediate between the other two regions, therefore approximately 35% were women. The most obvious archeological remains associated with
3828-414: The source of this mutation. A study in 2015 found that Yamnaya had the highest ever calculated genetic selection for height of any of the ancient populations tested. It has been hypothesized that an allele associated with lactase persistence (conferring lactose tolerance into adulthood ) was brought to Europe from the steppe by Yamnaya-related migrations. A 2022 study by Lazaridis et al. found that
3894-410: The southern parts of the Pontic-Caspian steppe sometime later. More recent genetic studies have found that the Yamnaya were a mixture of EHGs, CHGs, and to a lesser degree Anatolian farmers and Levantine farmers, but not EEFs from Europe due to lack of WHG DNA in the Yamnaya. This occurred in two distinct admixture events from West Asia into the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Haplogroup R1b , specifically
3960-471: The specific paternal DNA haplogroup that is most commonly found in male Yamnaya specimens cannot be found in modern Western Europeans, or in males from the nearby Corded Ware culture . This makes it unlikely that the Corded Ware culture can be directly descended from the Yamnaya culture, at least along the paternal line. Autosomal tests also indicate that the Yamnaya are the vector for "Ancient North Eurasian" admixture into Europe. " Ancient North Eurasian "
4026-580: The third millennium BC. Later, Kurgan barrows became characteristic of Bronze Age peoples, and have been found from Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria ( Thracians , Getae , etc.), and Romania (Getae, Dacians ), the Caucasus , Russia, to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and the Altay Mountains . The Kurgan hypothesis is that Proto-Indo-Europeans were the bearers of the Kurgan culture of the Black Sea and
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#17327649212394092-512: The typical phenotype among the Yamnaya population was brown eyes, brown hair, and intermediate skin colour. None of their Yamnaya samples were predicted to have either blue eyes or blond hair, in contrast with later Steppe groups in Russia and Central Asia, as well as the Bell Beaker culture in Europe, who did carry these phenotypes in high proportions. The geneticist David Reich has argued that
4158-484: The warrior communities. The warrior ethic in many societies later became the preserve of the ruling class . Egyptian pharaohs would depict themselves in war chariots , shooting at enemies, or smashing others with clubs. Fighting was considered a prestigious activity but only when associated with status and power. European mounted knights would often feel contempt for the foot soldiers recruited from lower classes. In Mesoamerican societies of pre-Columbian America,
4224-461: The warrior spirit. That trend continues to the modern day. Due to the heroic connotations of the term "warrior", this metaphor is especially popular in publications advocating or recruiting for a country's military. Yamnaya culture West: Catacomb culture , Vučedol culture The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture , also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture ,
4290-439: The word is now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology. Some sceptre graves could have been covered with a tumulus, placing the first kurgans as early as the fifth millennium BC in eastern Europe. However, this hypothesis is not accepted unanimously. Kurgans were used in Ukrainian and Russian steppes, their use spreading with migration into southern, central, and northern Europe in
4356-567: Was the approach of the Roman legions , which had only the incentive of promotion, as well as a strict level of discipline. When Europe's standing armies of the 17th and the 18th centuries developed, discipline was at the core of their training. Officers had the role of transforming men that they viewed as lower class to become reliable fighting men. Inspired by the Ancient Greek ideals of the ' citizen soldier ', many European societies during
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