< home # store # services # articles # game # app #contact >

Named after the Elshanka settlement site. In the Lower Volga region of modern-day Russia. A neolithic culture existed 9000 years ago

Elshanka culture is distinguished by its pottery
Typically it included simple, undecorated ceramic vessels. Like from clay rich mud, collected from the bottom of stagnant ponds. It was coiled and, cooked on an open fire above 550celcius. (1) The vessels could then be used for storage, cooking, and other daily activities.

Sites are mostly individual graves along Samara and Sok rivers
On the Volga too. From Ulyanovsk Oblast in the north, through the Samara
Bend. And, towards Khvalynsk Hills, and the Buzuluk District in the south.

One particularly important site being the Surskoy Island in the Dnieper Rapids
Where pottery was made from 6200 BC to 5800 BC.

The economy was primarily based on hunting, fishing, and gathering
They exploited riverine and steppe environment natural resources. There is evidence of fishing tools; and, hunted animals too.

Inhabitants lived in simple dwellings, likely made from wood and other natural materials
Its believed communities moved seasonally to follow resources.
Similarities in pottery and tool styles suggest interaction and trade.
They had exchanges between neighboring cultures from the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe zone.

Temperature cooling around 6200 BC, influences from the Lower Volga region and other factors. Led to the middle Volga; and, better known Samara replacing the culture

An essential part of the prehistoric history of the Volga region. The Elshanka neolithic culture contributes to our understanding of early human societies and Europe.

Cite: 1) Anthony, David W. (26 July 2010). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World (https://books.google.com/books?id=0FDqf415wqgC&pg=PA149). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1400831104.

Bibliography:
Baumer, Christoph (18 April 2018). History of Central Asia, the: 4-volume set (https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56). Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781838608682.

Парпола, Аско (2022-04-29). “Location of the Uralic proto-language in the Kama River Valley and the Uralic speakers’ Expansion east and west with the ‘Sejma-Turbino transcultural phenomenon’ 2200-1900 BC” (https://evrazstep.ru/index.php/aes/article/view/724). Археология Евразийских степей (2): 258–277. doi:10.24852/2587-6112.2022.2.258.277 (https://doi.org/10.24852%2F2587-6112.2022.2.258.277). Hdl:10138/354948
(https://hdl.handle.net/10138%2F354948). ISSN 2618-9488 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2618-9488). “Alternative link to free pdf:https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/360290015_Location_of_the_Uralic_proto-language_in_the_Kama_River_Valley_and_the_Uralic_speakers’Expansion_east_and_west_with_the‘Sejma-Turbino_transcultural_phenomenon’_2200-1900_BC”

Lazaridis, Iosif; Haak, Wolfgang; Patterson, Nick; Anthony, David; Reich, David (2015),
“Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe.
Supplementary Information 11. Relevance of ancient DNA to the problem of Indo-European
language dispersals”, Nature, 522 (7555): 207–211, arXiv:1502.02783 (https://arxiv.org/abs/15
02.02783), Bibcode:2015Natur.522..207H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015Natur.522..2
07H), doi:10.1038/nature14317 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature14317), PMC 5048219 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5048219), PMID 25731166 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25731166)