Associated with the spread of Indo-European languages. And, possibly horse domestication. The Sredny Stog culture was an important neolithic, to early bronze age culture

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Associated with the spread of Indo-European languages. And, possibly horse domestication. The Sredny Stog culture was an important neolithic, to early bronze age culture

A culture concentrated around the middle Dnieper region. It is named after the Sredny Stog site in Ukraine
Where its influence extended into the eastern European steppe.

It is a pre-kurgan archaeological center from the mid 5th to mid 4t millennia BC
Named after the Dniper river islet of today’s Serednii Sith, Ukraine. Where it was first located. (1)

Distribution, and features appear across a wide territory in the Black sea steppe
The Dnipro, and upper Donets river; lower don region and sea of Azov in east; and the delta of Danube in west (2)

It, also extended into parts of southern Russia

They were primarily pastoralists
Raising domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, and horses. They also engaged in some agricultural activities, growing crops like wheat and barley.

It’s believed the people lived rather mobile lives
They had temporary settlements, particularly dwellings, that were simple rectangular structures. (3)

The Sredny Stog culture is particularly noteworthy for its early evidence of horse domestication
There are signs suggestive of pressured cheek-pieces (psalia). And, that horse handles were employed. However, there is no conclusive proof that those horses were used for riding. They could have also been employed for gathering food and carrying things. (4)

At one of the main sites: Deriika (modern town of same name), in Kirovohrad Oblast, Ukraine. Horse cheek bones (psalia), fences and other evidence found
Though its been debated the burial was intrusive.(5)

Sredny Stog culture produced pottery with simple geometric decorations
Tools included stone axes, flint knives, and arrowheads

They had distinct burial practices
Including the use of kurgans (burial mounds). The graves often contained bodies buried in a supine position. With grave goods like pottery, tools, ornaments, and decorated with red ochre.

Scientist Dmytro Telegin divided chronology into two distinct phases (1)
Phase I: Middle 4th millennium BC

Included Sredny Stog complexes of the Strilcha, and Skelia-Sredny Stog II type that contained pottery without the corded ornament.

Phase II: Middle 3rd millennium BC
It is represented by the Sredny Stog complexes of the Deriivka-Moliukhovyi Buhor type, that used corded ware pottery which may have originated there. They had stone battle-axes of the type later associated with expanding Indo-European cultures to the West.

Sredny Stog culture is often seen as a precursor to later steppe cultures, such as the Yamna (Yamnaya) culture, which is associated with the spread of Indo-European languages
The interactions between the Sredny Stog culture and neighboring cultures played a significant role in the diffusion of technologies and practices across the region.

Sredny Stog culture had many contributions to prehistory. Particularly in what’s believed to be horse domestication, and language. There influence had lasting impacts on the development of societies across the Eurasian steppe.

Cite: 1) Telegin, Dmytro Yakovych (1973). Serednʹo-stogivsʹka kulʹtura epokhy midi (in Ukrainian). Kyiv, Ukraine: Naukova Dumka

2) Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2024

3) Bailey, Douglass (2002). Balkan Prehistory: Exclusion, Incorporation and Identity (https://archive.org/details/isbn_0415215986). London: Routledge. pp. 258 (https://archive.org/details/isbn_0
415215986/page/n274). ISBN 0415215978.

4) Fortson IV, Benjamin (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Second Edition. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 48. ISBN 9781405188951.

5) Robert Drews, Early Riders. The Beginning of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, New York and London, 2004 Pg. 15

Bibliography:
J. P. Mallory, “Sredny Stog Culture”, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.

J. P. Mallory, In the search of Indo-Europeans, 1989 p. 198, Distribution of the Sredny Stog and Novodanilovka sites

Anthony, David W. (2019b). “Ancient DNA, Mating Networks, and the Anatolian Split”. In Serangeli, Matilde; Olander, Thomas (eds.). Dispersals and Diversification: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European (https://books.google.com/books?id=DHnEDwAAQBAJ). BRILL. pp. 21–54. ISBN 978-9004416192.

Fortson IV, Benjamin (2011). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, Second Edition. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons. p. 48. ISBN 9781405188951.

Kroonen, Guus; Jakob, Anthony; Palmér, Axel I.; Sluis, Paulus van; Wigman, Andrew (12 October 2022). “Indo-European cereal terminology suggests a Northwest Pontic homeland for the core Indo-European languages” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555676). PLOS ONE. 17 (10): e0275744. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1775744K (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022PLoSO..1775744K). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0275744 (https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0275744). ISSN 1932-6203 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1932-6203.PMC) 9555676 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9555676). PMID 36223379 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36223379).
Anthony, David. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language (http://worldcat.org/oclc/1102387902). OCLC 1102387902 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1102387902).

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