The principal goal of the Samara Valley Project was to understand the everyday subsistence economy and diet of a Srubnaya community in the middle Volga region during the opening centuries of the LBA, when the settling-down phenomenon spread across the entire northern steppe zone. One aspect of the problem was to understand how Srubnaya settlement locations were similar to or different from the locations chosen for living sites in the preceding era, the late MBA.

Continuity of settlement location from the MBA to the LBA

A few MBA potsherds are often found among the thousands of LBA potsherds at Srubnaya sites in the northern steppes, suggesting that the same places were being used in the LBA but in new and quite different ways. Continuity of occupation at KS is demonstrated by the presence of 13 MBA sherds found among 3300 identified Pokrovka and Srubnaya sherds (many sherds were non-diagnostic). The three kurgans that stood 100m from the settlement were built during the early MBA, about 2900-2800 calBC. The MBA sherds at KS might represent ephemeral activities associated with MBA kurgan construction. But it is curious that 12 of these 13 sherds were found within the LBA structure, not in the excavated soils outside the structure, suggesting that an MBA activity or occupation was located just where the KS structure was built 1000 years later.

One wonders if there was some long-lived feature that made this part of the marsh bank attractive. A prominent grove of trees or gallery forest might have survived as a landscape feature for centuries, but the pollen record at the KS settlement does not suggest a nearby stand of trees. Perhaps the entry to a path leading across the marshes was located here. But a landscape feature of this type would be indicated most clearly by a raised ridge or passage between Bronze Age oxbow lakes in the marsh, and all of the natural marsh topography has been changed by the construction of the modern dams and fish ponds. A few MBA sherds were found in a similar manner during test excavations at the Srubnaya settlement of Barinovka in 1996; and a few MBA sherds were also found at one Srubnaya herding camp, Peschanyi Dol 1.

The sedentary settlement pattern adopted at the beginning of the LBA was not associated with a shift to using new parts of the landscape. The LBA people lived in at least some of the same places as the MBA people, but moved less frequently and built permanent buildings.

Plant foods in the early LBA subsistence economy

One explanation for the settling-down event at the opening of the LBA is the adoption of agriculture. The standard description of the Srubnaya economy is “complex agro-pastoralism”, a mixture of agriculture and pastoralism (Khazanov 1984:92, Kuzmina 2003, Otroshchenko 2003, Bunyatyan 2003). Khazanov (1984:19-25) created a typology of subsistence types connected with stock-raising, ranging between pastoral nomadism, the most mobile type with the highest number of animals, without grain or permanent settlements, and sedentary animal husbandry, with permanent settlements, agriculture, and only a few animals. Applied to the Srubnaya period in the LBA, this typology led to debates over questions such as whether the Srubnaya economy should be classified as the “pastoral-agricultural” type or “agricultural-pastoral” type (Renfrew 2002:3-4). It linked sedentism mechanically with agriculture, and nomadism with the absence of agriculture (Khazanov 1984:83,95). This linkage can no longer be accepted, nor can the typology that was based on it. Permanent settlements and agriculture were not mutually dependent in the steppes.

The flotation campaign of Chernykh and Lebedeva undertaken in 1989 and 1990 was the first research program that suggested that permanent settlements might have been maintained in the steppes without agriculture of any kind (Lebedeva 2005). Small sediment samples were obtained from 34 previously excavated settlements between the Dnieper and the Volga, most of them of the Srubnaya culture. The sediment samples were floated and seeds were recovered. None of the early and classic Srubnaya settlements east of the Don yielded domesticated cereals. Chernykh and Lebedeva concluded that the Srubnaya settlements east of the Don were agriculture-free, subsisting on a purely pastoral economy, while western sites in the Dnieper-Don region did grow some grain. Chernykh and Lebedeva’s results were confirmed by López and Lópes-Sáez, who failed to find evidence of cereal cultivation in the Srubnaya mining settlement at Gorny, near Orenburg in the south Ural steppes, in excavations directed by Chernykh (Chernykh 1997, López, Lópes-Sáez, Chernykh, and Tarasov 2003). Their intensive botanical studies of the entire region around Gorny as well as the settlement itself showed that Gorny was a permanent settlement, occupied through all seasons of the year, but without any cultivated cereals. This discovery occurred at about the same time that we realized that there were no cultivated cereals at Krasnosamarskoe.

We took 274 soil samples of two liters each from every 10 cm level of every 2 x 2 meter unit of the KS excavation inside and outside the structure, and processed each sample through a flotation machine. The flotation machine was a metal 136-liter tank with a shower head inside connected to an external hose and water pump. The incoming water aerated the soils, helping to separate seeds, and the floated material, including seeds, was caught as the surface water poured through a spout into a muslin cloth. Not one seed was found in a reliable LBA context. This was the most intensive botanical recovery undertaken at any Srubnaya settlement except Gorny and now the recent excavations at Kibit, also in the Samara oblast. No cultivated grains were found in Srubnaya or Pokrovka contexts at any of these settlements, of which KS is the oldest according to radiocarbon dates.

Pollen was preserved and recovered in great quantities from the floor of the structure at KS and from the waterlogged well deposit (Pit 10) inside the structure. It is unlikely that any of it came from domesticated cereals, as the size of the pollen grains from Poaceae at KS is generally too small (20-35 microns) to resemble domesticated cereal pollen. The KS grasses were wild.

Alison Weisskopf looked for plant phytoliths in soils taken from outside the excavated structure at KS and from pit features and the well inside it. These soils showed no phytoliths of cultivated cereals. No cultivated cereals left evidence in seeds, pollen, or phyoliths.

Were wild plants eaten at KS?

Weisskopf (2003) discovered abundant phytoliths from Phragmites reeds. Many of these reed phytoliths might have come from reed thatching used for a roof over the excavated structure, but Phragmites also produced edible sweet tubers. The productive capacity of reed gathering in steppe marshlands has not been adequately studied. Phragmites tubers and stalks are sweet (often 5% sugar). When pounded into flour and baked they make a sticky sweet candy, like the roots of another more familiar marsh plant, Althaea officinalis or marsh-mallow, after which the English ‘marshmallow’ candy is named. Phragmites tubers and stalks were still eaten in traditional Russian villages in the 20th century (Popova 2002; 2006). Phragmites marshes are ubiquitous in the wetlands of Eurasian steppe rivers, including the Samara River, and in the numerous shallow lakes of the drier steppe uplands.

Pit 10, the well, yielded waterlogged deposits with excellently preserved organics associated with Pokrovka ceramics, and dated by radiocarbon to 1950-1800 calBC. According to the chief project paleobotanist, Laura Popova, no cultivated grains were present. A small sediment sample from the well did contain hundreds of charred seeds of Chenopodium (goosefoot) and Amaranthus (amaranth), with fewer Polygonum (knotweed) seeds (Popova 2003). Pollen from the first two taxa also was found in great quantities in Pit 8, indicating that the plants grew in the vicinity.

The seeds of these plants are very nutritious. Chenopodium was domesticated in the ancient Americas. Modern wild Chenopodium belandieri grows in dense stands that can produce seed yields in the range of 500 to 1000 kg of seeds per hectare, about the same as einkorn wheat, which yields 645-835 kg/ha (Smith 1989:1569). N. Shishlina used flotation in her study of EBA and MBA graves in the Kalmyk steppes, 500km to the south (Shishlina 2000). Soils from the grave floors also yielded many seeds of Amaranthus. Wild seed-bearing plants might have been exploited throughout the Bronze Age in the steppes.

Popova's study of pollen added other candidates for wild plant foods. Allium (garlic) was used at KS, probably for food. Allium is an insect pollinated plant, so its pollen in many samples inside the structure came from plants that were collected and stored or used in the structure. We can imagine clusters of garlic hung with its flowers under the thatched roof of the well-house. Besides being used as a flavoring garlic can be used to repel insects and moles (Riotte 1978).

Although Urtica (nettle) pollen was found in almost all samples in the structure, indicating that it was growing nearby, it is likely that it was collected and used. Young leaves of nettle can be cooked and make a very nutritious addition to other foods as nettle is high in minerals and vitamins (Kunkel 1984). A beautiful and permanent green dye can also be obtained from a decoction of the leaves and stems of nettle (Grieve 1984). And it can be used with Galium to curdle milk. In pit 7 there were clusters of Urtica pollen, indicating that Urtica was collected while it was still in flower, like the garlic. Alison Weisskopf (2003) noted starch deposits in pit 7 indicating probable food waste. So the Urtica pollen in Pit 7 probably was from nettles discarded while in flower, in a pit with starchy food waste. It's an odd combination, and perhaps not intentional.

Galium (Lady’s Bedstraw) pollen, which is released in the spring, was recovered from sediment samples from pits in the northeastern part of the structure and in no other samples. Galium verum currently grows on the second terrace at Krasnosamarskoe, but its concentration in just one section of the excavation suggests that it was intentionally collected and used just there. Galium has been used as bedding, but was more commonly used in the past for curdling milk products. In some places Galium is mixed with nettle for this purpose (Chiej 1984, Facciola 1990, Phillips and Foy 1990). Perhaps spring was an important time for making curdled milk products at Krasnosamarskoe. One bottom-perforated Srubnaya ceramic vessel was found in the structure, commonly interpreted by Russian archaeologists as a vessel used for making cheese. Spring-season cheese-making could be indicated by the presence of spring-released pollen from Galium and Urtica, with a cheese-making ceramic vessel.

Herding strategies in the early LBA: the Peschanyi Dol camps

The other aspect of the economy was stockbreeding. The analysis of the animal bones from the project was shared by Pavel Kosintsev, Nerissa Russell, Emmett Brown, and Audrey Brown, and is not yet (9/2007) finished, but some general impressions can be reported. The people of the KS settlement kept more cattle than any other stock animal. Cattle bones were about 32% of the total number of identified bone specimens (NISP), and sheep/goat were about 25% (Figure 11). These percentages were depressed by the very large number of dog bones, most of which probably came from carcasses and skins associated with a specific ritual (see Ritual Activities: the Dog Days of Winter). If the dog bones were removed, cattle and sheep-goat would together make up 95% of the animal bones. Some cattle showed pathologies caused by pulling heavy loads. The absence of cultivated grain suggests they were not used for plowing, so the pathologies probably were related to pulling heavy wagons, as in the MBA and EBA.

Sedova has suggested that Srubnaya animal herds were kept in pastures near the farmstead on the riverine floodplains and the adjoining first terrace--a pasturing and herding system linked very closely to the home, with relatively little seasonal movement (Sedova 2000:210). Our project confirmed this general picture of localized herding.

We looked for herding camps by digging test-pits on level terraces near the water in a pleasant stream valley, the Peschanyi Dol (Sandy Valley). Today about 600 cattle from three nearby villages are pastured during the summer in the Peschani Dol to keep them away from growing crops and flies, which are fewer in the breezy, elevated tributary stream valleys than in the river valley. ADD PHOTO OF SHEPHERDS AND CATTLE

We discovered and tested a Srubnaya settlement at the mouth of the Peschanyi Dol valley on the Samara River near the modern village of Barinovka in 1996. This probably was the home base for the herders whose camps we excavated up the Peschanyi Dol, but it was badly disturbed by a historical Cossack village, so excavations at Barinovka were not continued after 1996.

Srubnaya pottery was discovered at five of 12 examined locations in the Peschanyi Dol valley during a subsurface shovel-test survey in 1996. All of these small Srubnaya sites were invisible on the surface; the Srubnaya levels began 15-25 cm beneath the modern ground surface. The largest of the five camps, PD1, was closest to the Samara River (about 4km from the river). Camps located farther up the Peschanyi Dol valley were smaller; some were represented by just a handful of Srubnaya sherds. PD1 also contained a few Middle Bronze Age sherds, but the Srubnaya occupation was by far the largest component, and the other camps lacked any visible evidence of MBA occupation. The Srubnaya herding pattern produced more frequent or more intense use of herding camps in more different places.

PD1 was located on the edge of a low terrace overlooking a large flat meadow at the mouth of the Peschanyi Dol valley (Figure 12). PD2 was about 4 km upstream from PD 1, on a low promontory overlooking the marshy stream floodplain, here about 75m wide. PD2 was smaller and lighter-density than PD1. Both camps were stratified, with Medieval sherds above and occasional Mesolithic flint microliths below the Srubnaya stratum.

The designation of these sites as herding camps was based on several facts. Modern cattle herders still use the Peschanyi Dol for summer pastures. The herders no longer make open camps on the ground; the ones we met took turns using a metal trailer near PD1, and there is a modern seasonal corral, empty most of the summer, about half way up the valley near another small Srubnaya camp. The average weight of artifacts per cubic meter of excavated soil at PD1, the biggest camp, was 78gm/m³, and at PD2 was 37gm/m³; while inside the structure at KS it was 1200gm/m³ and even outside the structure was 283gm/m³. The herding camps also were fundamentally different from the KS settlement in basic artifact inventories (Figure 13). Both PD1 and PD2 had a high percentage of lithics and a relatively low percentage of animal bone by weight; while the settlement at KS yielded more animal bone by weight than ceramic sherds, and a very low proportion of lithics, actually fewer in absolute number than at PD1. The animal bones from PD1 were weathered from lying on the ground surface unburied, and were chewed by dogs and even digested and excreted by dogs, quite unlike the well-preserved and un-chewed bones from the garbage pits at the KS settlement. The PD sites were not just smaller versions of the year-round settlement; they were different kinds of sites.

Muñiz and Antipina examined the faunal remains at the Srubnaya mining settlement of Gorny near Orenburg and found a similar economy there--no cultivated cereals, but many animal bones. They suggested that the economy of the Srubnaya culture was diversified, specialized, and interdependent, with some settlements that specialized in mining and others that provided them with beef (Muñiz and Antipina 2003). Perhaps KS was occupied by ritual specialists or priests.

The Diet of the Srubnaya Population According to Tooth Decay

The 22 people who were buried in Srubnaya graves at Krasnosamaraskoe had almost no caries in their teeth. Neither did the other people buried during the Srubnaya period in the Samara oblast. (see Kurgan 3 and Figure 15 below).

Eileen Murphy of Queens University/Belfast and Aleksandr Khokhlov examined pathologies in 192 Srubnaya individuals from 12 Srubnaya kurgan cemeteries in the Samara Oblast, including 22 from the Krasnosamarskoe cemetery. Dental caries was very rare, occurring in just 0.2% of 1732 teeth examined. Compared to other populations around the world the Srubnaya population of Samara oblast had a frequency of tooth decay most similar to that of hunter-gatherers, people with little or no starchy cultivated grains in their diet (Lukacs 1989, Murphy and Khokhlov 2004). In contrast, an Iron Age cemetery at Aymyrlyg, in the Tuva region of South Siberia, where the economy was thought to include mixed herding and cultivation, had a caries frequency of 6.5% for the Scythian period population, and 5.5% among the succeeding Hunno-Sarmatian period group (Murphy 2000).

A new understanding of Bronze Age economies in the steppes

Krasnosamarskoe was a year-round, permanent Srubnaya settlement with a rich array of dairy, meat, and wild gathered plant foods and no cultivated grain. The economy was based on herding and gathering. Cereals were cultivated in later LBA settlements, but not in the early and middle phases of the LBA in the middle Volga region.

One important result of the KS excavation is that year-round sedentism cannot be linked mechanically to agriculture, as is often done in interpretations of LBA economies in the steppes. In the northern steppes, year-round settlements could be supported by herding combined with fishing and the gathering of wild seeds and reed tubers. Frachetti has recently found evidence for the same kind of adaptation in an early LBA settlement of the Andronovo type at Begash in eastern Kazakhstan (Frachetti and Mar’yashev n.d.). This adaptation seems to have survived until the Iron Age, the age of pastoral nomadism, when, paradoxically, cultivated grain became more important in the steppe diet and dental caries increased. The supposed “complex agro-pastoralists” of the LBA, at least those who lived east of the Don River, were not complex agro-pastoralists. They ate less cultivated grain than some nomadic pastoralists of the Iron Age.

A second important result of the Krasnosamarskoe excavation is that the linear progression from settled agro-pastoralism in the Bronze Age to pastoral nomadism in the Iron Age is shown to be a misleading simplification of a much more complicated historical trajectory. Di Cosmo (1993; 2004) made it clear that many Iron Age nomads practiced some small-scale agriculture. The Samara Valley Project has shown that many LBA Srubnaya people, at least in the middle Volga region, practiced no agriculture and ate little or no bread. Steppe pastoralism cycled through mobile and settled phases in different regions in response to a variety of factors. We are just beginning to identify what those factors were.