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{{Other uses|Koban (disambiguation){{!}}Koban}}(File:Pendant IMG 9897.jpg|thumb|Ram-headed pendant of the Koban culture)The Koban culture or Kuban culture (c. 1200 to 350 BC),Boulygina, Eugenia, et al., (2020). "Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the prehistoric Koban culture of the North Caucasus", in: Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 31, June 2020, 102357, Introduction: "[T]he Koban culture was widespread on both sides of the Great Caucasus Range during the 13th/12th – 4th centuries BC. It is widely known because of its advanced metallurgy as well as developed terraced agriculture (Korobov and Borisov, 2013)." is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the northern and central Caucasus. It is preceded by the Colchian culture of the western Caucasus and the Kharachoi culture further east.It is named after the village of Koban, Northern Ossetia, where in 1869 battle-axes, daggers, decorative items and other objects were discovered in a kurgan. Later, further sites were uncovered in the central Caucasus.

Geographical extent

(File:Bronze axe from Klin-Yar grave 362.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Bronze axe with iron inlay decoration from Klin-Yar, c. 700 BC)The culture flourished on both sides of the Great Caucasus Range, and extended into the areas of Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, and North Ossetia-Alania, and South Ossetia. It also reached the high north-western regions of Georgia such as Racha and Svaneti. Some areas of Northeast Caucasus also had Koban settlements, in particular the modern Ingushetia and the western regions of Chechnya.P. Kohl, Viktor Trifonov, The prehistory of the Caucasus: internal developments and external interactions. 2014To the north, the culture extended as far as the Terek River, and to the Laba River in the Krasnodar area.Kozenkova 1977, 2004; Tsokur 2004

Description

The early phase of the Koban culture, especially in the west, possibly extends back as far as the 13th century BC, as the recent radiocarbon dates indicate.Belinsky et al. 2009The Koban culture settlements (as opposed to isolated cemeteries) have been little studied, with the exception of those located in the modern Chechnya, such as near Serzhen-Yurt, and near Bamut; these were major centers from around 11th century BC to around the 7th century BC.Evgeni Chernykh, Ancient Metallurgy in the USSR: The Early Metal Age. CUP Archive, 1992, {{ISBN|0521252571}} p278The remains include dwellings, cobble bridges, altars, iron objects, bones, and clay and stone objects. There were sickles and stone grain grinders. Grains that were grown included wheat, rye and barley. Cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, pigs and horses were kept. There were shops, where artisans worked on and sold pottery, stone-casting, bone-carving, and stone-carving. There is evidence for an advanced stage of metallurgy. There was differentiation of professionals organized within clans.

Tli cemetery

The Tli cemetery contained many rich burials. It is located near the village of Tli in South Ossetia, in the Tligom ravine ((:ru:Тлигомское ущелье)). The excavations started at the end of the 19th century, and continued in 1955–1988. B. V. Tekhov excavated more than five hundred burials, with detailed publications.The earliest burials at Tli cemetery go back to the 16th-14th centuries BC (pre-Koban period). Then the cemetery was used for almost the entire period of existence of the Koban culture.

Ethnic affiliation

{{Continental Asia in 1000 BCE|right|{{center|Koban culture and main contemporary polities in continental Asia.JOURNAL, Jeong, Choongwon, Wang, Ke, Wilkin, Shevan, A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia's Eastern Steppe, Cell, 12 November 2020, 183, 4, 890–904, Figure 1 A, B, C, 10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.015, 33157037, 7664836, 0092-8674, JOURNAL, Török, Tibor, Integrating Linguistic, Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives Unfold the Origin of Ugrians, Genes, July 2023, 14, 7, Figure 1, 10.3390/genes14071345, 37510249, 10379071, en, 2073-4425, free, BOOK, Atlas of World History, 2002, Oxford University Press, 978-0-19-521921-0, 51,weblink BOOK, Fauve, Jeroen, The European Handbook of Central Asian Studies, 2021, 978-3-8382-1518-1, 403, Ibidem Press,weblink JOURNAL, Zhang, Fan, Ning, Chao, Scott, Ashley, The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies, Nature, November 2021, 599, 7884, 256–261, 10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7, 34707286, 8580821, 2021Natur.599..256Z, en, 1476-4687, (:File:Overview of key Eurasian geographic regions, features and archaeological sites (24,000-0 BCE).png|Overview of key Eurasian geographic regions, features and archaeological sites (24,000-0 BCE))}}|{{Annotation|0|0|(File:Continental Asia date mask.png|300px)}}{{location map~ |Continental Asia |lat=43|N |long=46|E |label=|position=|label_size=|mark=Orange dot (semi-transparent).png|marksize=20}}}}Amjad Jaimoukha believes the Koban culture was primarily Nakh.Jaimoukha. Chechens. Page 23-28. He argues that while all these cultures probably were made by people included among the genetic ancestors of the Northern Caucasian Nakh (i.e. Chechens and Ingush), it was either the Koban or Kharachoi culture that was the first culture made by the cultural and linguistic ancestors of the Chechens (meaning the Chechens first arrived in their homeland 3000–4000 years ago). Jaimoukha postulates that the end of the Koban culture was brought about by Scythian invasions.Johanna Nichols has written that, "There is fairly seamless archeological continuity for the last 8000 years or more in central Daghestan, suggesting that the Nakh-Daghestanian language family is long indigenous."WEB,weblink The Ingush (with notes on the Chechen): Background information, 2016-08-11, Johanna Nichols, Johanna Nichols, February 1997, University of California, Berkeley, A genetic study in 2020 analysing samples from Klin-Yar communities, including the Koban culture, found that the ancient population had one sample of Haplogroup D-Z27276, which is associated with the modern Tibetan people. {{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} Other haplogroups were Haplogroup J1 and Haplogroup G-M285.JOURNAL, Boulygina, Eugenia, Tsygankova, Svetlana, Sharko, Fedor, Slobodova, Natalia, Gruzdeva, Natalia, Rastorguev, Sergey, Belinsky, Andrej, Härke, Heinrich, Kadieva, Anna, Demidenko, Sergej, Shvedchikova, Tatiana, 2020-06-01, Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the prehistoric Koban culture of the North Caucasus,weblink Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, en, 31, 102357, 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102357, 218789467, 2352-409X,

The arts

The surviving bronze items reflect the high level of development of the artistic skills of the ancient masters. In museums and private collections there are objects with remnants of vitreous enamel, which confirm that they began to decorate metal products with fired enamel.File:Koban culture buckles with enamel.jpg|Bronze buckles with vitreous enamelFile:Koban culture bronze.jpg|Bronze with remnants of vitreous enamelFile:Clevelandart 1988.71.jpg|Decorated bronze belt

See also

• Klin-Yar

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

• Nikoloz Gobejishvil (2014), Interrelation of Colchian and Koban Cultures According to Burial Constructions and Funerary Customs (Late Bronze – Early Iron Age) spekali.tsu.ge

External links

• Koban culture at pinterest.com
• Koban exhibit in Paris, at the National Archaeological Museum (France)
• Collection of the Koban artefacts in the Hermitage (weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050305063910weblink">archived in 2005)

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