Glazkov Culture - Areal

Areal

Archeologists distinguish in the 2nd millennium BCE Southern Siberia two synchronous independent cultures: Glazkov in the east and Andronov in the west. "In the Baikal territory lived a Glazkov group of related tribes, most likely the ancestors of modern Evenks, Evens or Yukagirs. Their culture was very close to the culture of the inhabitants of the upper Amur and Northern Manchuria, and of Mongolia to the Great Wall of China and Ordos. It is possible, hence, that all this extensive area was populated by peoples culturally related with the hunter and fisher tribes of Neolith and Early Bronze... probably speaking related tribal languages". Later the carriers of the southern part Glazkov culture tribes converged with some ancestors of the Huns, and intermixed with them. In the 18th century BCE the Andronovs seized Minusinsk depression and almost encountered the Glazkovs on the Yenisei. Glazkovs and Andronovs played a secondary role in the 2nd millennium BCE Southern Siberia. Sayano-Altai mountains, Minusinsk depression and Tuva were occupied by Dinlins. Dinlin type "is characterized by the following attributes: average height, frequently tall, a stout and strong constitution, an oblong face, white skin with rosy cheeks, blond hair, a straight protruding nose, frequently eagle-type, light eyes". In the Glazkov time, both Glazkovs and Andronovs superimposed on the aborigional Southern Siberian Dinlin population.

The Glazkov time ended with advent of the Huns in the Karasuk period. Archeologists found that the Huns of the 12th century BCE created a Hunnish empire. At that time the Huns occupied steppes from Hebei to lake Barkul, and already were attacking China. Their ethnological description in the Chinese annals states that "They have no houses and do not work the land, and live in tents... They respect elders and at certain time gather to arrange their affairs". After crossing the desert, they gained control over isolated carriers of Glazkov and Andronov cultures.

The advent of the Huns was caused by climatic changes. The Hunnish nomadic cattle breeding by the 12th century BCE was so developed that Huns in search of pastures spread to the north, with the animal husbandry providing them sufficient draft force. The petroglyphs recorded a covered wagon "ship", drawn by the oxen, for the horses it was too heavy and clumsy, on which the ancestors of the Huns crossed over "the sandy sea". The climate change at the turn of the 2nd millennium BCE brought changes in distribution of vegetation, initiating process of climatic cooling and wetness that lasted until the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, changing the borders of the Gobi desert. The "taiga sea" was spreading south, forest-steppes turned into dense thickets, undermining the economic base of Siberia inhabitants, but benefiting the southern nomads. By the 3rd century BCE the Huns already were the masters of all the steppe space from the Gobi desert to the Siberian taiga. On the banks of the Yenisei and Abakan rivers next to a Glazkov timbered log hut appeared round yurt of the nomad. Together with cultural there was also a racial mixture, in the Karasuk epoch in the burials started appearing Mongoloid, narrow-faced N. Chinese type and Caucasoid brachycranial type of southern origin.