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By the middle of the II millennium BC. e. in the forest-steppe zope of Eastern Europe, the Abashev cultural and historical community of mainly cattle-breeding population has developed, whose monuments are now known on the territory from the left bank of the Dnieper in the west (the Desna and Seim basins) to the river. Tobol is in the east, and the chronological limits are determined by the second – third quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. e. the study of Abashevo antiquities is more than 100 years old (Pryakhin, 1981). The very same Abashev culture was first identified only after the excavations of prof. VF Smolin in 1925 of the Abashevsky burial ground in the territory of Chuvashia (Smolin, 1928; Smoline, 1927). Intensive studies of the Abashev burial grounds on the territory of Chuvashia and the Mari ASSR in the post-war decades (Merpert, 1961; Khalikov, Lebedinskaya, Gerasimova, 1966a) gradually outlined the idea of the Abashev culture in the Middle Volga region and determined the comprehension of all Abashev antiquities (Yevtyukhova, 1964; N., 1961; Khalikov, 1966).

The people of the Abashev culture are mainly engaged in cattle breeding with a subordinate importance of agriculture. The herd was dominated by cattle, with a significant role for small ruminants. The latter is especially characteristic for the early stage of development of this population and for those groups of Abashevites who continued to maintain a certain mobility at a later time. Separate groups in the late Bashevo time show a tendency towards the development of a settled cattle-breeding and agricultural economy (the emergence of significant long-term settlements, the presence of pig bones in these settlements, an increase in the number of evidence of farming, etc.) – a whole group of late Abashevo settlements in the lower reaches of the river is especially indicative. Voronezh. There are horses in the herd of this population. In the more northern regions, on the territory of the modern Mari-Chuvash Volga region, the Abashev population was more mobile and, obviously, to a greater extent engaged in pastoral cattle breeding. But I must say that in this region, and even now, people have always been mainly engaged in dairy farming, which did not make them nomads. In modern Finland, agriculture is also predominantly occupied by dairy farming, which does not make them nomads. The level of development of cattle breeding led to ample opportunities for the use of livestock by the Abashevites for transport and military purposes. The latter, in turn, not only contributed to their spread over large territories, but was also one of the conditions for the formation of a huge cultural and historical community. Here you need to understand the specifics of breeding cows and their needs, the abundance of water and grass, and besides, the cow loves to sit in the water in summer, fleeing from the gadflies. It was among the Abashevites, especially at a later stage of their development, that disc-shaped cheekpieces with thorns became widespread; the most impressive are two ornamented cheek-pieces made of ivory from the main burial of mound 2 of the Staro-Yuryevsky burial ground in the Upper Don region. Finds of this kind of cheekpieces record the first appearance of chariot transport in the Eurasian steppe and forest-steppe (Pryakhin, 1972, p. 238; 1976 a, p. 124; Cherednichenko, 1976, pp. 147 – 148; Smirnov, Kuzmina, 1977, p. 42 – 45,) The very fact of the use of disc-shaped cheekpieces in the harness of chariots found indisputable confirmation during the excavations of the Sintashta burial ground in the Trans-Urals, in whose burials it was possible to trace the very remains of this kind of chariots (Gening, 1977: 59, 66).

This population was the first on a fairly large scale to begin the development of the Ural copper deposits, especially the Trans-Ural copper deposits Tash-Kazgan and Nikolskoye using cuprous sandstones of the Urals, as well as the Volga region (Salnikov, 1962; Chernykh, 1964; 1970, pp. 27—28, 108—111, etc.). Abashevsk craftsmen developed their own form of tools, weapons and jewelry. The Abashevites know lamellar tools (knives, sickles, scrapers), which had different functional purposes, and their own types of shaft-hole axes: Kamsky, according to B.G. Tikhonov (Tikhonov, 1960, pp. 59—62), narrow-hole axes, according to E.N. Chernykh (Chernykh, 1970, p. 58, fig. 50), Abashevsky, according to S. A. Korenevsky (Korenevsky, 1973, pp. 44—47, fig. 4), flat axes-adzes, according to B. G. Tikhonov (Tikhonov, 1960, p. 66), the type of elongated adze axes with an extended heel, according to E.N. Chernykh (Chernykh, 1970, p. 62), forged spearheads with an open sleeve, several varieties of knives and daggers, etc. Abashevo craftsmen made petal-shaped rosette plaques, bracelets with open, often pointed ends, small grooved pendants, etc. Abashevo people are characterized by rich decoration of clothing, especially headdress, with small sewn semicircular plaques, wire beads and other decorations.

The very scale of development of Abashevsk metallurgy is also determined by the finds of a series of Abashevsky metal, considered in the literature under the concept of “treasure”, which geographically gravitate towards deposits in the Urals and in the Trans-Urals (Krasnoyarsk, Verkhne-Kizylsky, near Dolgaya Gora, etc.). Their finds do not cross over to the right bank of the Volga. Moreover, some of the “treasures” are hardly left directly by the Abashevo population. Some of them (Galichsky, Korshunovsky, Morozovsky) may testify not so much to the direct settlement of the Abashevites in the forest regions of the Volga region, as to the spread of the Abashevsky metal to more northern territories. This population first erected large in area two-chamber or multi-chamber, with a gable roof, slightly deepened into the mainland dwellings, and then large in area, also slightly deepened into the mainland, but already single-chamber buildings with an adjoining vestibule part.

The Abashevo population is characterized by a burial ritual under the kurgan with the construction of flattened embankments. The presence of an interval between the time of the burial and the erection of the embankment is noted. A feature of the burial rite of this population was the erection of circular (less often rectangular) extra-grave structures, limiting a significant area around one or several graves. The presence of independent rectangular pillar structures around individual burials is sometimes noted. The burial rite of the Abashev population is characterized by a cult of fire that manifests itself to varying degrees (burning of ground structures, pouring burning coal into the grave, etc.) and animal sacrifices (the position of parts or skins with head and legs). The grave pits are most often elongated rectangular, sometimes they have a wooden or stone design. The dead were laid on their backs with their legs extended or raised. The eastern and southeastern orientation of the dead is more common. The presence of dismembered, partial, i.e. repeated burials was noted. Finally, the complete absence of skeletons in a number of burial pits testifies to cenotaphs, which confirms the presence of some complex, so far incomprehensible burial traditions among the Abashevs, which also brings them closer to the Hellenic tradition. Single burials are common. But in the outlying areas, especially in the zones of contacts with foreign-cultural tribes, collective burials of the type of mass graves are not uncommon: the Pepkinsky and Staro-Ardatovsky kurgans in the Middle Volga region, the I Yukalekulevsky kurgan in Bashkiria. The most characteristic of the kurgans are stone extra-grave structures that are not characteristic of other Abashev cultures. Only here the stone was widely used in the design of grave pits. In a number of cases, powerful bonfires are noted that burned over the grave pits after the burial. More often than in other territories, the presence of partial and repeated burials is recorded. The dead were laid on their backs stretched out or with their legs raised. There is no stability in the orientation of the dead.

Among the forms of ceramics, most of all bell-shaped bowls and fewer bell-shaped pots. The bell-shaped vessels here often have a significantly lower rim height. Images of a meander and a swastika appear on the vessels. The dishes are also blackened or dairy, traditional for Indo-Europeans.

A vessel from the State Historical Museum, Abashevskaya culture. Meander.

Temporal lobular rings

Differences are manifested even in small sharp-ribbed vessels – the presence of a direct fall in the neck region from the inside is especially indicative. In the decoration of vessels, meander and lobed patterns are much more often noted, the tradition of decorating their lower part with a vertical herringbone, etc. In the Ural territory, bracelets rounded in cross section with open blunt ends, metal onlays, and plate plaques are widespread. The bracelets are spiral, and also from the time of the catacomb culture, temporal lobed rings have been used.

Only here are multiturn small grooved pendants and metal beads known. The set of metal tools and weapons is significant. The outlined solution to the question of the origin and further fate of the Abashev population also determines the approach to clarifying the ethnos of this population. The denial of the genetic relationship with the Abashevs of the previous cultures of the forest Volga region, as well as the absence of direct inheritance of the Abashevo traits by the Finno-Ugric cultures of the early Iron Age of the Volga region, is a serious argument in favor of the denial of the Finno-Ugric ethnos of the Abashevites. At the same time, the definition of their ethnos as Indo-Iranian is becoming more and more obvious (for the first time such a point of view was expressed by A. Kh. Khalikov). This interpretation of the ethnos of the Abashevs receives additional argumentation in connection with new arguments in favor of the fact that the Abashevs, by their historical roots, development and further fate, are connected with the world of the massifs of the population of the ancient Pit, Timber and Alakul cultural and historical communities, which are now more and more definitely considered in direct connection with the problem of the early history of the Indo-Europeans, and then their group of Indo-Iranian offshoots.