YMPACT - The Yamnaya Impact on Preshistoric Europe

Last modified: 22. February 2024

YMPACT - The Yamnaya Impact on Preshistoric Europe
(H2020 ERC project)

'The Yamnaya Impact on Prehistoric Europe' research project is led and coordinated by the University of Helsinki. The aim of the research is to understand how the Bronze Age Jamnaya culture reshaped the cultural, linguistic and genetic map of Eurasia and Europe. The genetic influence of the Jamnaya communities migrating in the Eurasian steppe belt can still be seen in the population of several European countries. Their genetic markers can still be detected. Their cultural impact can be traced back to the development of the Indo-European languages. Jamnaya people buried their dead in characteristic burial mounds, which we call kurgans. By building these kurgans part of the soil cover under the earthen formation was sealed. Both the soils under the kurgans and the soil material forming the kurgan body hide exciting environmental information. In essence, they are punctual time capsules in the endless wastelands of the Eurasian steppe belt.
Within the framework of YMPACT, the MATE researchers are engaged in the paleosoil and geochemical investigation of kurgans of the Hajdúság region (Hungary), as well as in Romanian and Bulgarian kurgans. The environmental information that can be discovered from buried soils helps to understand the environmental changes. They contribute to the clarification of what environmental changes and processes triggered the migration of Jamnaya communities in the western zone of the Eurasian steppe belt nearly 5,000 years ago.

Institutional participants:
Dr. Pető Ákos     https://m2.mtmt.hu/gui2/?type=authors&mode=browse&sel=authors10031145
Braun Ádám