The Baltic peoples. Indo-European Migrations. Andrey Tikhomirov

fishing and left mounds in the steppes along the Volga and Don, in left-bank Ukraine, on the Dnieper. Under these mounds burials are found in simple soil pits. Bones of domestic animals were found in the “pit” mounds of a later origin, the remains of the wagons – signs indicating the beginning of cattle breeding, as well as individual crafts from copper.

      A new upsurge in the development of tribes living in the Russian south during the Eneolithic period is represented by the so-called catacomb mounds in the steppes between the Volga and the Dnieper. At that time, there lived tribes closely associated with the North Caucasus. They embraced the achievements of the Caucasian tribes in the metallurgy of copper, in agriculture and cattle breeding. These tribes, apparently, formed several associations, to a certain extent different from each other in the details of their culture. At the same time, it can be noted that catacomb burials are found in the east in a more ancient time than in the west.

      The growth of the exchange of ancient Baltic tribes led to the strengthening of tribal ties, in particular with the Dnieper. Changes in the funeral rite (the replacement of collective burials with individual ones) indicate the collapse of the tribal system. According to the funerary inventory of burial grounds of the 2nd half of the 1st millennium AD e. and the presence of a significant number of precious metal products in individual graves can be judged on the property differentiation of the buried.

      It can be argued that the tribes that left the catacomb burials spread from east to west during the third millennium BC. In the west, they clashed with Trypillian tribes, drove them away and the Middle Dnieper and penetrated into Poland, where they also find burials in which ceramics are found, similar to the ceramics characteristic of the catacomb mounds and the North Caucasus.

      The reason for such a widespread resettlement of the tribes that left the kata-comb mounds should be sought in the nature of their economy. The process of development of cattle breeding began, the tribes became more mobile; agriculture in their lives played a lesser role. The needs of cattle breeding caused relocation in large spaces. Pastures caused military clashes. The domestication of animals and the protection of herds were the work of men. Therefore, the cattle belonged to a man and was not inherited by the mother, but by the sons of a man. The patriarchy came, in ancient beliefs it was reflected in the cult of God the Father, which subsequently entered all monotheistic religions as the main dogma. This gradually led to the concentration of property in individual families and ultimately split the clan community, which was now opposed by a large patriarchal family. It was composed of several generations of paternal direct relatives under the rule of the oldest. The growth of wealth and the emergence of wealth inequality entailed the emergence of slavery. This is marked by the frequent forced burial in the catacombs of slaves with a man. Cattle was the first form of wealth here that allowed them to accumulate significant surpluses.