Serednii Stih culture

Serednii Stih culture [Середньостогівська культура; Seredniostohivska kultura] also referred to as Serednii Stih archeological culture complex or Serednii Stih cultural horizon. A Copper Age (Eneolithic, Chalcolithic) archeological cultural complex of the early-5th to mid-4th millennium BC. Archeological features associated with the Serednii Stih horizon appear across a wide territory in the Black Sea steppe from the Dnipro River, the upper Donets River, the lower Don region, and the Sea of Azov in the east to the delta of the Danube River in the west. While initially the Serednii Stih designation was used to define a set of early Eneolithic archaeological features defining a break from the Neolithic hunter gatherer archeological package in the Dnipro Valley, the term is now commonly used by Western archeologists to define a nomadic steppe people of the North Pontic steppe throughout the Eneolithic Period. To archeogeneticists, Serednii Stih defines a group of prehistoric people carrying a mix of Ukrainian Neolithic Hunter Gatherer (UNHG, related to Eastern Hunter Gatherer [EHG]) and Caucasus Hunter Gatherer (CHG) genetic ancestries, giving rise to the core genetic ancestry of the Yamna archeological culture complex in the 4th millennium BC. Serednii Stih communities are often considered as some of the earliest known Indo-European populations.

The Serednii Stih culture appears in early-5th millennium BC in the lower Dnipro region in the context of the late (Zasukha) phase of the Neolithic archeological complex, generally referred to as the Dnipro-Donets culture, associated with the people who left extended burials of the Mariupol type. The term ‘Serednii Stih’ comes from an Eneolithic layer of the Serednii Stih archeological site in the lower Dnipro River area on the outskirts of today’s city of Zaporizhia.

Serednii Stih pottery was shell-tempered with mostly conical or egg-shaped, but sometimes flat base. Pottery surface was carefully smoothed with a toothed stamp before firing. The ‘caterpillar’ twisted cord ornament, subsequently evolving into the braided cord ornament, appears on the ceramics of the later phase, replacing earlier ringed and traced ornaments. Based on the presence or absence of the cord ornament, Dmytro Telehin identified early, ‘pre-corded’ (Maiorka, Kvitiana), and late ‘corded’ (Deriivka, Moliukhiv Buhor) phases of Serednii Stih. Nadiia Kotova considers the Deriivka phase of Serednii Stih to be a separate Deriivka culture.

According to Valentyn Danylenko, monuments of the Serednii Stih type belong to the early phases of the Yamna archeological culture complex. Maria Gimbutas considered that there was one ‘kurgan’ culture in the Pontic-Caspian steppes, divided into Mykhailivka I, Serednii Stih, Mykhailivka II, and Mykhailivka III stages. Ukrainian archeologists recognize Mykhailivka I as a separate culture that bordered Serednii Stih, extending to the south and southwest along the Black Sea shore. In this view, Mykhailivka I (Lower Mykhailivka culture) is synchronous with the Deriivka phase of Serednii Stih/Deriivka culture and Mykhailivka II and III belong to the post-Serednii Stih period and chronologically correspond to the Yamna archeological culture complex.

Serednii Stih communities buried their dead in ground burials, which, sometimes, formed burial complexes or necropoli. Serednii Stih’s early burials were inhumations in contracted on the back position, although cremations are also known. Burial goods consisted of flint blades and personal adornments.

Serednii Stih displays archeological and genetic connections to the contemporaneous Khvalynsk archeological culture of the north Caspian region. Both cultures feature a mix of ancestry in either UNHG (Serednii Stih) or EHG (Khvalynsk) genetic background. Khvalynsk represented a ‘Volga cline’ of the Caucasus-Lower Volga (CLV) ancestry, while Serednii Stih was part of a ‘Dnipro cline’ CLV ancestry as CLV-carrying populations moved west.

Serednii Stih had reciprocal relations with their farming Trypillian neighbors. The shell-tempered Serednii Stih pottery of the Cucuteni-C type appears on Trypillia culture settlements in Moldova and Right-Bank Ukraine of the second half of the 5th millennium BC. Female individuals carrying Serednii Stih ancestry are documented at Trypillian settlements of that time, pointing to the transfer of pottery-making technology potentially via marriage contacts between Serednii Stih and Trypillia culture communities.

The climatic shift to colder and drier conditions during 4200–3900 BC led to the fragmentation of archeological complexes in the North Pontic area. In the 4th millennium BC, Serednii Stih is represented by local steppe and forest-steppe groups. Serednii Stih in the forest-steppe areas of the Dnipro River Valley became more sedentary and began practicing agriculture and stockbreeding. Post-Stih groups in the steppe remained largely nomadic, practicing pastoralism and engaging in trade. Wagon transportation appeared in the steppe by the middle 4th millennium BC, likely revolutionizing trade, travel, and exchange of cultural ideas. A merger between the mobile Eneolithic communities of the North Pontic steppe and steppe Maikop in the second part of the 4th millennium BC led to the formation of the Zhyvotylivka-Vovchansk archeological group. The rise of Zhyvotylivka-Vovchansk coincided with the emergence of the Yamna culture. Recent archeogenetic studies indicate that populations of the Serednii Stih culture were direct genetic ancestors of the Core Yamna genetic ancestry and thus, the broader Yamna archeological culture complex.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gіmbutas, M. The Relative Chronology of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cultures in Eastern Europe North of the Balkan Peninsula and Black Sea. Chronologies in Old World Archaeology (Chicago–London, 1965)
Telehin, D. Seredn'o-stohivs'ka kul'tura epokhy midi (Kyiv 1973)
Kotova, N. S. Dereivskaia kul'tura i pamiatniki Nizhnemikhailovskogo tipa (Kyiv–Kharkiv 2013)
Nikitin, A. G., Videiko, M., Patterson, N., Renson, V. and Reich, D. ‘Interactions between Trypillian farmers and North Pontic forager-pastoralists in Eneolithic central Ukraine,’ PLoS One 18 (2023)
Nikitin, Alexey G. et al. ‘A Genomic History of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age,’ Nature 639 (2025)

Alexey G. Nikitin

[This article was written in 2025.]