Catacomb culture, ca. 3000-2200 BC. An early bronze age culture occupying essentially what is present-day Ukraine. It was related to the Yamna culture, and would seem more of an areal term to cover several smaller related archaeological cultures. The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Yamna (from Russian яма pit) or pit grave culture is a prehistoric culture of the Bug/Dniester/Ural region, dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hillforts. ...

The economy was essentially stockbreeding, although traces of grain have been found. There seem to have been skilled specialists, particularly metal-workers, however.

The name comes from its burial practices. These are similar to those of the Yamna culture, but with a hollowed-out space off of the main shaft, creating the 'catacomb'. Animal remains were incorporated into a small minority of graves. In certain graves there was the distinctive practice of what amounts to modelling a clay mask over the deceased's face, creating an obvious if not necessarily correct association to the famous gold funeral mask of Mycenae. The Lion Gate at Mycenae The Lion Gate (detail) Mycenae (ancient Greek: , IPA , in modern Greek: Μυκήνες ), is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. ...

Its linguistic composition is unclear. Within the context of the Kurgan hypothesis expounded by Marija Gimbutas, an Indo-European component is hard to deny, particularly in the later stages. Placing the earliest representives of what would become the Greek and Armenian stocks here is tempting, as it would neatly explain certain shared features. This article is about Bronze Age burial mounds and the Kurgan culture. ... Marija Gimbutas (Vilnius, Lithuania January 23, 1921 - Los Angeles February 2, 1994) researched the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Old Europe, a term she introduced, in works published between 1946 and 1971, that opened new views by combining traditional spadework, linguistics and mythology. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ...

Sources

James P. Mallory, "Catacomb Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. JP Mallory is the nom-de-plume of Irish-American archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist Prof. ...