Research in the type of economy and lifestyle of the Volga-Manych steppe population in the Bronze Age: controversial issues

The article deals with the development of scientific views and ideas concerning the cultural and economic type of left-bank Lower Volga region population in the Bronze Age. The study of the problem in its historical aspect makes it possible for the author to distinguish the following three stages: 1) the formation of the views about sedentary economy (1935?1955); 2) development of the nomadic cattle-breeding culture theory (1955?1977); 3) the period of parallel development of both theories (since 1977). Historiographical survey shows that the results of the study of the Volga-Manych steppe Bronze Age culture were based on the finds from funerary sites (barrows) only, which reflect religious ideas rather than the real economic system and lifestyle. The settlements discovered in the steppe were traditionally attributed to the “seasonal camp of mobile pastoralists”, due to their small proportions and poor cultural layer. They remained practically unexplored and unpublished. According to the author, it is necessary to alter this approach to similar vital activity traces in the steppe regions. Moreover, the mapping of the Iron Age funerary sites allowed the author to notice that their geographical position is fundamentally different from the Bronze Age ones. This fact may indicate a different way of life. The distribution of the Early Iron Age nomadic barrows is identical with 17th?18th centuries winter camps left by the nomadic Kalmyks, while the distribution of the Bronze Age barrows aligns with the Russian peasant settlements of the end of 18th ? 19th centuries.