Archaeology of Yamnaya Interactions

The workshop ”Yamnaya Interactions” was organized by the YMPACT project at the University of Helsinki on April 25-26, 2019 in the common room of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Its focus was on the archaeological research of the Yamnaya migration to Europe.

The first day of the workshop concentrated mainly on archaeological findings and burial mound excavations in southeastern and eastern-central Europe. Presentations gave an overview of the current state of research, and sparked discussions on whether some burial mounds are actually Yamnayan or if they’re the result of cultural exchange between the Yamnaya and the indigenous local societies.

The second day explored the impact of the Yamnaya phenomenon towards the northern half of Europe. Presentations dealt with questions about the nature of cultural contact and the means of the Yamnaya expansion, and presented evidence of interaction between Yamnaya, Globular amphora and Corded Ware complexes in Europe.

Although this workshop mainly focused on basic archaeological research and bioarchaeological analyses of burial mounds, it also stressed the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration in studying the Yamnaya impact on Europe.