Multi-cordoned Ware culture or Multiroller ceramics culture, translations of the Russian: Культура многоваликовой керамики, romanized: Kul'tura mnogovalikovoj keramiki (KMK),[1] also known as the Multiple-relief-band ware culture, the Babyno culture and the Mnogovalikovaya kul'tura (MVK), are archaeological names for a Middle Bronze Age culture of Eastern Europe.
In 1929, the archaeologist Ya. Brik studied four kurgans of this culture near Ostapye village, currently in Ternopil Raion, Ukraine. He found ceramics, flint tools, bone and bronze decorations. Bottoms, walls and ceilings of the graves are layered with rocks. Skeletons are laid in a contracted position towards the east.
The name of this culture is related to its ceramic goods, such as pots, which were decorated with multiple strips of clay (cordons) before firing. The culture also featured various other distinctive ornaments
KMK tribes practiced herding and made widespread use of chariots.[2] According to Anthony (2007), chariotry spread from the Multi-cordoned ware culture to the Monteoru, Vatin and Ottomány cultures in southeastern Europe.[3]
200 or more Multi-cordoned Ware settlements have been documented, some with cultural deposits 1 metre thick (e.g. Babino III).[1] Occasional fortified settlements are known, pointing to higher interregional conflict than in previous periods. Houses included sunken earth-houses and ground-level wooden-post buildings with a rectangular plan.[6]
Physical type
The physical type of the Multi-cordoned Ware culture has been designated as dolichocephalic.[a]
It was increasingly influenced, assimilated and eventually displaced by the Timber grave or Srubna/Srubnaya culture.[8][9][10][11] In c. 2000 – 1800 BCE bearers of KMK migrated southward into the Balkans.
^"During the period of the Timber-grave culture the population of the Ukraine was represented by the medium type between the dolichocephalous narrow-faced population of the Multi-roller Ware culture..."[7]
^Kuzmina 2007, p. 120: "The classification of cheek-pieces and the establishment of their evolution permits us to establish the origin of the disc-shaped cheek-pieces and their chronology. The most archaic disc-shaped cheek-piece was amorphous and undecorated of Type I and derived from contexts of the Catacomb-Multi-roller Ware and Abashevo cultures from the Ukraine to the Urals. This permits us to attribute the first controlling of chariots with cheek-pieces to tribes of the Abashevo and Multi-roller Ware cultures (KMK=Kul'tura Mnogovalikovoy Keramiki)"
^Anthony, David (2007). The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. Princeton University Press. p. 411. Chariotry spread west through the Ukrainian steppe MVK [Mnogovalikovaya] culture into southeastern Europe's Monteoru (phase Icl-Ib), Vatin, and Otomani cultures
