Krotov culture

53°32′N 82°27′E / 53.533°N 82.450°E / 53.533; 82.450

The Krotov culture (often Krotovo culture, c. 2000-1200 BCE) was an indigenous culture of animal breeders in the steppe and forest-steppe area of the Western Siberia Altai mountainous area of Russia in the upper Irtysh river basin. The Krotov culture embraces the period from the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millenniums to the 13th to 12th centuries BCE. It is a first (pre-Andronovan) period of developed bronze in the Western Siberia.^[1] The Krotov culture is an areal period named for a circle of cultures that include Elunin culture, Krotov culture, Loginov culture and similar cultures with identical or close traits and variations. Krotov culture people engaged in cattle breeding, hunting and fishing. In the territory of the culture were found stone and bronze tools.^[2]

Some scientists attribute the materials of the Tashkov culture to the Krotov culture people (Kovalev, Chairkina, 1991), with a corollary that Tashkov culture people also had an animal husbandry economy with short-distance grazing. The Tashkov culture people were in regular cultural contact with the population of the Southern Urals, and they also learned metalworking.^[3]