Mysterious Arkaim - the cradle of Aryan culture
Is it true? To some extent, yes. But there was nothing mystical and supernatural in Arkaim. However, this does not in the least detract from its objective significance.
Let's start with the most interesting - the ancient observatory. Everything is simple and logical: being in the center of Arkaim, the priests observed astronomical bindings (as a rule, mountains and rocky outcrops), which made it possible to study cosmic phenomena. They say that there are more such astronomical correspondences in Arkaim than in Stonehenge itself.
So they say. But … I was in Arkaim. And, standing in its center, did not find a single astronomical reference. Because there is a steppe.
When I asked the local staff where their famous observatories were, they just threw up their hands. But it didn't matter - I already knew the answer.
I was lucky - at the time when I was in Arkaim, it was possible to get there only by hitchhiking. So in the middle of the night I found myself in the steppe, where I was picked up by a car with researchers from Chelyabinsk University, mostly fellow historians.
We spent that night in their camp six kilometers from Arkaim, and they told a lot that is not customary to talk about. Including the lies that the scientists themselves made. However, they had an excuse.
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The fact is that Arkaim should not have been found - it was a planned archaeological check before the construction of the reservoir. Archaeologists simply had to sign that there were no cultural heritage sites at the site of the future reservoir. But they ended up there.
As a result, while the question of whether or not there should be a reservoir was being decided, some frantically dug, others frantically dug out. The issue was resolved at the highest level, and in order to save the object, the scientific community had to strain all its imagination to prove its incredible value.
And so all these observatories appeared, which today excite the fragile psyche of young Internet users. But this was the first case in Soviet reality when scientific significance overpowered the needs of the national economy.
What was Arkaim really like?
Let's start with the most interesting - rumors that it was in Arkaim that Zoroastrianism and Vedas originated. To some extent, this is possible.
In the third to fourth millennia BC. On the territory of the Black Sea region, the Andronovo archaeological culture begins to form from the Indo-European ethnos, at the junction with the Trypillian culture. Which very quickly moves towards the South Urals, where it forms a culture with the poetic name "Country of cities", or the Arkaimo-Sintash cultural group.
Why cities? Because among them Arkaim was not the only one - he was not even the largest. You may ask why you didn't hear anything about the rest of the settlements then? Because I didn't have to lie about them. Did you really think that there would be ancient observatories?
By the way, attempts to somehow interpret the name of Arkaim are also senseless - this is a modern archaeological name, which is given, as in all excavations, for the nearest geographical attraction (in this case, Mount Arkaimka).
Therefore, those "researchers" who are trying to look for ancient Indo-European roots here look at least silly. Of course, they can be found - as in many modern words, but today no one has any idea what this settlement was called five thousand years ago.
But back to our Zoroastrianism. It was in the South Urals that the Andronovites began to form as Aryans, and, having lived in this territory for about five hundred years, they burned their cities and went south, towards India and Iran. Why they acted so strangely, no one knows, but it was approximately in the middle of the second millennium BC.
By the way, now you know why all kinds of tales about the "Slavic-Aryan Vedas" are sheer nonsense. When the Aryans were formed as Aryans, they were very far from the geographical homeland of the Slavs and no longer had any contacts with our distant ancestors.
But this does not negate the fact that it was in the Urals that the birth of the Aryan culture could take place, with the rudiments of the Vedas and Zoroastrianism. To what extent - no one will ever know.
Material culture of Arkaim
By the way, there is something to say here. No, there were no secret technologies, observatories, highly developed civilizations and spaceships there. There was nothing that people did not know in the Upper Bronze Age. But the technologies that existed were used surprisingly rationally.
For example, every house had a metal-melting furnace that worked without bellows. How do you ask? It was just that in every house there was also a well that was connected to this stove, which created a very good draft. By the way, isn't this the origin of the myth about the birth of the god Agni from underground waters?
The houses themselves are also interesting. In fact, they were made of earth and sticks - so everyone could. But it was they who thought of placing these houses close to each other in a circle, forming a well-known circular settlement.
Of course, this is a reconstruction.
What did it do? Firstly, huge energy efficiency - now there was no need to heat the street. Secondly, protection. The dwellings themselves formed a wall, which was extremely problematic to storm. And given that the gate had a complex shape with all kinds of traps, at that time Arkaim had to be truly impregnable.
At the same time, the flat roofs of the houses formed a kind of square on which one could walk. Thanks to such a structure, about two thousand people could be accommodated in Arkaim, whose diameter was about one hundred meters! Of course, not all of them constantly lived in the city - many were in the pastures, but if necessary, everyone could stay quite comfortably.
But the most surprising thing is that between the two rings of houses - external and internal - there was … a storm sewer! Yes, it was just a moat covered with logs, but in many of our cities even today they do not even do that.
So even though there was nothing science fiction about Arkaim, it had a lot that is quite admirable.
Author: Alexey Nedozrelov