Irmen culture

Irmen culture (Russian: Ирменская культура, romanized: Irmenskaya kul'tura) is an indigenous Late Bronze Age culture of animal breeders in the steppe and forest steppe area of the Ob river middle course, north of Altai in western Siberia, dated to around the 9th to 8th centuries BCE. Monuments of this advanced bronze-producing culture include numerous settlements and kurgan cemeteries, the culture was named after Irmen kurgan cemetery now flooded by Novosibirsk reservoir. Irmen culture was discovered and described by N.L.Chlenova in 1970.

Irmen culture period is noted for migrationary waves in two directions, in the beginning of 1st millennium BCE from south from the Karasuk culture, and later in the 1st millennium BCE of northern tribes notable for their cross-decorated ceramics. Migrations raised military tensions, noted in emergence of first fortified settlements with moats and ramparts.