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Yamnaya

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Yamnaya

  • /ˈjæmnaɪə/

Where it comes from

From Russian Ямная (Jamnaja), short for я́мная культу́ра, using the feminine form of я́мный, an adjective formed from я́ма (jáma, “pit”), referring to the culture's pit-grave burial practices. The alternative form Yamna is the corresponding form of the Ukrainian adjective я́мний.

proper noun Yamna

  1. A late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers (the Pontic steppe), dating to 3300–2600 BCE, often associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Although European Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures such as Corded Ware, Bell Beakers, Unetice, and the Scandinavian cultures are genetically very similar to each other (Fig. 2), they still display a cline of genetic affinity with Yamnaya, with highest levels in Corded Ware, lowest in Hungary,

noun Yamna

  1. plural, plural only The people of the Yamnaya culture. This pattern is also seen in ADMIXTURE analysis (Fig. 2b, SI6), which implies that the Yamnaya have ancestry from populations related to the Caucasus and South Asia that is largely absent in 38 Early or Middle Neolithic farmer s but present in all 25 Late Neolithic or Bronze Age individuals.

adjective Yamna

  1. not comparable Of or relating to the Yamnaya people or culture. At the frontiers where Yamnaya pastoralists interacted with settled agriculturalists, local variants developed among bilingual populations.

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MLA

"Yamnaya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/yamnaya. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

Yamnaya. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/yamnaya

Chicago

"Yamnaya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/yamnaya.

BibTeX
@misc{yamnaya_2026,
  title = {Yamnaya},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/yamnaya},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}