Novotitarovskaya culture

"Only at the end of the 4th millennium BCE did the wagon of the pre-Caucasian Steppe enter the burial practices of the Yamnaya and the Novotitarovskaya cultures."

"Aleksander Gej points out that the Novotitarovskaja culture certainly liked its wagons, indeed, the number of graves with wagons increased exponentially relative to the Maikop culture from a handful to several hundred. This culture nevertheless pro- duced the same model of 4-wheeled vehicle until the Catacomb Grave culture of the 2nd millennium BCE, with Gej pointing out that there was no evidence for a steering mechanism even at this late stage. This seems to me to be a fatal flaw in Anthony’s theory, since, as Burmeister points out, an unsteerable wagon would have been confined to a steppe envi- ronment. As soon as it attempted to expand into a densely forested area, it would have collided with the nearest tree. Anthony’s steppe dwellers may thus have had plenty of wagons, but none of them were fit for the grand purpose of spreading Indo-European languages and instead were probably popular more as mobile homes suitable only for the Steppe itself... The above suggests that his bronze age riders only shaped the modern world in that they were the ancestors of the trailer park, johnny-come-latelys to a Eurasia through which key vehicle and other technologies had already disseminated for the simple reason that it had already been networked to lesser or greater degrees for millennia."