Few archaeological cultures have reshaped our understanding of human prehistory as profoundly as the Yamnaya; a people whose name, derived from the Russian word for "pit" (яма, yama), belies the monumental scale of their impact.

Known collectively as the Andronovo horizon, these peoples represented one of the most expansive cultural phenomena of the ancient world, their influence reaching from the forests of Siberia to the deserts of Central Asia and the mountain valleys of the Tian Shan.