About 5000 years ago, the majority of people in the neolithic Europe lived as farmers. Their lives were stationary, dedicated to agriculture and farm animals.
Some other cultures of this time lived as nomadic pastoralists, moving with their livestock in search of new pastures. One such culture came to be known as the Yamnaya or the Pit Grave Culture. The name "Yamnaya" comes from the Russian "яма" (yama), meaning "pit" or "cave."
The Yamnaya were given their name by archaeologists because of their burial practices involving shallow pits and the placement of the deceased in a contracted position, often with their knees drawn up to their chest. The Yamnaya were often buried together with their weapons and other belongings.
The Yamnaya are believed to have lived primarily in the current-day South-Eastern Ukraine and South-Western Russia, coincidentally roughly around where the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine takes place.
The Yamnaya culture is believed to have spread through Europe around 3000BCE. Some claim the Yamnaya were good warriors that regularly raided the neolithic farmers in organized invasions.
The Yamnaya were constantly on the move and thus didn't build long lasting settlements.
What we know about them, we know from their graves.
As I write this, hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are invading the farmlands of Ukraine in a seemingly similar fashion to that of their ancestors of 5000 years ago.
There are countless aerial drone footages of the modern day Yamnaya.
The archeologists of the future will find human remains curled up in a pit on the Ukrainian planes.
Yamnaya or the Russians?
So, how much progress is there really?