Iukhnovo Culture

an archaeological culture that flourished in the early Iron Age (first millennium B.C.) in the basins of the Desna and upper Oka rivers. It was named after the site of an ancient fortified settlement at the village of Iukhnovo, near the city of Novgorod-Severskii, Chernigov Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Excavations of small fortified and unfortified towns situated on the river banks yielded surface dwellings with pisé hearths, flat-grave burials, and grain pits. Pottery, clay sinkers, a clay distaff, iron knives and arrowheads, bone objects, and bronze ornaments have been found.

The Bronze Age Bondarikha culture played a significant role in the formation of the Iukhnovo culture, whose development was also strongly influenced by the Scythian forest-steppe culture. The tribes of the Iukhnovo culture engaged in plow farming, stock raising, fishing, and hunting; they are identified with the Melanchlaeni mentioned by Herodotus.