steppe: the sedentary, predominantly pastoralist society of the late Bronze Age is replaced by the mobile horse nomads which would continue to dominate this region until modern times. The mobility, which the new cultural form enabled, unleashed a powerful dynamic, since henceforth the people of Central Asia were able to move across the steppe in great numbers. The neighbouring sedentary cultures were not unaffected by this development. Ancient China was threatened by the Xiongnu and their neighbours, the ancient states of modern Iran were opposed by the Massagetae and Sakas, and the Roman empire eventually was confronted by the Huns. The social changes are clearly indicated in the archaeological finds. Settlements are no longer found, members of the new elite were buried in richly furnished kurgans and completely new forms of art developed. In the damper steppes to the north, the sedentary pastoralist culture of the late Bronze Age developed under the influence of the material culture of the nomads. Proto-urban settlements like Tshitsha form the late Irmen culture in west Siberia and the settlements in the north of the Xiongnu cultural area. Subsequent period In many places the transition to later periods remains problematic due to the lack of archaeological evidence. Nevertheless, some generalisations are possible. In the Central Asian steppes, Turkic groups become detectable sometime in the 5th century; over the following centuries, they expand to the north and west until eventually they brought the whole of southern Siberia under their control. The area further north, where the speakers of Uralic and Paleosiberian languages were located is still poorly known. The next clear break in the history of Siberia is the Russian expansion into the east which began in the 16th century and only concluded in the 19th century. This process marks the beginning of modernity in Siberia Peoples and languages Reliable historical evidence for the area first appears at the beginning of the first millennium BC, with sources from the Near East. Greek and Chinese sources are also available from slightly later. Thus, certain statements about the peoples and languages of the region are only possible from the Iron Age. For earlier times and the northern part of Siberia, only archaeological evidence is available. Some theories, like the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, attempt to relate hypothetical language families to archaeological cultures, but this is a highly uncertain procedure. Sure statements are possible only since the first