The Okunev culture is named after the Okunev settlement in southern Khakassia, where the culture was discovered by Sergei Teploukhov in 1928. The Okunev culture was preceded by the Afanasevo culture. The similarity between some of the objects from the Okunev burial grounds and objects found in sites in the vicinity of the middle Ob River and the Lake Baikal region indicates that the bearers of the Okunev culture came to southern Siberia from the northern taiga regions. While the Afanasevo culture is considered Indo-European, the Okunev culture is generally regarded as an extension of the local non-Indo-European forest culture into the region.