Enshin D.N., Skochina S.N.

The Lower Ishim Basin in the Sociocultural Space of the Trans-Ural Neolithic (based on data from the Mergen archaeological microregion)

The Neolithic period in the Lower Ishim Basin (Western Siberia) is represented by several cultures and pottery groups (Boborykino, Koshkino, the group of the cordoned ware, Kozlovo, Mahanjar, comb ceramics with the features of the Sosnovoostrovskaya Culture, Kokuy, and Ekaterininsk). The reference territory for the study of the period comprises the north-eastern shore of Lake Mergen. Basen on the study of the settlements of Mergen 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 the vectors and nature of the relations between the Lower Ishim Basin population and that of the adjoining territories have been identified. The aim was set by the need for tracking their dynamics in retrospective — from Neolithisation of the region to the final stage of the period, and in the context of the extant V.S. Mosin’s hypothesis of the sociocultural space of the Trans-Urals. As the basic markers of these processes, the following have been considered: raw material preferences within the lithic industries; morphological, ornamental, and technological specifics of the featured ceramic complexes; and specifics of economic adaptation. The data analysis has revealed that in the early and middle Neolithic (7th — mid to the third quarter of the 5th mil. BC) the dominant direction of contacts was south-south-western, western, and, probably, north-western (the Upper Ishim River and the Turgay Depression, the Tobol-Iset and Upper Miass River regions, the Lower Tobol River Basin, left bank of the Irtysh River, and, probably, the Konda lowland). The population of the Ishim River valley during this period constituted an integral part of the sociocultural space of the Trans-Urals. At the end of the Neolithic (the third quarter of the 5th — first quarter of the 4th mil. BC), the principal vector of the relations of the population of the Lower Ishim Basin shifts to the east, which resulted in the formation of the syncretic Kokuy complexes (on the basis of the Artyn Culture of the right-bank Irtysh Basin and Baraba and in the penetration into the river valley of the bearers of the comb-pit (Ekaterininsk) tradition of the Middle Irtysh River Basin.

Keywords: Lower Ishim region, Neolithic, settlements of Lake Mergen, vectors of connections, sociocultural space.

 

Khramcov M.V., Chairkina N.M., Dubovtseva E.N., Myznikov S.A.

Stone-tool assemblage of the Eneolithic settlement of Tolum-1 in the Konda River Basin

In 2020, the expedition of Poengurr and the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Ural Branch of RAS investigated the settlement of Tolum-1, which functioned during the Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The site is located in the north of Western Siberia, in Kondinsky District of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra. Structure (dwelling) No. 3 containing a complex of stone tools and pottery of the Enyi type, as well as the adjoint area, were investigated by an excavation trench of an area of 499 m2. On the settlement, 108 stone items were found, the large part of which concentrates within the boundaries of dwelling No. 3. The research is based upon the method of technical and typological analysis of stone-tool assemblage, implying the development of a typology of stone tools and the study of their production technology taking into account the quality of the ornamental raw materials used by the ancient population. According to the raw-material composition of the stonetool assemblage, mainly represented by soft rocks (grey-green slate, burgundy schist, etc.) and, to a lesser extent, by flint of various colors, quartz and quartzite, the ancient population of this region did not have continuous sources of high-quality ornamental raw materials. Prevailing on the settlement are the tools for woodworking (drillbit-shaped tools, adzes, chisels), and also found were knives and a representative collection of arrowheads. Items for stone processing are few: a hammer-stone, a retoucher, and two cores. There is a higher presence of unprocessed pebbles and tiles, and chips and fragments of polished products. The main technological chain on the site was production of polished tools from local gray-green slate by chipping off and subsequent grinding. The production of flint tools by splitting and retouching was insignificant. The stone assemblage of the Tolum-1 settlement finds analogies in the complexes of the Enyi type of the north of Western Siberia. Certain categories and types of products are more widespread — double-sided retouched fish-shaped arrowheads are found in quantity in the Trans-Urals, polished leaf-shaped arrowheads with a groove — in the Eneolithic sites of the north of Western Siberia, while polished arrowheads with a tapered truncated base were found among the Eneolithic materials of the Surgut Ob Basin and on the sites with the Ushya ceramics of the Neolithic Period of the Konda lowland. Polished rounded and teardrop-shaped pendants are found in the funerary and, to a lesser extent, settlement complexes of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia in the Late Neolithic — Eneolithic. A series of radiocarbon dates obtained for the settlement of Tolum-1 and other sites of the Enyi type in the north of Western Siberia, as well as the technical and technological characteristics and morphology of the stone inventory of the settlement under consideration, and a wide range of analogies leave open the possibility of attributing the structure No. 3 to the Eneolithic Period, within the span of the calibrated dates in the interval of 3600–2600 BC.

Keywords: north of Western Siberia, stone tools, typological analysis, technological analysis, Eneolithic.

 

Epimakhov A.V.

Pro et contra of frontier interpretation of Sintashta antiquities (Bronze Age in the Southern Urals)

The practice of archaeological research often illustrates situations where the sum of facts does not correspond to the cultural-historical approach; it is impossible to squeeze this sum into the framework of the term “archaeological culture”. Deviations from his canonical understanding of the term may relate to the duration of the phenomenon, its spatial distribution or the degree of stereotyping of material culture and rituals. The frontier can be one of the options for interpreting such non-standard groups of archaeological objects. The purpose of the study is to test the possibilities of using the concept for the interpretation of the Sintashta sites of the Bronze Age of the Southern Urals (the turn of 3rd — 2nd millennium cal BC) in the light of new data from a comprehensive study (paleogenetics, chronology, etc.). Sintashta settlements and cemeteries are located on the compact territory of the northern steppe: settlements in the Trans-Urals, the burial ground — on both sides of the Ural Mountains. Previous studies have accumulated a huge amount of data on all major aspects, but the general concept remains debatable. The new data comes from mass radiocarbon dating, which allowed to use Bayesian modeling. New data of mass radiocarbon dating confirm the brevity of the functioning of the Sintashta settlements and burial grounds, as well as the possibility of partial synchronization of this tradition with others. Paleogenetic analyzes (more than 50 samples) have shown the heterogeneity of the Sintashta population. Peleogenetic data made it possible to diagnose traces of a subtratian population absorbed by the main migratory group. In material culture, The evidences in material culture are not traced. The same data confirmed a special scenario for the formation of necropolises, weakly associated with the consanguinity of the buried individuals. Only 1/5 of the deceased turned out to be relatives of the first and second degree. The new data significantly complement the previously formulated criteria, which allow us to consider the group of Sintashta sites as a reflection of the situation of the frontier. The Sintashta society in the frontier was formed as complex society. But it did not have the prospect of forming statehood.

Keywords: archeology of stateless societies, frontier, Bronze Age, Southern Urals, Sintashta, paleo-DNA, chronology.

 

Mimokhod R.A, Usachuk A.N.

Bone tools for leather processing (blunt knives and curriers knives) in the funeral rite of the Post-Catacomb period as cultural and chronological indicators

In the paper, the burials of the Post-Catacomb period (2200–1800 cal BC), whose inventory included large bone tools for leather processing, are analysed. Most of them are represented in the Lola Culture circle (Ciscaucasia and the Volga-Urals), and only in few instances they have been found in the burials of the Babino Culture circle (the Lower Volga and the Lower Don regions). The mapping indicates that in the latter case we are dealing with the evidence of intercultural contacts between the representatives of the Lola and Babino traditions. The analysis of the materials shows that the tradition of using large tools for skin processing in the funeral rite developed at the end of the Middle Bronze Age in Ciscaucasia within the Lola Culture circle. The Lola Culture was the main generator here. Its materials contain the largest number of such tools and their greatest variety. To such an extent, it is not represented within the materials of any other cultural formation of the Post-Catacomb period and in any of the cultures of the Late Bronze Age, where this tradition was inherited and rooted itself. It is noteworthy that in the Post-Catacomb burials, large leather-processing tools in most cases were present in the toolsets alongside other production implements, most often with stone tools. Besides, the functional relation between the bone and stone components of such toolsets is either not obvious or completely absent. It is possible that the interred with the attributes of different crafts might have been associated with the variants of the well-known Cult of Demiurge, well represented in archaic societies. The analysis of some features of the rite and combinations with other categories of the inventory in the burials of the Lola Culture circle shows that there is a correlation between the types of the large leather-processing tools and particular specific features of the ritual practice. Thus, the tools made from the lower jaws and pelvic bones of large ungulate animals clearly correlate with the southward orientation of the skeletons in the burials. The leather-processing tools made from the ribs of the large ungulate animals were seen predominantly in the burials with northward orientations. It is still difficult to say what lies behind such steady correlations, but it should be noted that in a reduced form they recur in the subsequent Late Bronze Age. The answer to the last question requires further expansion of the source base.

Keywords: leather-processing tools, funeral rite, Lola cultural circle, Post-Catacomb period, chariot cultures, continuity.

 

Stefanov V.I., Stefanova N.K., Korochkova O.N.

On the lunula stone pendants and their taiga counterparts

The paper provides brief information about crescent-shaped or moon-shaped stone pendants from the Bronze Age sites of Southern and Western Siberia. These artifacts belong to the category of rather rare finds. Across the vast territory from Cisbaikalia in the east to the Middle Irtysh Basin in the west only about 50 such items are known from the complexes of Glazkovo, Okunevo, Elunino, Odino, Krotovo, and Stepanovo archaeological cultures. In most cases, lunula pendants originate from the burial complexes. Particular attention is paid to the items associated with the archaeological cultures of the taiga zone of Western Siberia (Kulyegan, Polymyat, and Vary-Khadyta). The context of 13 finds, their raw material and shape has been characterized in detail. The items of the forest series feature small dimensions: a length from 4.7–5 to 8.5 cm and a thickness from 0.17 to 0.45 cm. In comparison with the larger artefacts of the Glazkovo, Krotovo, and Odino Cultures, the taiga pendants look like their miniature imitations. Most of the items were found in the settlements. The Eneolithic — Early Bronze Age archaeological sites of the taiga Ob Basin, whose materials contain lunula pendants, belong to the 3rd — early 2nd mil. BC. This chronological range coincides with the presence of such artifacts in the forest-steppe zone. The peculiar stone pendants are interpreted as an attribute of a new symbolism in the cultures of the forest communities, introduced by the Seima-Turbino groups of the population. Migrations of the Seima-Turbino populations along the Ob and Irtysh Rivers were accompanied by the mass distribution in the taiga zone of large fortified dwellings, new types of metal tools and weapons, advanced metal production technologies, and the widespread use of tin bronzes. They explain the similarity of the pottery materials and stone inventory of the taiga and the forest-steppe sites. The discovery of stone pendants in various forest zone regions, including its Arctic outskirts, allows one to interpret them as a characteristic Siberian symbolic attribute of the Palaeometal Period.

Keywords: Bronze Age, West Siberia, taiga, Seima-Turbino, symbolism.

 

Sataev R.M., Sataeva L.V.

Morphometric characteristics of the bovine bones from the excavations of the Bronze Age site of Gonur-depe

Gonur-depe is a Bronze-Age archaeological site in Turkmenistan, the presumable center of Ancient Margiana (the Bactrian-Margiana archaeological complex), located in the South-Eastern Karakum. The proto-urban center was functioning from 2500 to 1500 BC. The basis of the economy of the ancient population was mixed farming, including irrigated agriculture and livestock. Cattle was used as the source of meat, milk, skins, as well as draft animals and in rituals. In terms of the number of bones from the excavations, cattle is inferior to small cattle. However, in terms of the meat production, the contributions of bovine cattle and small cattle to the diet of the inhabitants of Gonur-depe were commensurable. Bones of older individuals predominate amongst the animals slaughtered for meat. Bones of bovine cattle are found in all excavation trenches of the site in garbage layers and ritual structures. At the same time, information on the morphological features of the cattle has been extremely limited until recently. Therefore, this study was aimed at the analysis of the morphometric characteristics of the skeletal remains of cattle from the excavations of Gonur. These data give an idea of the size of the cattle bred by the ancient population. Complete skeletons are of particular interest for the morphological study. We have studied the skeletons from burial No. 3895 of Northern Gonur, tomb No. 12 of Gonur-21, and remains of a dismembered carcass from burial No. 3890. The first skeleton belongs to an adult bull, the second to a calf, and the dismembered carcass belongs to a young cow. The size of the bull, measured by the skeleton, is quite large. It reached a height of at least 136 cm. Comparison of the measurements of disparate cattle bones from Gonur and other sites of the Bronze Age shows that they are on average larger than those of cattle of the Late Bronze Age of Eastern Europe, close in size to the bones of cattle from the Trans-Urals, and slightly smaller than the Eneolithic cattle of Southern Turkmenistan. The sizes of the metapodia, talus bones and first phalanges were used to calculate the height at the withers by disparate bones. The average height at the withers of the cattle from Gonur, reconstructed on the basis of the measurements of the skeletons and scattered bones, was at least 120 cm for cows, at least 130 cm for bulls, and 132 cm or more for oxen. Therefore, the size of the cattle bred by the inhabitants of Gonur in arid conditions was not smaller, and in some cases even larger than that of cattle of some other cultures of the Late Bronze Age and differed insignificantly from the Eneolithic cattle of Southern Turkmenistan.

Keyword: Turkmenistan, Bronze Age, Bactrian-Margiana archaeological culture, ancient animal husbandry,
cattle.

 

Ankushev M.N., Alaeva I.P., Ankusheva P.S., Artemyev D.A., Blinov I.A., Varfolomeev V.V., Panteleeva S.E., Petrov F.N.

The nature of some Late Bronze Age iron-bearing artefacts of the Ural-Kazakhstan region

The problem of the beginning of iron production in the Late Bronze Age of the Ural-Kazakhstan region is discussed. For this, 13 iron-bearing artefacts from nine settlements that functioned in the 2nd mil. BC were studied using the SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-MS methods: metal objects, metallurgical slags, and a bimetallic droplet. Most of the studied artefacts are not related to the iron metallurgy. High ferric impurities in copper metal products of the Late Bronze Age on the territory of the Southern Trans-Urals are caused by the use of iron-rich ore concentrates. The raw materials for these products were represented by mixed oxidized-sulphide ores from the cementation subzone of the volcanogenic massive sulphide and skarn copper deposits. Iron droplets, frequently found in the Late Bronze Age copper slag in the Ural-Kazakhstan region, are not directly related to iron metallurgy. They are by-products of the copper metallurgy formed in the process of copper extraction from the iron-rich components of the furnace charge or fluxes (brown iron ore, iron sulphides). The only artefacts that indicate direct smelting of metal from iron ore are the slag fragments from the Kent settlement. Presumably, oxidized martitized ore of the Kentobe skarn deposit or its nearby analogues was used to extract iron at the Kent settlement. Rare finds of iron slags from the Late Bronze Age, known only in the territory of Central Kazakhstan, confirm an extremely small scale of iron production. Iron ore had been already deliberately used for these experiments. However, iron metallurgy
in the Ural-Kazakhstan region developed into a mature industry much later. The discovery of iron metallurgy based on the smelting of copper-sulphide ores in the Ural-Kazakhstan steppes is doubtful. The use of sulphide ores here is known from the 20th c. BC, and it was widespread. In the meantime, the first iron slags and products appear much later, and their finds are sporadic. The development of iron metallurgy on the basis of experiments with iron ores seems more likely.

Keywords: iron metallurgy, copper metallurgy, Late Bronze Age, Final Bronze Age, South Trans-Urals, Republic of Kazakhstan.

 

Zakh V.A.

Zhuravlevo complex of the of Borki 1 hillfort in the Lower Ishim River Basin

At the end of the Late Bronze Age, there were events taking place in the history of the Eurasian steppes that manifested the beginning of the formation of cultures of the Scythian type. These processes, in many aspects triggered by the climate changes, spread into both southern taiga and forest-steppe territories of Western Siberia. In understanding the processes of the transitional period from the Bronze to Early Iron Age and beginning of the Early Iron Age in the southern taiga and forest-steppe Ishim River Basin, a major role pertains to the materials of the multi-layered hillfort of Borki 1, in the study of which, as well as of the cultures of the concerned period in general, a significant contribution was made by E.M. Danchenko (1991, 1996). The site is located nearby the village of Borki of Vikulovo District, Tyumen Oblast. This paper aims at the analysis and introduction into the scientific discourse of the materials of the Zhuravlevo type from the excavation trench of 2014 with the clean archaeological layer of the beginning of the Early Iron Age. During this period, the fortified platform of the hillfort was overbuilt with dwellings of the above-ground type, probably timber crib. The Zhuravlevo ware of the settlement finds its closest similarities in the materials of the sites of the Lower Ishim Basin: the settlement of Borovlyanka 2, hillfort of Lastochkino Gnezdo 1, fortified settlement of Maray 4, as well as the sites of Yamsysa 7, Kip 3, Novonikolskoe 3 and others in the southern-taiga Ishim-Irtysh area. Differences in the pottery and material culture assemblages even within a range of the Zhuravlevo complexes, not to mention the later ones of the Bogochanovo type, which have certain continuity with the aforementioned complexes, help to reveal evolutionary development of the culture of the transitional period in the Lower Ishim Basin and to raise the issue of the revision of its chronology and periodization. Giving the studies of E.M. Danchenko credit for unification of the Zhuravlevo and Bogochanovo types within the framework of the Bogochanovo Culture of the Early Iron Age, we believe that it would be more logical to consider earlier, Zhuravlevo, materials as a stage in the development of the Krasnoozerka Culture. The existence of the latter we tend to define from the mergence of the Suzgun and Atlym complexes to the formation of the steady Sargatka Culture. In spite of certain dissimilarities in the ware originating from the forest-steppe territories of the Lower Tobol River Basin, Ishim-Irtysh interfluve, Baraba and the Ob River Basin, it still seems that the processes of the development of the cultures of the concerned period in these regions have similarity in many aspects. There is a notable uniformity in the bronze assemblages of the sites of these and much wider territories. Products, similar to those found at the hillfort of Borki 1, are present in the complexes of the steppe belt of Eurasia from Tuva to the Circumpontic area and date to, most likely, the period within the 8th–6th cc. BC.

Keywords: Lower Ishim River Basin, Borki 1 settlement, transitional period from Bronze to Early Iron Age, Zhuravlevo ware, inventory, beginning of the Early Iron Age.

 

Tkachev A.A., Tkachev Al.Al. A Кipchak burial of the Menovnoe VII burial ground in the Upper Irtysh River Basin

In this paper, the materials of one of the burial mounds of the Early Kipchak cemetery of Menovnoe VII dated to the turn of the 1st–2nd mil. AD are introduced into the scientific discourse. It was the time of transition in the steppes of the Upper Irtysh River Basin of the hegemony from the Kimaks to Kipchaks; it is scantily addressed in the scientific literature, although, according to the written sources, it was specifically in the steppes of Eastern Kazakhstan where the Kipchaks started dominating; the vector of power changed, and the genesis of the Kipchak Khanate took place. There was the beginning of the Kipchak migration into the bordering regions of Kazakhstan, Central Asia, steppes of the Volga region, and Northern Circumpontic region, where they became known in history as Polovtsy, according to the Russian chronicles, or Cumans in the Byzantine sources. Materials from the burial mounds of the Menovnoe VII cemetery are indicative of the earliest period of the emergence of the Kipchak traditions, which further developed already outside the region of their formation.

Keywords: Upper Irtysh region, the Middle Ages, Kipchaks, burial mound, funeral rite, clothing inventory.