The article presents the birch bark item, found by A.P. Umanskii during the field study of the ground burial 3 of the ancient settlement of Razdumie-1, Kamenskii District, Altai Krai. The burial has been dated to the Mongol period (13th–14th centuries). The aim of this proposed research is to examine and to present the reconstruction of the birch bark item (a small cup vessel) originated from the ground burial 3 of Razdumie-1 site, stored in the collection of the Museum of Local History of Altai State Pedagogical University. The relevance of referring to the above-mentioned, partially published before material is due to the rarity of the surviving birch bark items from burial complexes of the Upper Ob region of different periods, and also due to the limited practice of their reconstruction and interpretation. In the course of the research and pre-restoration work, the authors for the first time accurately defined the shape, size and the technological characteristics of the vessel. An archival photograph of the same type of artifact from burial 1 of Razdumie-1, explored by A.P. Umanskii in 1960, has been discovered. Having considered a wide range of similarities to the item, the authors came to the conclusion that, despite a wide territorial and chronological coverage, vessels of this type are primarily united by the prevalence of the raw materials used for their manufacture and the simplicity of technological performance (layer method). At the same time, the authors specifically note the variety of methods of sewing birch bark vessels identified in the burial complexes of different periods in the south of Western Siberia. Having analysed the contents of birch bark vessels of a small cup type, the authors conclude that, within the burial space, they served as a receptacle for various substances from, possibly, cosmetic potions (during the Hun-Sarmatian period) to funeral meals in all subsequent periods, irrespective of the sex of the buried person and the variety of the construction of birch bark ware. The authors cautiously suggest that in cases where the examined burials do not contain traces of the vessels themselves, despite the presence of leftovers of funeral meals, it should be assumed a priori that these were present, and their absence is rather related to the poor preservation of organic matter in the climatic conditions of the Upper Ob area.

Keywords: Upper Ob area, Mongol time, Razdumie area, birch bark vessel, funeral rites.

 

Acknowledgment. The autors appreciate M.R. Ivanova, the worker of Municipal Budget Institution of Culture “Kamenskiy District Museum of Local History”, for the given photos of landscape unit Razdumie and the finds of 1960.

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 03.10.2024

Article is published: 15.06.2025