Andronovo (Fedorovo) complex of the Stary sad burial ground (Baraba forest-steppe)

Purpose. The article analyzes burial complexes of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture from the site Stary Sad, which is situated on the territory of Baraba forest-steppe. The five surface structures of the site belonging to the culture analyzed included 10 graves, 12 pits and 8 spots of burnt ground discovered during excavations. The burial rite in nine cases was identified as cremation, and in one case the grave contained only the head of a man. The graves contained ceramic vessels (24 specimens) including vessels with pans (5 specimens) and those with square vessel mouth (4 specimens). Results. Morphological analysis shows that the technological tradition of producing pottery existed in the culture under analysis. It also reveals some deviations, which means that new, non-habitual for this cultural group features appeared in the system of forming vessels. We compared the ceramics discovered on the site and the items found on the sites Stary Tartas-4 and Tartas-1. It appears that the collection of the Stary Sad burial ground occupies an intermediate position. On the one hand, strict technological canons of pottery forming are preserved, as well as on the classical Andronovo (Fedorovo) site StaryTartas-4. On the other hand, we discovered vessels that contained other proportions, more similar to the ceramic of the site Tartas-1. We assume that the ceramics of the Stary Sad marked the beginning of direct interactions between population of Andronovo (Fedorovo) and Krotovo cultures in Baraba forest-steppe. Conclusion. As a result of analyzing the burial rites and the ceramic material found and comparing them with the vessels of other sites of this culture in Baraba forest-steppe, we conclude that parallels can be drawn with the site Stary Tartas-4, which is dated back to the 18th-15th centuries BC by organic residues. At the same time, we found certain similarities with other burial complexes and cemeteries in the region. These similarities are limiting the mortuary space by pits, not by trenches, and putting in vessels produced according to a mixed pottery scheme. Thus, we can assume that the funerary complexes of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture of the site Stary Sad marked the beginning of the «barbarism» process in the region of the Andronovo population and could be dated within the first half of the II millennium BC. Mapping of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) burial complexes in Baraba forest-steppe shows that newcomers, people of the Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture, moved mainly from west to east along the main highway in the region of the river Om. Prevalence of cremations over burials on the site, according to E.E. Kuzmina, is typical for the western area of Andronovo (Fedorovo) culture. This may indicate the early phase of the phenomenon fixed on the site. This result agrees with the data obtained by the analysis of ceramic vessels forms.