Статьи журнала - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia

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Late bronze age smelting and processing furnaces of the eastern variant of the Pakhomovskaya culture in the Baraba forest-steppe

Late bronze age smelting and processing furnaces of the eastern variant of the Pakhomovskaya culture in the Baraba forest-steppe

Molodin V.I., Selin D.V., Mylnikova L.N., Efremova N.S., Durakov I.A.

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Late bronze and iron age crania from Armenia: a paleoecological study

Late bronze and iron age crania from Armenia: a paleoecological study

Khudaverdyan A.Y.

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Leather artifacts from Tara, Western Siberia, excavated in 2012-2014

Leather artifacts from Tara, Western Siberia, excavated in 2012-2014

Osipov D.O., Tataurov S.F., Tikhonov S.S., Chernaya M.P.

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Levantine Middle Pleistocene blade industries

Levantine Middle Pleistocene blade industries

Derevyanko A.P.

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The origin of Near Eastern Middle Pleistocene blade industries is discussed with reference to the Levallois reduction-technique. Special attention is paid to the Gesher Benot Ya'akov site, in Israel, where the Levallois technology is the earliest in the region (ca 800 ka BP). Whereas later Acheulean industries show no continuity with the Levallois tradition, the alternation of predominant Middle Pleistocene technologies indicates changing adaptation strategies caused by ecological conditions. Accordingly, the early appearance of the laminar technology in the Near East evidences local evolution rather than immigration. The major factors underlying this innovation were adaptation and the intrin sic development of the Levallois system. Laminar technologies, which are fi rst evidenced by certain Levantine sites even earlier than Gesher Benot Ya'akov, became widely distributed at the Acheulo-Yabrudian stage of the late Acheulean. A well-developed blade technology is demonstrated by the Amudian industry of Qesem, Israel, dating to 400–200 ka BP.

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Literacy and numeracy skills of the inhabitants of Tara and its rural districts in the 17th and 18th centuries

Literacy and numeracy skills of the inhabitants of Tara and its rural districts in the 17th and 18th centuries

Tataurova L.V., Tataurov S.F., Tataurov F.S.

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Lobed Ware in the Far East from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages

Lobed Ware in the Far East from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages

Medvedev V.E.

Статья научная

The study focuses on the origin and survival of the so-called lobed ware in the Far East. The term refers to vessels decorated with shallow vertical grooves, less often with deep, wide dents, either on the most convex part of the body or on the entire surface. Some vessels are covered with groups of vertical carved lines or burnished, less often painted bands imitating lobulation. Such ceramics are especially frequent at sites of the Jurchen era (7th–13th centuries) in the Amur basin. They are also found in Primorye, northeastern China, and in adjacent territories. The study of various sources shows that the lobed ware was made on the Lower Amur as early as the Neolithic (5th to late 2nd millennia BC), with the earliest samples relating to the Kondon culture. Typical lobed ceramics were also made by people of the Malyshevo and Voznesenovskoye cultures. It is hypothesized that the Jurchen-Bohai pottery, including the lobed ware, was directly influenced by Korean traditions of the first two or three quarters of the 1st millennium AD. Given the distinctness of the tradition, its reminiscences in the Amur region can be traced back to the Neolithic.

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Location of Tatar settlements in the Middle and Lower Tara region according to 18th century maps

Location of Tatar settlements in the Middle and Lower Tara region according to 18th century maps

Tikhomirov K.N., Tikhomirova M.N.

Статья

Тhis article discusses the location of Tatar settlements in the lower and middle reaches of the Tara on maps of the Tarsky Uyezd (1784 and 1798) and on topographic plan of the Kartashevskago and Bergamotskaya districts of the Tarsky Uyezd (1798). These maps had not been previously used for reconstructing the history of the region. To test their accuracy, other sources are used, including the Inventory Book of the Tarsky Uyezd, Gerhard Miller’s itineraries, etc., as well as the results of archaeological and ethnographic studies. Based on the analysis of maps, patterns in the locations of Tatar settlements are reconstructed. They were situated between the mouth of Tara and its confl uence with the Chertalinka River on the right bank, and between the Chertalinka and Kalinka rivers on the left bank. The reliability of the late 18th century maps as sources of information about the winter and summer settlements of the Tatars of the Middle and Lower Tara is assessed. These maps do not suggest that the settlements were still seasonal rather than permanent at that time. The winter camps were situated on the Tara high terrace, away from the valley, and summer camps were on the fl ood plain, close to the villages. The general pattern was that people settled along the river, often close to the places where the Tara tributaries fl owed into it. Place names are suggestive of seasonal settlements. Comparison with modern maps suggests that the current settlements pattern on the Lower and Middle Tara emerged in the late 18th century.

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Masks and Sculptured Human Heads in Early Neolithic Complexes of Northern Mesopotamia

Masks and Sculptured Human Heads in Early Neolithic Complexes of Northern Mesopotamia

Kornienko T.V.

Статья научная

This study focuses on sculptural representations of human heads and faces and related sources from Northern Mesopotamia, dating to the 10th to early 8th millennia BC. Consideration is given to archaeological context, placement relative to other ritually meaningful objects and complexes, and to material traces of actions performed with them. The distribution of masks and separate sculptural and relief images of the human head, in Northern Mesopotamia in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN), is determined in its western and central regions during the Late PPNA, Early and Middle PPNB periods. The tradition of manufacturing such objects, like the custom of burying or otherwise ritually manipulating separate human skulls, had been practiced in the Levant at least since the Upper Epi-Paleolithic. Many PPN masks and sculptured heads were found in contexts resembling those relating to human crania (and sometimes postcrania) in ritual complexes. Ritual actions with human skulls and sculptural representations of human heads were apparently based on similar religious beliefs broadly aimed at the wellbeing of the community, its security, stability, and reproduction.

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Materials from dwelling 2 on Suchu island, the Lower Amur (1977 season, excavation III)

Materials from dwelling 2 on Suchu island, the Lower Amur (1977 season, excavation III)

Medvedev V.E., Filatova I.V.

Статья

This article presents the fi nal results of excavations at one of the largest Neolithic sites in northeastern Asia— a settlement on Suchu Island on the Amur. Most of the rich collection (3967 spec.), owned by IAET SB RAS (stone tools, ceramics, ornaments, and artistic and ritual artifacts), has not been described before. This publication focuses on the analysis of artifacts from dwelling 2 (excavation III, 1977). We describe the construction of this semi-underground dwelling, circular in plan view. The typological analysis of the lithics indicates a complex economy. Many of them (arrowheads, projectile points, inserts, knives, plummets) relate to hunting and fi shing, and to processing carcasses (end-scrapers, scrapers, burins, combination tools), others are chopping tools. The distinctive feature of the lithics is that some are bifacial. The analysis of the ceramics suggests that they belong to the Late Neolithic Voznesenovskoye culture. The use of binocular microscopy allowed us to assess the technological and constructive properties of the ceramics, as well as their morphological, decorative, and functional features. Non-ut ilitarian artifacts shed light on the worldview of the Suchu people. The collection dates to the mid-second millennium BC.

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Medieval burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1, the Kansk-Rybinsk basin

Medieval burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1, the Kansk-Rybinsk basin

Vybornov A.V., Skobelev S.G., Alekseeva E.A., Bagashev A.N., Slepchenko S.M., Grachev I.A.

Статья научная

Previously, burials at Ryabchikov Klyuch-1 on the Kan River near Kansk were dated to the Late Middle Ages (pre-Russian period) and attributed to an autochthonous group. In 2015, two burials were discovered at the cemetery, with the remains of an adolescent girl and a child. A comprehensive analysis of the burial rite and grave goods suggests that the burials date to the 12th century. Numerous archaeological and ethnographic parallels were found. Morphologically, the girl’s cranium reveals generally eastern traits, specifically those common in Western Siberian (Uralic and Ob-Irtysh) populations. The cranium was restored, and a graphical reconstruction of the face was made. Burial practices of the 17th–19th century Middle Kan populations are described. They were Ket-speaking Kotts, Turkic-speaking Karagas, and Samoyed-speaking Kamasins. The analysis of sources suggests that the buried people were likely ancestors of the Kotts.

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Mesolithic human teeth from Zamostye-2, Moscow region

Mesolithic human teeth from Zamostye-2, Moscow region

Zubova A.V., Moiseev V.G., Kulkov A.M.

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Metal Celts from the Little Sea Coast of Lake Baikal

Metal Celts from the Little Sea Coast of Lake Baikal

Novikov A.G., Goriunova O.I.

Статья научная

This article examines metal celts accidentally found 2 km west of Kurma on the Little Sea coast of Lake Baikal, in the foothills of Primorsky Ridge, Olkhonsky District, Irkutsk Region. Detailed information is provided on the conditions in which they were found and aspects of their technology, form, and decoration. The specimens have no eyelets, are rectangular in cross-section, and were cast in bivalve molds. They differ in size and decoration. On their wide sides, there are holes for supports inserted into the mold halves. While no exact parallels to the celts are known, several chronological indicators (body shape, socket cross-section, absence of eyelets, and decoration) point to the Scythian-Tagar stage. The most similar specimens are the Krasnoyarsk-Angara type of celt, distributed over the taiga belt from the Yenisei to the Angara. X-ray spectrometric analysis suggests that the celts were made of “pure” copper. In the Olkhon area, the Scythian-Tagar celts are associated with the Slab Grave culture, dating to 2778–1998 cal BP.

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Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Development and Search for Interactions

Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Development and Search for Interactions

Ankushev M.N., Ankusheva P.S., Artemyev D.A.

Статья научная

The article examines late 3rd and 2nd millennia BC mining and metallurgy across vast territory of Central Eurasia, inhabited by Andronovo pastoralists and Central Asia farmers. We provide chronological framework for the emergence and evolution of mining techniques (exploitation of various horizons of the oxidation zone of volcanic massive sulfides, copper porphyry, skarn and copper sandstone deposits, the use of specialized mines), appearance of arsenic bronze, tin bronze, and iron. Despite local peculiarities, mining and metallurgy passed through similar consecutive developmental stages in Central Eurasia. Archaeological data suggest that in the Late Bronze Age, Andronovo communities settled southwards from the steppes of Northern Eurasia to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. They played a major role in the spread of tin bronze and the exploitation of tin mines in Central Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. So far, there is only indirect evidence of contacts between Andronovo communities and people of the Iranian Highlands. The most promising sites that may yield such evidence are those of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex in northeastern Iran. Mineralogical and geochemical research methods help to assess the technological features of metallurgy and to discover ore sources; however, the interaction between Bronze Age communities can be explored only through archaeological and typological studies of sites and artifacts.

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Metal artifacts from a newly discovered cemetery in the Severnaya Sosva basin, Northwestern Siberia

Metal artifacts from a newly discovered cemetery in the Severnaya Sosva basin, Northwestern Siberia

Rudenko K.A., Baulo A.V.

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Metal bowls from a medieval cemetery at Rusenikha

Metal bowls from a medieval cemetery at Rusenikha

Nikitina T.B., Rudenko K.A., Alibekov S.Y.

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