Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia @journal-aeae-en
Статьи журнала - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
Все статьи: 462
Multidisciplinary study of burnt deposits at Surungur, Fergana valley, Southern Kyrgyzstan
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Multivolume three global human migrations in Eurasia and its place in Paleolithic studies
Статья научная
Academician A.P. Derevianko’s longterm studies are summarized in the fi rst four volumes of his monograph on three global human migrations in Eurasia. The routes whereby early humans dispersed from Africa and eventually spread over nearly entire Eurasia are reconstructed, and numerous empirical and theoretical problems stemming from these reconstructions are convincingly resolved. Derevianko headed the excavations of Paleolithic sites scattered across vast territories of Asia. Especially important are the discoveries in the Altai. This work has raised a number of questions of key importance, for which no universally accepted answers have been given so far. Based on the hominin fossil record and having critically examined the principal hypotheses and proposals concerning both biological and cultural aspects of human evolution, A.P. Derevianko has come up with his own theory of the origin of the genus Homo, originating from Australopithecines. Some groups of the latter are believed to have been mentally predisposed for developing cumulative knowledge relating to lithic technologies and other aspects of culture. One of these aspects is the behavior relating to the interment of the dead—the fi rst specifi cally human cultural trait, documented since the fi nal Acheulean. Human migrations involve a plexus of issues: properties of the raw material affecting lithic industries, and the extreme environmental variability peculiar to the largest continent. Despite the exponential growth of publications addressing human evolution, Derevianko’s conclusions, both empirical and theoretical, outlined in the fi rst volumes of his summarizing work, retain a key importance.
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Mythologizing history in Buryat Shamanic rites
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This study explores the regional specificity of Buryat rites with regard to the variable manifestation of mythological and historical components, and late innovations. The first attempt is made to reconstruct the mythological component of spoken texts accompanying these rites in the historical and ethno-cultural context. On the basis of field and archival data, contamination and transformation of myth and history in ritual is demonstrated. The principal characters such as deities, shamans, tribal and clan chiefs are described, and the semantics and pragmatics of ancestor and master- spirits in the historical context are discussed. The mythological status of supernatural characters of the rite is assessed. Specific ethnic criteria of turning real personalities into mythological characters in the historic context are listed. Universal features traceable in the process of turning history into myth include a regular mixture of mythological motifs with historical facts, interchange of temporal planes, and especially the reincarnation theme. The conclusion is made that pragmatic rites are the most stable, whereas the general tendency is that rites become less and less connected with mythology and progressively less hyperbolic.
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Статья научная
We describe new findings relating to Neolithic burials at two cemeteries in the Northern Angara area, excavated in 2012 by the Boguchany archaeological expedition. The sites are located at the outlet of the Zelinda—the right tributary of the Angara. Two burials were revealed at Ust-Zelinda-1, and five at Ust-Zelinda-2. We describe preserved remains and the funerary rite, and analyze radiocarbon dates generated from the human bones. On the basis of archaeological parallels, we attribute certain burials to the Isakovo culture. Burial practices include the use of “ocher” and the supine position of the buried along the Angara, heads to the south, upstream of the site. Calibrated radiocarbon dates, details of the funerary rite, grave goods and their typological characteristics, as well as the placement of graves within the cemeteries, suggest that three chronological groups existed within the 7499–5583 cal BP (5550–3634 cal BC) interval. The 14C date of the third group (5718–5583 cal BP, or 3769–3634 cal BC), details of the funerary rite, and grave goods are indicative of the Late Neolithic (Isakovo culture of the Southern Angara). Burials of the second group, which is the best represented (7157–6555 cal BP, or 5208–4606 cal BC), resemble those of the classic Isakovo tradition. The burial (without grave goods) attributed to the fi rst chronological group dates to 7499–7317 cal BP, or 5550– 5368 cal BC. It is hypothesized that “proto-Isakovo” traditions originated on the Northern Angara, having later spread to the Southern Angara.
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New data on iron-smelting sites in the Kuektanar and Turgun valleys, Southeastern Altai
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New data on the chronology of the initial Neolithic Gromatukha culture, Western Amur region
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New dental finds associated with the Paleolithic Selenga culture, Western Trans-Baikal region
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Newly discovered bronze artifacts of the Scythian period from Archekas mountain, Kuznetsk Alatau
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Nikolaevo-Otradnoye II-a new Early and Middle Paleolithic site in the Northeastern Azov region
Статья научная
We describe materials from a new Paleolithic site, discovered in 2020 on the right bank of Mius estuary, near its confl uence with the Taganrog Bay of the Sea of Azov, in the southern outskirts of the village of Nikolaevo-Otradnoye, which is in the Neklinovksky District of the Rostov Region. The clearing of a 10-meter-high river-bluff revealed a complex stratigraphy of subaqueous and subaerial Late and Middle Pleistocene rocks. Horizons with lithics and faunal remains were identifi ed. Cultural remains found in the coastal exposure and in the stratigraphic section belong to the Early and Middle Paleolithic. The early stage in the peopling of the Northeastern Azov and the Lower Don regions is documented by Early Paleolithic artifacts found in the subaqueous deposits of layers 5 and 6 (MIS 9–11, ~420– 270 ka BP). Heavil y waterworn patinated lithics include a core-shaped artifact, variou s types of side-scrapers, a scaled piece, fl akes, and chips. This complex is an informative addition to known complexes from the region, including contemporaneous ones. The most interesting is the Middle Paleolithic industry of layer 4 under the Kamenka (?) soil— layer 3, MIS 7. The toolkit consists of a diagonal side-scraper and a chip found in the section, as well as radial and Levallois cores, various side-scrapers, a par tly bifacial tool, spalls, and chips found in the denudation. Technological and typological criteria (primarily the Levallois technology) and the tentative date of non-waterworn patinated lithics make it possible to attribute them to the Early Middle Paleolithic of the southern Russian Plain. It is concluded that cultural remains of the Early Middle Paleolithic, dating to ~243–191 ka BP, have been found in the region for the fi rst time, fi lling the gap in the local Early Middle Paleolithic sequence. In adjacent regions, similar industries have been known since the late 1900s.
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Novopetrovka III-an early neolithic site in the Western Amur basin and its chronology
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This article discusses the chronology of Novopetrovka III—a Neolithic settlement in the Western Amur basin, evaluated by the radiocarbon analysis of charred remains on pottery. The Novopetrovka culture as a whole, represented by Novopetrovka I–III and Konstantinovka sites, which had been excavated in the early 1960s, was dated to the 5th (possibly 6th) to early 4th millennia BC on the basis of the typology of the blade industry. The overview of data on prismatic blades manufactured by the pressure technique demonstrated that blade industries appeared in a vast territory of Eurasia in the Final Pleistocene to Early Holocene and, in certain regions, survived until the Chalcolithic. Therefore, they are only a rough guide to the relative chronology of the sites. In the 1990s, after the appearance of radiocarbon dates generated from samples of organic remains in temper and charred remains on pottery from Novopetrovka II, the culture was redated to 15.5–10.8 cal BP. A comparative analysis of new radiocarbon dates based on charred remains on pottery suggests that the age of Novopetrovka III is 9.0–9.5 thousand years. Because no changes were traced in the Novopetrovka sites over a long period of time, the chronological assessment of the Novopetrovka culture in toto and of its separate sites is problematic.
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Статья научная
This study proposes a novel methodological approach to reconstructing the boundaries and structure of medieval settlements without relief features. In recent centuries, the areas of most sites were used for plowing, destroying their relief features. Erosion eventually redistributed the soil of the destroyed occupation layers. Therefore, not only the area of a site must be studied, but the adjoining areas as well. Tendencies in the distribution of the transported occupation layer mirror the thickness of the original culture-bearing deposits. Such estimates can be obtained by collating archaeological and science-based data. First, multispectral aerial photographs are subjected to statistical analysis. The results are then used to subdivide the settlement territory into smaller areas differing in vegetation density. Comparison with the results of geophysical, soil, and archaeological studies allows us to interpret those areas, to assess the state of preservation of the occupation layer (superficially disrupted, replaced, or transported). Previous multidisciplinary studies at the Kushman cluster of sites (9th–13th centuries AD) revealed substantial differences from the traditional classification (fortified settlement and group of unfortified rural settlements). Two sites can be defined as fortified settlements (Uchkakar and Kushmanskoye III), whereas Kushmanskoye II is an economic development area. The use of statistical analysis of multispectral imaging enabled us not only to confirm the previously proposed reconstruction, but also to substantiate the hypothesis about the initial boundaries and structure of the settlements.
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