Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia @journal-aeae-en
Статьи журнала - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
Все статьи: 508
New data on armed conflicts in the Altai during the Rouran period: the Choburak I cemetery
Статья научная
This study focuses on a burial at a Rouran period cemetery, Choburak I, in the Chemalsky District, Republic of Altai, where altogether twelve burials were excavated by an expedition from the Altai State University. In kurgan 34a, a burial of a 30–35-year-old male with a horse was excavated. The burial goods included weapons, items of horse harness, utensils and domestic artifacts. The head of the buried individual had been replaced by the cranium of a ram, and certain postcranial bones revealed multiple injuries inflicted by a cutting weapon. The burial is attributed to the Dàlián tradition, associated with the Bulan-Koba culture. The analysis of the burial goods and a radiocarbon estimate suggest that the burial dates to the middle or second half of the 4th century AD. Injuries testify to armed conflicts, in which males had taken part, and support the belief that violence in the Altai was high during the Rouran period. The case is interpreted as one of decapitation. Given the parallels in adjacent regions, is can be hypothesized that the head of a ram had been used as a basis for a mask. Apparently, this peculiar custom was associated with the ritual in which the missing bodily part was replaced in specific cases of violent death.
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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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New findings relating to bone processing from Chernyatino-2, Primorye
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The article provides a detailed account of faunal materials from the Chernyatino-2 settlement in Russian Primorye. For the first time, a large series of bone blanks from a Bohai (698–926 AD) site is described, enabling us to reconstruct bone-processing techniques and types of tools used, expanding our knowledge of bone-working craft of that region. A detailed classification of bone and antler artifacts of domestic manufacture is presented. Certain artifacts are quite unusual. There are items relating to winter movement and hitherto unknown musical instruments, extending our knowledge of medieval Far Eastern musical culture. Also, we detail the species composition and proportion of domestic and wild animals. Predominant families and genera of fish are listed. The findings are discussed with reference to the role of environment in medieval subsistence strategy.
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Newly discovered bronze artifacts of the Scythian period from Archekas mountain, Kuznetsk Alatau
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Статья научная
We describe a new complex of remains in cultural horizon 3/2 of the Kovrizhka IV site on the Vitim River in the Baikal-Patom Highlands. This feature is a cluster of archaeological remains near the hearth, enclosed by an oval pavement 4.7 m by 3.2 m, consisting of eight slabs. The feature is interpreted as the remains of a dwelling. The spatial arrangement of finds is described. Rather than taking a central position, the hearth is shifted to the probable entrance in the northeastern part. Under one of the slabs of the pavement, an ocher spot was found. Qualitative and typological characteristics of the artifact assemblage are provided. The feature yielded about 2400 lithic artifacts. On the basis of the use-wear study of selected artifacts, four retouched and unretouched flakes are identified as knives. Other tools include a biface-wedge-shaped core, a bifacial scraper-knife, two fragments of unifacial scraper-like tools, a cutting tool, and retouched flakes (altogether 12 spec.). There are also three wedge-shaped narrow-faced microcores, one of which was knapped from a bifacial preform, and two from flakes. The comparison with two dwellings and a hearth complex previously discovered at Kovrizhka IV, the results of AMS-dating (the age of the complex is estimated at ca 18.9–18.6 ka BP), and the analysis of lithics have shown that the site belongs to the early stage of the Late Upper Paleolithic of the Lower Vitim. Anthracological data indicate a tundra-steppe landscape with islets of shrubs (dwarf or shrubby willow). We conclude that the dwelling evidences a short-term occupation episode. Along with the previously excavated features of Kovrizhka IV, the complex in cultural horizon 3/2 gives an idea of the culture and subsistence strategies of the Late Upper Paleolithic people at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum.
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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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Offerings of Hunnic-type artifacts in stone enclosures at Altynkazgan, the Eastern Caspian region
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