Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia @journal-aeae-en
Статьи журнала - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
Все статьи: 462
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On the time and context of the earliest bronze mirrors in the Northern Pontic region
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Origin and evolution of the earliest iron-smelting technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk basin
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The Khakass-Minusinsk Basin is archaeologically one of the best studied regions of Russia. Bronze artifacts from the pre-Scythian and Scythian epoch from that area are famous worldwide. However, iron production appears rather late there. From 2009 to 2018, a joint Russian-Japanese expedition excavated several sites documenting the earliest iron manufacture in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin. On the basis of these excavations and experiments, metallurgical technology was reconstructed. The results suggest an evolutionary model of metal production in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin during the Xiongnu-Sarmatian period. Three types of iron-smelting furnaces are described, structurally differing in terms of air-blasting and slag removal. The conclusion is made that the initial iron production technology had been borrowed, and later evolved in situ.
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Ornaments Made from Unio Shells in a Neolithic Burial at Ust-Aleika-5, Barnaul, Southwestern Siberia
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The search for a Mongolian era cemetery at Ust-Aleika, Kalmansky District, Altai Territory, in 1982 revealed a Neolithic child burial, which was excavated. The funerary items included over 300 artifacts made of organic and inorganic materials, among them more than a hundred pendants made from fossil Pleistocene shells of Unio mollusks, which do not occur in the Ob basin at present. These thick-walled shells had been procured from the Kalistratikha I exposure on the left bank of the Ob. The pendants had been made according to a hitherto unknown technique: they are irregularly ellipsoid with segment-shaped longitudinal and transverse sections. The thickness of the shells allowed the artisans to use relief, which is diffi cult or impossible with shells of modern bivalves from the Upper Ob basin. Burial 2 at Ust-Aleika-2 dates to the middle or late 4th millennium BC. It belongs to the same cultural and chronological group as burials 1 and 5–9 at Solontsy-5, and a double burial at Bolshoi Mys (Itkul), excavated by V.I. Molodin in 1976.
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We explore the environments of the Sibiryachikha Neanderthals, who had migrated to the Altai at the end of MIS 4. Given that the territory was already populated by Denisovans, the key question is whether the choice of habitat was random (i.e., the immigrants occupied vacant ecological niches) or motivated by other factors. On the basis of published results relating to the study of small-mammal fauna and pollen analysis, the environments of Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov Caves during the Neanderthal habitation are reconstructed. Species of small mammals are viewed as biome members. To reconstruct the episodic transfer of mammalian remains between stratigraphic units, we used ordination statistics and compared the results with those of micromorphological and stratigraphic analyses of Chagyrskaya Cave. It was found that late Neanderthals of the Altai lived in similar environments, dominated by steppe and forest steppe landscapes. The choice of caves for habitation depended on several factors, the key ones being the availability of game and high-quality raw material for manufacturing tools. On the basis of the statistical analysis of small-mammal fauna and the stratigraphic and micromorphological analyses, we conclude that post-sedimentation processes in caves can include vertical transfer of animal remains, affecting environmental reconstructions.
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Paleogenetic studies of migration processes in Eurasia
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Migration processes played a key role in shaping the cultural and genetic landscapes in Eurasia. Significant progress in the field of migration studies in recent years is associated with the development of methods for studying ancient DNA, making it possible to reach a new level of understanding the population-genetic aspects of ancient migrations and significantly supplementing the evidence of paleoanthropology and genetics of modern populations, but not replacing these areas. A key challenge is the correct comparison of processes accompanying migrations at the population genetic level and at the level of material culture. The article highlights current methods used in studying ancient DNA, from the traditional analysis of individual genetic markers to the genome-wide analysis by high-throughput sequencing. Approaches to the study of ancient migrations and to the objective reconstruction of the genetic profile of populations and its dynamics in time and space are assessed. Special attention is paid to the problem of representative sampling in the study of migration processes using paleogenetic methods, and possible strategies for selecting the materials most adequate to the tasks of the study. Ways of enhancing the efficiency of the diachronic approach in reconstructing the genetic history of populations are discussed. Possible prospects of paleogenetic studies are evaluated, including the transition to more detailed reconstructions of local migration processes.
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Peculiarities of using 2D electrical resistivity tomography in caves
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The effi cienc y of archaeological studies inside caves could be greatly enhanced by geophysical methods because of their potential for examining deposit structure and features. Application of those methods in caves entails a number of problems caused by limited space for measurements and the complexity of the surrounding medium’s structure as compared to above-ground measurements. In 2017, Selungur Cave in the Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan, was examined using electrical resistivity tomography. Because of the above concerns, in the course of the work the question of the reliability of the results arose. To clarify the issue, a numerical experiment was performed to assess the effect of the three-dimensional cave geometry on the results of a two-dimensional inversion. It was found that variations of cave geometry parameters result in unexpected false anomalies, and considerable errors in bedrock location and resistivity can occur. In the case of downward diverging cave walls, an accurate resistivity section can be obtained by using the inversion based on a two-dimensional model. Therefore, electrical resistivity tomography in caves with similar geometry can yield reliable resu lts concerning the shape of bedrock surface, the thickness of sedimentary layers, and size and position of inclusions such as fallen fragments of roof therein.
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Percussive-abrasive stone tools from Chagyrskaya cave: results of functional analysis
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This article presents a comprehensive study of percussive-abrasive active stone tools from Chagyrskaya Cave, using experimental use-wear and statistical methods, supplemented by 3D-modeling. Experiments combined with use- wear analysis allowed us to determine the functions of these tools by comparing the working surfaces and use-wear traces in the Chagyrskaya samples with those in the reference samples. As a result, we identified 19 retouchers, four hammerstones for processing mineral raw materials, and one hammer for splitting bone, which indicates the dominance of secondary processing over primary knapping in the Chagyrskaya lithic assemblage. Using statistical analysis, we traced the differences in the dimensions of the manuports and lithics under study. These artifacts are a promising and underestimated source of information for identifying working operations associated with stone- and bone-processing; moreover, they can provide new data on the functional attribution of sites and the mobility of early hominins.
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