Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia @journal-aeae-en
Статьи журнала - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
Все статьи: 462
Remnants of the snake cult among the Khakas (late 19th to mid 20th century)
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An especially noteworthy part of the Firsovo archaeological area is a group of early burials at the fl at-grave cemeteries Novoaltaisk-Razvilka, Firsovo XI, and Firsovo XIV. Nine radiocarbon dates have been generated for those cemeteries at various laboratories: two by the liquid-scintillation (LSC) method and seven using the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method. The dates were calibrated using OxCal version 3.10 software. Dates for the Chalcolithic Bolshoy Mys culture burials at Novoaltaisk-Razvilka and Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 burial 7 match the previously suggested ones (around 3000 BC). Certain Neolithic burials in the Altai differ from others in the position of the bodies (fl exed on the side). They were dated to the late 5th to the early 4th millennia BC by the AMS method. Burials belonging to the “cultural core” of Firsovo XI, then, fall within the Early Neolithic (68 % interval, 5710–5460 BC; 95 % interval, 5740–5360 BC). The date 9106 ± 80 BP (GV-02889), obtained for Firsovo XI burial 18, may be somewhat accurate, pointing to the Final Mesolithic or Early Neolithic. Both the date and the cultural characteristics of this burial (sitting position, abundant ocher) are accompanied by the craniometric distinctness of the male cranium (huge total size).
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Rocks in the religious beliefs and rites of the Ob Ugrians
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This study, based on materials collected in the 18th–20th centuries, and on the author’s field findings over the last 40 years, shows the role of rocks in the Ob Ugrian worldview and ritual practices. Evidence is provided on the veneration of various natural stone objects. Reasons for the cult of worshipping such places are discussed. One reason was that the rock resembled a human or animal figure. In legends and myths, the stone houses of heroic ancestors were correlated with numerous caves in the Ural Mountains. The main part of the article introduces materials relating to the stone figures of deities and patron spirits, supported by mythical narratives explaining the ways that a mythological hero was changed into stone. Examples are given of the figures of deities with a stone base found among local groups of the Ob Ugrians, such as the Lyapin and Sosva Mansi, Synya and Polui Khanty. The role of rocks in childbirth and funerary rites is examined, as well as their role in economic practices such as fishing. In Khanty and Mansi mythological beliefs, the modifier «stony» was equivalent to «iron» or «strong».
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We describe a group of Egyptian faience scarabs unearthed from the necropolis on the Iluraton Plateau, Eastern Crimea, by the expedition from the State Museum of the History of Religion (St. Petersburg) in 1987–1990. Artifacts made of so-called Egyptian faience were found in eight of the sixty-two burials—those of g irls aged below 1.5, dating to the 1st to early 2nd centuries AD. The most numerous among the faience items were beads in the form of scarabs. The analysis shows them to fall into three groups in terms of presence and nature of images on the reverse side: those without images (3 spec.), those with abstract images (3 spec.), and those with anthropo-zoomorphic images (2 spec.). In two cases, representations point to specifi c Egyptian workshops. Scarabs in girls’ burials of the Roman period elaborate on the thanatological imagery, which originated among the Scythian-Saka tribes of Eurasia in the mid-1st millennium BC.
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Seasonality of Sintashta funerary rites (based on the Kamennyi ambar-5 Bronze Age cemetery)
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Based on archaeological materials from the Kamennyi Ambar-5 cemetery, we test the hypothesis about the connection between the seasonality of pastoral practices and funerary rites during the Late Bronze Age (early 2nd millennium BC). We studied growth layers in the teeth of 24 cows, 19 sheep/goats, 14 horses, a dog, and ten humans from 17 graves. We combined samples from various species from the same contexts into eight assemblages. With regard to animals, differences in seasons of death were revealed only once. 70 % of graves were arranged in spring and 30 % in autumn. Therefore, the hypothesis about the seasonal use of the cemetery can be supported at least partially. The contemporaneous settlement of Kamennyi Ambar demonstrates a similar tendency in the seasonality of animal slaughtering. However, the reasons for slaughtering at the settlement differed from those in the cemetery. At the settlement site, it was motivated by practical needs, and in themortuary site, only by the seasonality of human deaths, specifically Ьy a higher frequency of deaths in late winter and spring. Also, postmortem selection is possiЬle, whereЬy kurgan burials were arranged only for some individuals. In practice, several of the above factors overlapped, resulting in an anomalous composition of the buried cohort (disproportion of sexes and a higher proportion of individuals who died at the peak of vital activity).
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Seventeenth century Siberia as a land of opportunity: social mobility among the Russian pioneers
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Shovels used by Russians in 17th-18th century Siberia
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The study describes types of the shovel—one of the most widely used and multifunctional tools in 17th–18th century Russian culture of Siberia. The principal collection includes more than twenty intact and fragmented specimens unearthed during 13 fi eld seasons of excavations at Tara, in the Omsk Region. Shovels found elsewhere in Western Siberia are also described, and the role of this tool in the households of Russian pioneers in Siberia is assessed. Judging by the drawings in Semen Remezov’s chronicle and excavation records from Tara, Mangazeya, and Nadym forts, we conclude that shovels were specialized for various kinds of work, and that they varied with the season. There were diverse types used for constructing fortifi cations, dwellings and utility structures, for digging graves, tillage, clearing snow, handling bulk materials, and baking bread; children’s toy shovels are also described. Information is provided on shapes of shovels and the types of wood Siberians used for making them.
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Shulbinka Paleolithic site, Eastern Kazakhstan, revisited
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This study revises the cultural and chronological attribution of the Shulbinka site, Eastern Kazakhstan, with reference to recent ideas of the Early Upper Paleolithic in northern Central Asia, including new sites dating to that stage (Tolbor-21, Ushbulak, etc.) and a representative series of absolute dates relevant to the site’s chronology. We describe the discovery of the site and principal fi ndings of excavations carried out more than 20 years ago, focusing on the comprehensive analysis of artifacts from Shulbinka, conducted in 2019. We demonstrate that the estimated age and the cultural attribution of the site disagree with earlier interpretations. Earlier claims about the presence of Levallois and Mousterian components in the primary reduction system appear poorly supported. The idea that artifacts from the site resemble those of the Early Upper Paleolithic is subjected to a critical inquiry. As it turns out, the closest parallels to this assemblage are found among the Final Upper Paleolithic industries of southern and central Siberia. Important traits include the combination of large cores for making fl akes, blades with edge-faceted and wedge-shaped microcores, and the predominance of end-scrapers and chisel-like tools. Few parallels can be found with industries of different cultural and chronological periods. Based on these analyses, we conclude that the site of Shulbinka dates to the Final Paleolithic. The absence of Final Middle Paleolithic or Early Upper Paleolithic markers makes the site irrelevant to debates around the origin of the Upper Paleolithic in the region.
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In cultural terms, as compared to many other Russian groups, the South Russian (Kursk) settlers of Siberia in the late 19th to early 20th centuries were a distinct group, having their own traditional culture but usually no compact settlements. In this work, for the first time, on the basis of the State Archive of the Kursk Region, the ethno-cultural composition of Siberian settlers from that region is examined. Attitudes of South Russian peasants of the post-Reform era to migration are analyzed, reasons underlying their “wanderlust” and their reflection about relocation and ethnic identity are explored. Documents at the State Archive of the Tomsk Region, and the findings of my fi eld studies in 2014– 2018 pertaining to the Siberian stage in the history of Russian “Yuzhaks” (Southerners) suggest that their priority was to live side by side with Ukrainian settlers, as they had used to do in their homeland. The reason is that the key role in the early 20th century migrations was played by Russian-Ukrainian frontiersmen—people of “no man’s land”. At the time of migration to Siberia, those living in the southern Kursk Governorate were Russian Old Believers, Southern Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians (Little Russians), Russian Cossacks, and “Cherkassians” (Ukrainian Cossacks). The latter preferred to live apart from others, even within a single village. Archival documents and findings of field studies in the Anzhero-Sudzhensky District of the Kemerovo Region, and in the Topchikhinsky and Kulundinsky Districts of the Altai Territory demonstrate that Southern Russians were situationally identical to Ukrainians, as evidenced, for instance, by the frequent shift of surname endings from “-ko” and “-k” to “-ov” and vice versa, depending on migration plans. A conclusion is made that the ethnic diversity of migrants from the Kursk Governorate, the situational equivalence of Eastern Slavic groups in Siberia, as well as marriages with Russian old residents and Ukrainians, were key factors in the formation of local Siberian variants of the South Russian culture.
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Spatial structures of the initial/early Upper Paleolithic at Tolbor-21, Northern Mongolia
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This article describes the spatial structures of archaeological horizon 4 at Tolbor-21 in northern Mongolia, on the basis of data from 2015–2017. The presence of non-utilitarian items, faunal remains with traces of human impact, and the use of fi re render this site near outcrops of raw materials promising for the reconstruction of the spatial organization of Early Upper Paleolithic sites in northern Mongolia. Spatial analysis included visual observations and statistical procedures (clustering with two algorithms) aimed at identifying patterns in the distribution of fi nds in various areas. The infl uence of natural processes on the distribution of artifacts was evaluated with fabric analysis based on the positions of the long axes of fi nds. As a result, it was found that solifl uction variously affected the archaeological horizon in different parts of the slope. The effect was strongest in excavation 2, where two possibly overlapping episodes of fi rerelated activity have been reconstructed. Nevertheless, it is possible to separate two complexes differing in terms of fi nds, including signifi cantly modifi ed tools and bones with traces of human impact (“fi replace 1”) and a concentration of small artifacts (“fi replace 2”). In the upper part of the slope (excavation 4), near the stone structure, an accumulation of cores at the advanced reduction stages is reconstructed, as well as an area where ungulate carcasses were butchered. An area associated with primary reduction has been separated in excavation 1. The differential use of the camp area by its inhabitants seems to be an important feature of the subsistence strategy of the population of northern Mongolia during the initial stages of the Upper Paleolithic.
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