Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia @journal-aeae-en
Journal articles - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
All articles: 569
The Siungkap-Ungkapon Ritual in the Batak Toba Community: Archaeological and Agricultural Aspects
Scientific article
In Indonesia, agricultural rituals are consistently performed before, after, and even during specific periods, with variations in form across regions and ethnicities. We outline the results of our study of the siungkapungkapon ritual and its role in agricultural practices of the Batak Toba community. We examine the ecological context and archaeological data relevant to rice farming. Our study includes interviews with community members and observation of rites involving the siungkap-ungkapon stone. We discuss intertwined aspects of the rite—religious, social, ecological, and technological. The rite itself has been practiced at least since the Late Neolithic with a view to receive the ancestors’ blessings and instructions as to which rice variety should be cultivated during a specific season. The ritual reveals the peasants’ knowledge of agricultural practices, rice types, and the environment, all of which, taken together, ensure the highest yield. How the choice of the rice variety depends on the presence of ants under the stone is not immediately apparent. We conclude that the siungkap-ungkapon ritual, which involves practical knowledge, strengthens social unity and is supposed to optimize agricultural labor.
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Scientific article
This article discusses difficulties in the use of Japanese archaeological terminology, especially with regard to the Jōmon period. The history of the notions of “style”, “type”, and “form” is outlined, which are the most adequate concepts for the interpretation, classification, and description of new styles of the Jōmon pottery. The evolution of the terms is traced using the works by Yamanouchi Sugao and Kobayashi Tatsuo. Their basic views on the typology of Jōmon artifacts and the notions behind the key terms are described.
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The Tamga signs of the Turkic nomads in the Altai and Semirechye: comparisons and identifications
Review article
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The Ukok Plateau, an Archaeological Gem of the Altai: 35 Years Later
Scientific article
The article brings together the most important results of work carried out by archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS on the Ukok Plateau in the southwestern part of the Altai Republic, Russia, over the past thirty years since the fi rst excavations by Natalia Polosmak. Over this period, a series of fundamental discoveries was made on the plateau, and the fi ndings were published in a number of monographs and articles. Regrettably, these publications have received little attention from experts and lay public amenable to scientifi c boom and to myths spread by hedge journalists, by the public craving for brouhaha, and sometimes even by professional archaeologists. This study highlights major excavation fi ndings, their scholarly interpretation and museumization of the Early Iron Age Pazyryk mounds, including rare ones with permafrost. These were interpreted with regard to the specifi c area of Central Asia, and to the entire timespan from its initial peopling in the Late Pleistocene to the recent centuries. The archaeologists’ role in the detection and description of over 400 sites on the plateau is assessed. Rock art galleries, especially the key site at Kalgutinsky Rudnik with the earliest petroglyphs among those known in the Russian and Mongolian Altai, are described. Protective measures regarding cultural legacy of the Ukok Plateau, its coverage by the media, and prevention of ecological harm by tourists are proposed to municipal authorities in the Republic of Altai.
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The Umrevinsky hoard of silver wire kopecks from the reign of Peter I
Scientific article
The Umrevinsky hoard, comprising 107 silver wire kopecks, was found in 2008 outside the walls of Fort (Ostrog) Umrevinsky, founded in 1703 on the right bank of the Ob River, 100 km north of Novosibirsk. This is the fi rst time such a hoard has been discovered in the Novosibirsk stretch of the Ob. Its composition is assessed with reference to archaeological fi ndings relating to Fort Umrevinsky. The chronology of the coins and of their deposition is evaluated. The location is near a dwelling within a manor, in an ash-layer. The coins are relatively poorly preserved. We were able to identify the minting-years of 34 coins. All specimens with legible stamp-impressions were minted between 1696 and 1717. On the basis of the results, it is concluded that this was a hoard of coin-silver. Firstly, most kopecks bear no discernible images that would guarantee specifi c weight and silver content; secondly, the hoard was deposited no earlier than 1735, i.e., 20 years after the coins had gone out of use. This conclusion is supported by the fact that some coins were apparently used as ornaments that were sewn on clothes by the natives. All these fi ndings enrich our knowledge of the history of Fort Umrevinsky.
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The Vengerovo-2A Neolithic cemetery, Southwestern Siberia: results of a multidisciplinary study
Article
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The Wanyan Digunai (Wanyan Zhong, Esikui) funerary complex in Primorye
Scientific article
The article outlines the findings of studies of a funerary complex beside the stone sculpture of a bixi turtle, discovered in 1893 on the territory of the mill of O.V. Lindholm in Primorye. The present research is based on unpublished diaries (from 1893 and 1894) of F.F. Busse, who carried out rescue excavations of the hill under the sculpture and unearthed a stone coffin buried nearby. A rounded stele top with 20 Chinese characters was found at the same place. The translation demonstrates that the burial was that of a prominent Jurchen military leader belonging to a noble Wanyan clan— Wanyan Digunai (Chinese name Wanyan Zhong, 完颜忠 , known as Esikui/Asukui, 阿思魁 ). The burial was largely neglected, because scholars focused on translating and interpreting the inscription. The burial was believed to have been looted long ago, and Busse's diaries remained unpublished. The focus of the present study, therefore, is to describe all available sources relating to Wanyan Digunai's funerary complex. Based on the analysis of the excavation findings, features of the funerary rite are reconstructed. The architectural design and layout of the complex are shown to have followed the local East Asian tradition.
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Scientific article
The study describes a new method of integrating field and archival sources relevant to the migration of peasant families from the Ryazan Governorate to the Altai in the 1880s. Late 19th to early 20th century documents from the archives of the Ryazan and Tomsk regions were used. A new comparative method was applied to analyze the findings of ethnographic surveys in places of the original (Ryazan) and subsequent (Shubinka Volost, Biysk Uyezd, Altai) residence of migrants. Based on interviews with their descendants, adaptation to the new areas of residence was explored. Both before and after the 1917 Revolution, the migrants retained their two basiс distinctions—Orthodoxy and the Southern Russian dialect. Adaptation processes included development of the new habitat and marriages not only with members of their group but also with Siberian old residents. These adaptive strategies opposed migrants from Ryazan to those from other Southern Russian Governorates such as Kursk, Voronezh, etc., who maintained ties mostly with migrants from Poltava, Chernigov, and other southern regions.
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Review article
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The beginning of iron metallurgy in East Asia
Scientific article
This study focuses on the beginning of the Early Iron Age in the Far East. A revision of the published data indicates a lack of synchrony in the appearance of bronze artifacts in cultures of the Amur region and Primorye in the late 2nd to early 1st millennia BC. Iron and cast iron were widely distributed in the Urilsky and Yankovsky cultures. However, no such artifacts are known in contemporaneous cultures such as the Evoron, Siniy Gai, and Lidovka, which are attributed to the Bronze Age, whereas the earliest iron and cast iron artifacts of the Urilsky culture come from the western parts of the Amur basin. All known bronze artifacts of that culture were widely distributed during the Shang and Western Zhou stages, in Karasuk-type cultures of Southern Siberia and Central Asia of the late 2nd to early 1st millennia BC. In China, the earliest iron artifacts appeared between the 8th and 6th centuries BC, while in the provinces of eastern Liaoning and southwestern Jilin they appeared between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. Cast iron celts of the Yankovsky culture in Primorye, which in 1960s were dated to 1000–800 BC, are now believed to be no earlier than 400–200 BC, coinciding with the appearance of iron in Manchuria. It is concluded that in East Asia, iron and cast iron first appeared in the western Amur basin in 1100–900 BC.
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The concept of civilization in modern studies of the Neolithic in China and Japan
Scientific article
This paper presents a brief overview of studies exploring the origin of civilizations in modern archaeology of China and Japan and mostly concerning the Neolithic period. The analysis of publications shows that in Chinese and Japanese archaeology, original scholarly traditions have been developed, with their own methodological foundations and terminology. We outline the key ideas relating to the origin of civilization, elaborated by researches in China (Su Bingqi, Yan Wenming, Li Boqian, Xu Hong, Gao Jiangtao) and Japan (Harunari Hideji, Watanabe Hiroshi, Sasaki Fujio, Yasuda Yoshinori). We show that most Chinese scholars consider the formation of state a sine qua non of transition to the civilization stage. However, the problem of identifying criteria of civilization and state formation using archaeological data has not been resolved to date. Examples of archaeological markers of civilization proposed by Chinese specialists are listed. In the works by Japanese researchers, no connection between the emergence of the state and civilization has been revealed. Most Chinese archaeologists date the emergence of civilization and of the fi rst state formations to the Late Neolithic (Dawenkou, Hongshan, Liangzhu, Longshan, etc.), ca 3500–2000 BC. There are alternative hypotheses—the Early Bronze Age (Erlitou culture) and the Late Bronze Age (the Spring and Autumn period). In Japanese archaeology, there are two main positions regarding the time when civilization had formed—the Jōmon period (Neolithic) and the subsequent Yayoi period (Bronze Age). Scholarly and external (including political) factors that have infl uenced modern concepts of the origin of civilization require special historiographic research.
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The consecration of altars in 17th–21st century Siberian orthodox churches: the neurosymbolic aspect
Review article
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Scientific article
Over the recent decade, abstracts of many thousands of folktales recorded in Europe and Asia have been added to our Electronic Catalogue of World Mythology and Folklore. Their analysis reveals systematic parallels between the traditions of Western Eurasia and America, those of the Plains Indians in particular. Such motifs are especially apparent in Ancient Greek mythology (Phaethon’s fall, Pasiphae and the bull, cranes attacking dwarfs, etc.). Although they have been known since the 19th century, no explanation for them could be proposed for a long time. The situation changed thanks to recent advances in Siberian paleogenetics. Before the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum, Eastern Siberian populations (Yana RHS and Malta) exhibited European affinities. By the mid-Holocene, population replacement occurred. It was not abrupt, but eventually resulted in a breakup of the initial cultural continuum spanning the Eurasian boreal zone and later extending to the New World. Many of the Western Eurasian–American motifs are episodes from stories of adventures. On the other hand, parallels between traditions of the Indo-Pacific rim of Asia and America mostly relate to motifs that are mythological in the narrow sense (etiological and cosmological), including early ones, evidently stemming from Africa. From the Hunno-Sarmatian, if not Scythian age onward, Southern Siberian and Central Asian motifs had been transferred to Western Eurasia on a large scale. Classical sources mirror an earlier stage of European mythology, hence the difference between the Ancient Greek set of motifs and that peculiar to later European traditions.
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Scientific article
This article presents a current perspective on the historical and cultural development of the population in the foreststeppe zone of the Ob-Irtysh interfl uve in the Stone and Bronze Ages, using various methods of the natural and exact sciences, as well as archaeological fi ndings from adjacent parts of the Ob and Irtysh basins. A geographic description of the region is given. The history of excavations in the region is outlined beginning from the 19th century to the present. A considerable amount of new materials has been accumulated, providing the basis for historical and cultural reconstructions. The study spans the period from the Upper Paleolithic through to the Late Middle Ages and the recent centuries. The initial peopling of the Baraba forest-steppe occurred 18 thousand years ago. Cultures of the Early and Late Neolithic, Early, Middle and Late Bronze Ages, and the transition to the Early Iron Age are listed. All periods have a reliable timescale. The archaeological potential of the region provides a basis for further elaborations of this model.
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