The metal ages and medieval period. Рубрика в журнале - Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
The megalithic tradition of East and Southeast Asia
Scientific article
We review the scholarship relating to the megalithic tradition of East and Southeast Asia and the results of its archaeological study. The major center of this tradition in East Asia is Korea, where it reveals considerable heterogeneity. In the Bronze Age, it is represented by dolmens and menhirs, and in the later periods by stone tombs, chambers, and pyramidal mounds. The latest megaliths are anthropomorphic statues of the Dolhareubang type, on Jeju Island off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. Southeast Asian megaliths, which are described in detail, originate from similar structures in East and South Asia while being less known and less accurately dated, and revealing specific features of construction. Owing to the ethnographic sources on local peoples, Southeast Asian megaliths provide valuable data on their layout, function, and associated mythology. We demonstrate common features in megalithic traditions of East and Southeast Asia and their specificity in each region. Principal sources are described, and major trends in the study of megaliths in those territories are outlined. In sum, megaliths of East and Southeast Asia are an independent archaeological phenomenon requiring future studies.
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Scientific article
On the basis of the current knowledge, key archaeological discoveries made in Siberia and the Russian Far East over the three centuries, and spanning the interval from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, are assessed. Principal scholars and their works are listed. Rescue excavations have made it possible to construct archaeological typologies and to model historical and cultural processes. D.G. Messerschmidt’s role as the discoverer of the Early Iron Age of Khakassia and of the Tom rock art site is described. Later, this rock art site was thoroughly studied by A.P. Okladnikov and A.I. Martynov. Achievements of the 20th century continued those of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the basis of typologies elaborated by S.A. Teploukhov for Khakassia, similar cultural and chronological models for neighboring areas of Western Siberia were constructed. A.P. Okladnikov’s typology for the Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age were elaborated by his colleagues and students. The earliest stages of the Amur Neolithic with the most ancient ceramics in Northern Asia, dating to 16,780–14,200 cal BC, were described. E.N. Chernykh’s and S.V. Kuzminykh’s theory of SeimaTurbino—a transcultural phenomenon of key importance for the Eurasian Bronze Age—is outlined. While its basic features are better known today, their theory has retained its relevance. With regard to the Early Iron Age, the major excavations concerned mounds such as Arzhan-1, Arzhan-2, and Chinge-Teya-1 in Tuva. In the Altai Mountains, likewise outstanding Pazyryk kurgans (600–200 BC) were excavated. An entirely new stage in Scythian age archaeology was marked by N.V. Polosmak’s excavations of “frozen”, undisturbed burials of middle-ranking and low-ranking Pazyryk people on the Ukok Plateau. Similar burials were excavated by Z. Samashev and H.P. Francfort on the western slopes of the Altai. Pazyryk chronology was elaborated owing to the use of the tree-ring analysis.
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The state of preservation of the Shakhty rock art site and the prospects of its conservation
Scientific article
This article deals with the preservation of the Shakhty rock art site, discovered in the Eastern Pamirs in 1958 by the leading Central Asian Stone Age researcher V.A. Ranov. The analysis of photographs taken in the Shakhty rock shelter during the 2019 survey revealed the nature of destructive processes at the site due to environmental conditions of the Eastern Pamir highland. The article integrates the results of analysis of Ranov's archives at the Donish Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Tajikistan. Thanks to Ranov's diaries and photographs, it was possible in 2019 to assess the degree of erosion on the rock surface, and the loss of fragments of painted images over more than 60 years. Emergency areas requiring conservation efforts were identified. Principles of conservation and restoration of rock art are outlined, and an overview of techniques developed for sites of this type in the post-Soviet space in the last quarter of the 20th century is presented. State of the art conservation methods for rock art, which, in the future, can be applied for the preservation of emergency areas at Shakhty, are described. A set of measures is suggested to preserve this site.
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Scientific article
We describe the morphological and quantitative characteristics, and the elemental composition, of 23 bronze artifacts, seven silver ones, and a gold adornment, spanning the period from late 11th century BC to 15th century AD. These items (adornments and tools) belong to the Uril and Talakan cultures of the Early Iron Age, Mikhailovka, Mohe, and Central Asian cultures of the Early Middle Ages, and the Ducher culture of the Late Middle Ages. Elemental analysis of the bronze items at the SB RAS Institute of Nuclear Physics Siberian Center for Synchrotron and Terahertz Radiation Station of Local and Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence Elemental Analysis showed that over about 2.5 thousand years, tin-lead or lead-tin bronze was used for manufacture. Also, the best convergence of concentrations of chemical elements for Talakan and Mikhailovka artifacts testifies to evolutionary continuity between the Talakan and Mikhailovka cultures. Analysis of the elemental composition of Mohe silver and gold items from the Amur basin was carried out for the first time, revealing the high purity of precious metals used for manufacturing early medieval jewelry.
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Review article
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The use of natural scientific methods in the study of leather items from archaeological excavations
Article
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Review article
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Tools used in Tagar rock art: findings of an experimental traceological study
Scientific article
We describe the findings of traceological analysis and experiments with bronze and iron tools used by Tagar and Tes artists. The pecking traces these tools leave on the red Devonian sandstone were examined to assess which of them could have been used in rock art production. At the first stage, a preliminary analysis of Tagar petroglyphs was carried out, and metal tools and weapons from the Martyanov Museum of Local History in Minusinsk were examined. Morphologically suitable ones were selected, and experimental tools were made of stone, copper alloys, and low-carbon steel. Experiments were conducted and samples of pecking traces were produced. The final stage of the work consisted of comparing these samples with actual petroglyphs, and use-wear traces on the experimental tools with those on the actual tools. This approach made a direct comparison possible. Among the Tagar and Tes metal tools, those that had likely been used in rock art production were detected. The conclusion was made that no specialized tools designated for that purpose existed at that time in the Minusinsk Basin. Rather, multifunctional tools were used. These were made of tin bronze and low-carbon steel with thermal processing. Such tools first appeared in the region in the Early Iron Age.
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Traces of the Dahaean and Sarmatian cultural legacy in Ancient Turan and Old Rus
Article
This study examines the migrations of the Dahae and Sarmatians—the two related early nomadic peoples of Middle Asia and Eastern Europe—directed to the south and west of their homeland. Archaeological, written, and folkloric sources make it possible to trace the migrations of the Dahae and Sarmatians over several centuries preceding the spread of Islam in Central Asia and of Christianity in Old Rus. The study focuses on mortuary monuments, temples, and sanctuaries, cross-shaped in plan view, of migrants and their descendants. A detailed analysis of the major southward migration of Dahae from the Lower Syr-Darya in the late 3rd to early 2nd BC is presented. This migration had a considerable effect on ethnic and cultural processes in Middle Asia. The migration aimed at conquering the lands of Alexander the Great’s descendants, who were rapidly losing control over them. Features of Dahaean culture are noticed in town planning, architecture, mortuary rites, armor, etc. over the entire territory they had captured. Southward migration of the descendants of the Dahae—people of the Kaunchi and Otrar cultures—from the Syr-Darya, led by the Huns, was part of the Great Migration. The Kaunchi people headed toward the oases of Samarkand and Kesh, the Otrar people toward the oasis of Bukhara, and those associated with the Dzhetyasar culture toward the Qarshi oasis. It is demonstrated that while the cross-shaped plan view of religious structures turned into the eight-petaled rosette, the fu neral rite did not change, remains of burials and charcoal are observed everywhere. Relics of the ScythoSarmatian legacy are seen in the culture of Old Rus. For instance, remains of the sanctuaries of Perun are walls and ditches arranged in a cruciform or eight-petaled fashion, fi lled with charcoal and bones of sacrifi ced animals, with a statue of the supreme Slavic deity, in the center. Early sanctuaries of Perun in Kiev and Khodosovichi were cruciate in plan view, while later ones on the banks of the Zbruch and the Volkhov rivers had octopetalous plans. Apparently they were infl uenced by the architectural traditions of Dahae and Sarmatians, who took part in the ethnogenetic processes in both Old Rus and Turan.
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Turkic inscriptions in Cyrillic on 14th-15th century eastern European Lithic artifacts
Review article
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Types of construction nails from Markul, Abkhazia (based on metallographic analysis)
Scientific article
During excavations at the Markul fortified settlement, Republic of Abkhazia, a cluster of iron items, including nails, was found. Nails usually draw little attention as they cannot serve as chronological indicators. Several attempts at constructing a typology of nails have proved unsuccessful. The quality of metal of which they were forged has not been studied purposefully, although it can be relevant to the use of nails and construction practices. Here, we present the results of a metallographic analysis of 19 nails from Markul (13 spec. from a simultaneously formed cluster of iron items, and six spec. found elsewhere at the site). The findings suggest that they can be subdivided into three types in terms of metal structure and, accordingly, of properties of nails: those with a ferrite structure ("soft"), those with a ferrite-pearlite structure ("strong"), and those with a cementite structure ("extra strong"). These types correlate with three types of construction materials used in Abkhazia in the Late Classic and Medieval period. Lack of correlation between metric properties of nails and metal structure suggests that the latter was intentionally formed for specific tasks, depending on the characteristics of the details joined by nails.
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