The question of ethnicity of Xituanshan culture tribes

This investigation aims to study one of the important problems of the formation of the cultural situation in the Amur region in the middle - late 2nd Mill. BC. It is likely that there had been several streams of migration into the region, which formed new cultural surroundings. Round-bottom ceramics and some forms of stone tools, as well as copies of bronze tools were brought from the Baikal region. However, it is clear that there was not only one stream of migration from the west, but at least one more, that brought new technologies of retouching stone tools and the smooth-ceramics. It completely changed the ethnic and cultural background of the region. The aim of our work is to analyze Chinese scientific literature in order to determine the origins of population migrations to the Amur region from the South, from the territory of Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, where the materials of Xituanshan culture were thoroughly investigated. Nowadays about 720 different sites of Xituanshan culture have been investigated. Besides the Xituanshan, the major burial sites and settlements are Langtoushan, Dongtuanshan, Dahaimeng, Xingxingshao, Houshishan, Changsheshan and Yanqianshan. However, the ethnicity of the Xituanshan tribes still has no clear answer. The earliest theory of ethnicity of the Xituanshan culture claimed by Chinese experts believed that the connection of this culture with sushen tribes was possible. However, all the arguments in favor of this point of view, based on the data of early medieval Chinese chronicles, such as the presence of seeds of foxtail millet in tempers, the presence of pig bones among the grave goods, the construction of dwellings, the forms of stone arrowheads and the presence of three-legged ritual vessels li and ding are very extensive and can also be applied to other tribes of North-Eastern China. Therefore, all the above mentioned arguments can not be the direct evidence of the connections between the sushen tribes and Xituanshan culture. The question is: «how far back into the past can we rely on the data of early medieval Chinese chronicles?» It is now obvious that Xituanshan influence can be traced in archaeological cultures of the neighboring regions. Perhaps, due to climate change at the beginning of the I millennium BC and the growth of the population, some tribes of Xituanshan culture were displaced to the northern regions, where they reached the territory of modern Russian Far East. Migrations changed the historical picture of the Amur region, being one of the factors that led to the emergence of the Uril culture (XII-XI - V - beginning of the IV cent. BC.).