"Caster's cache" from Tartas-1, late Krotovo (Cherno-ozerye) culture, Baraba forest-steppe

A "caster 's cache” discovered at Tartas-1 cemetery in the Baraba forest-steppe is described and compared with other similar finds. Caches are very rare in Siberia. Because descriptions are incomplete, their total number is unknown. The Tartas-1 cache was found in a rectangular pit close to Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) burials. The infill of the pit contained a mandible, part of a scapula and an incisor of a horse, a rib fragment and fragments of cranium of a cow, and potsherds from at least three vessels. The cache consisted of fifteen items: a whetstone, a bone arrowhead, two copper ingots, a fragment of a bracelet with spiral end, a bronze needle, six fluted cylindrical beads, and three bronze knife-like pendants. Parallels to each artifact are discussed. Especially noteworthy are standard copper ingots used for storing and transporting metal during trade operations. Evidently, metal items in this cache were laid in for future use in manufacture or trade. The cache might as well have been ritual. All its items are typical of Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) culture of early or mid-2nd millennium BC.