Yugachi-1 (Minusinsk depression) site, a new object for studying late tagar antiquities: burial and settlement

The information on the Yugachi-1 site in the Minusinsk depression (Askiz district, Republic of Khakassia), investigated by rescue excavations, is published. The object is located in the mountain taiga locale, in the south of the depression. Yugachi-1 was used as a burial and settlement site during the early Iron Age, the Middle Ages, and up to the present. The authors tentatively attribute most of the site complexes to the late stage of the existence of the Tagar antiquities (Tesinskaya culture). A grave (mound 4) with the remains of a wood framework (four tiers of logs, an “in-thorn” connection) were investigated. The grave was disturbed in antiquity and later reused as a waste pit by the inhabitants of the settlement. The authors identify some pottery fragments and anthropological remains that could be associated with the original content of the complex. Two synchronously existing semi-dugout houses of the Tesinskaya culture were investigated. The houses had a sub-rectangular contour, dimensions 6.5 х 5.4 m (pit 1), 5.5 х 5.1 m (pit 2). Their carcass-pillar structure is different. House 1 was preliminarily interpreted as an outbuilding, while house 2 as a residential building. They probably formed a single complex. Utility and ritual pits were found inside the houses. Two latrines have been identified, both inside and outside the building. In the periphery of the settlement, a pit-cellar was found. House structures look individually against the background of other published evidence of the Tagar house-building tradition. The Yugachi-1 site significantly adds information on the economic development of the Tagar collectives in the mountain-taiga part of the cultural distribution area. The investigated object has a good potential for carrying out economic, historical, and cultural reconstructions, including the bioarcheology methods.