First results of research at the medieval burial ground of Archekasskie kurgany II on the Kiya river

This article discusses excavation of burial mound No. 2 at the Archekasskie Kurgany II burial ground which is distinguished by a system of pits near burial mounds and between them at the foot of earth mound. This site differs from other burial complexes of Mariinsk forest-steppe by small size of burial mounds (4-5.5 m in diameter and 0.5-0.8 m in height) and their concentration in a forested area. The investigated burial was made according to the rite of cremation on the side with things. The accompanying inventory dates back to the 11th-12th centuries AD. Taken together, this burial complex correlates with sites of the Middle Chulym variant of the culture of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. It has been established that burial complexes similar to those in Archekas are known from the area around the confluence of the Yaya and Kiya Rivers, and Chulym River (barrows at the Zmeinkinsky and Kalmaksky burial grounds). Excavation finds (ceramic whorl, bronze hemispherical plaque) manifest a wide chronological range. The objects of the first-first half of the second millennium AD (iron tanged knife, ringed belt dispensers, adze with open socket) do not make it possible to make a clear cultural attribution. Iron quiver hook, belt onlays (tips), pin with a lyre-shaped pommel, and spoon show similarities with evidence from the sites of the Askiz and Basandaika archaeological cultures of the Advanced Middle Ages. The Archekas pottery with the bent out and ornamented rim correlates with pottery complexes of type I, variant 1, identified by O.B. Belikova in the evidence from the Middle Chulym area. These results pose the question on the correlation of the Askiz and Basandaika antiquities in the western periphery of the Mariinsk forest-steppe.