Cremation burial at the Tourist-2 settlement

A medieval cremation burial was found on the right bank of the Ob River in the Turist-2 settlement in the Oktyabrsky District, Novosibirsk, as a result of archaeological rescue work in 2017. The grave marker (spot) was not recorded in the layer; its contours were traced after stripping at the level of the mainland surface. The remains were burnt outside the site, and after that, fragmented calcified bones and teeth were moved into an oval-shaped gravesite (grave pit). The accompanying burial inventory is represented by jewelry (a fragment of a spiral earring, three bronze tube-shaped beads, six plaques), household items: a bone cone-shaped sleeve with carved ornamentation (needle holder (?)), distant combat weapons (a bone part of a compound bow). Particular attention should be paid to the presence of five Chinese wu-shu coins in the burial inventory. These items serve as a key chronological indicator. The Chinese coins were not used as monetary units in South Siberia. This is suggested by rare finds of such items with holes and leather straps in the burial sites. The fact of discovery of a spiral-shaped earring, which also serves as a dating artifact for this burial complex is also intriguing. Spiral-shaped earrings appeared in Southwestern Siberia already in the second half of the 1st millennium AD and existed until the 12th to 13th centuries AD. According to the accompanying inventory and the nature of the funeral ritual, the cremation burial at the Turist-2 settlement can be correlated with the Upper Ob culture widely spread in the Middle Ages in Southwestern Siberia.