Results of rescue archaeological excavations at the cemetery of Kazanovka-10 in Askizsky district of the Republic of Khakassia in 2020

This article describes the findings of the rescue archaeological excavations at the archaeological heritage site “Cemetery of Kazanovka-10” in the construction zone of the second railway track between Yugachi and Kazanovskaya. The complex is located in the border zone of steppe (Khakass-Minusinsk Depression) and mountain taiga (Kuznetsk Alatau) along the valley of the Askiz River. A site from the last third of the first millennium-early second millennium AD - one of the first objects studied by archaeologists in this area - was discovered. A part of this Medieval site was inside the boundaries of the village of Kazanovka and was actively influenced by construction and household works in the 1930s-1940s. The archaeological structures which had been previously interpreted as ground graves and Medieval burial mounds, turned out to be the traces of these activities, which was confirmed by significant number ofpole pits and utility pits, structures, as well as household and construction waste in the excavation area. Burial of an infant with a pot at its legs, which was synchronous with the time of site’s functioning, was discovered. Archaeological materials included pottery fragments, fragments of animal bones, as well as numerous artifacts and blanks of objects made of bone, horn, metal, and stone. Composition of objects and presence of various clusters and closed structures point to different stages of habitation at the site in the Middle Ages. The collection of archaeological objects obtained during the excavations demonstrates that economic activities of the Medieval population focused on hunting andfishing. The finds have parallels in the Late Tashtyk materials from the Khakass-Minusinsk Depression as well as Medieval evidence from Southern Siberia and Central Asia. The collection is of a relatively wide chronological period, but is mainly associated with objects of the final third of the first millennium AD - early second millennium AD.