Информационные достижения первобытности в панораме археологических культур Урала и Западной Сибири

Our focus is the type of responses the population of the taiga zone of the Urals and Western Siberia gave to cognitive challenges, as well as dynamics and rhythms of information breakthroughs of the Stone-Early Iron Age. The existence of multi-directional migration corridors indicated formation of an extremely diverse anthropological, linguistic and cultural composition of the taiga pioneer population, thus creating natural communication barriers in the context of severe inter-group competition for resources. Against this background, in the Neolithic (7th-5th millenniums BC), a practice of building fortified settlements, hill-forts, and 'sacrificial hills' became widespread - and that was not typical of hunters and fishermen. Erection of those complex and labor-consuming structures required mobilization of a significant number of people, as well as resources and expertise, and contributed to group consolidation in a new territory. It was that type of dramatic disruption that occurred at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd millenniums BC. Considerable changes in the way of life of the taiga population came as a direct result of the 'metallurgical revolution'. The development of independent metallurgical centers in the Middle Urals traditional ideas about the inability of the population of the appropriating lifestyle to adopt transformative strategies. The northernmost regions became another watershed in the region. The turn of the Eras was marked by development in reindeer herding, which was accompanied by a series of discoveries in the fields of food production, transport development, communications, trade, and symbolic activities. Archaeological data directly indicate the formation of adequate responses and information breakthroughs to the cognitive challenges of the high latitudes of Eurasia, and explain the variety of forms of socio- ideological adaptations and evolutionary alternatives. © 2021 Saint Petersburg State University. All rights reserved.The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project No. 18-09-40011 “Ural and Western Siberia in the archaeological retrospective: most important discoveries, rhythms, phenomena, and the paradoxes of development” и state assignment FEUZ-2020-0056

ЗНАК ПУТИ В СИМВОЛИКЕ ФЕДОРОВСКОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ

The authors offer an interpretation of one of the exclusive attributes of the Fedorovo culture such as clay containers known as dishes. Artifacts from two burial sites are considered as the main source: Urefty I (forest-steppe Trans-Urals, Chelyabinsk region) and Lisakovsky I (Northern Kazakhstan, Kostanay region). The analysis of contexts and analogies in the Bronze Age cultures of Central Europe makes it possible to regard clay dishes as wagon models. This symbolism corresponds to the dynamics of the Fedorovo culture, the bearers of which had a pronounced motivation to move. The Fedorovo culture has a widespread distribution of its sites within the Andronovo community. The main features of this culture are the complexity of the funeral rite, a significant influence on aboriginal cultures during the colonization of the lands to the North and East of the original migration territory. All of the above indicates the formation of an autonomous group in the hierarchy of local society, which had a high degree of mobility. The original core of the Fedorovo culture was formed in the steppe Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan in the status of the subculture of one of the local community elites, which was represented by sites of the Alakul culture. It was here that the original "chariot complex" had been formed, which reflected innovations in the field of transport and speed, representing an expressive form of ritual practice. The development of the "mobility sign" in the funeral rite from the chariot (the Sintashta culture) to its imitation (the Petrovka culture), and then to a more capacious expression in the form of a wagon model (the Fedorovo culture) corresponds to the symbol's universal trajectory. © 2020 Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of RAS. All rights reserved

Новые находки кремневой пластики в горно-лесном Зауралье

The paper introduces two flint figurines into scientific discourse, they were found during excavations of the multilayer Shaitanskoye 4-6 site in the Sverdlovsk region. Analysis of the contexts and analogies helps attribute these figurines to the Ayat culture of the Eneolithic with a high degree of certainty and consider them to be an evidence of symbolic activities of the local population in IV-III mill. BC. © 2021 Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology. All rights reserved.Работа выполнена при поддержке гранта РФФИ 18-09-40011 и Госзадания FEUZ-2020-0056

Metals from the ritual site of Shaitanskoye Ozero II (Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia) [Metales del yacimiento ritual de Shaitanskoye Ozero II (provincia de Sverdlovsk Oblast, Rusia)]

The present article describes materials from the ritual site of Shaitanskoye Ozero II, Sverdlovsk Oblast. Few excavations carried out at the site measuring less than 240 sq. m in size, yielded more than 160 bronze artifacts: utensils, weapons, rolled copper ornaments, and abundant smelting and casting waste. Apart from Seima-Turbino (celts and laminar knives) and Eurasian types (daggers with cast hilts, truncated knives with guards, fluted bracelets and rings), several metal artifacts were revealed manufactured in the style of the Samus-Kizhirovo tradition. Bronze artifacts, stone knives and scrapers, and numerous arrowheads are accompanied by ceramics of the Koptyaki type. Metals use mainly a copper-tin alloy. This assemblage is shown to be relevant to the local tradition of metalworking, which, in this particular region, was comparatively ancient having been left uninterrupted by the rapid migrations of the Seima-Turbino people. In addition, the assemblage indicates the sources from which post-Seima artifacts reached the Alakul people. These artifacts may also have been linked with a large metalworking center located in the Middle Urals

Issues in the Calendar Chronology of the Seima-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon

The Seima-Turbino (ST) transcultural phenomenon was unique in the Eurasian Bronze Age. Its very rare but highly specific memorial sanctuaries and randomly found bronze artifacts are scattered across a gently sloping arc spanning territories from northern China to the Baltic and the Lower Dniester––nearly 4 mln km2. However, until recently, no reliable radiocarbon database relating to ST has been available. The situation changed after the discovery of the Shaytanka memorial sanctuary in the Middle Urals, and its detailed excavation. As a result, a considerable series of radiocarbon dates has appeared, enabling us to arrive at a more reliable pattern of absolute chronology for ST in a vast territory from western Siberia (Sopka, Tartas) to the Upper Volga basin (Yurino). The earlier dates in the eastern part of the ST distribution area uphold the theory concerning the ultimate source of a long-range east-to-west migration. Important new features in the overall pattern of dates on the vast territories of the Eurasian forest and forest-steppe zones make it possible to reconstruct the nature of the contacts between the ST people and representatives of other cultures—especially those of the Abashevo-Sintashta-Petrovka community advancing in a west-to-east direction. © 2017 E.N. Chernykh, O.N. Korochkova, L.B. Orlovskaya

Ural and West Siberian Hoards (Bronze age - Early iron age): Composition, context and interpretation

The present article analyses the hoards of the Bronze Age - Early Iron Age discovered in the forest-steppe and mountain-forest of the Trans-Urals, as well as the Middle and Lower Ob areas. Only three hoards dating back to the Bronze Age have been discovered: Andreevo, Prygovsky and Gladunino. By the Ural-Siberian standards, these are considerable collections consisting of metal-intensive symbolic objects (celts, knives, sickles). The hoards are grouped in the forest-steppe area, where the population of the Petrovo and Alakul cultures of the Andronovo community lived at that time (first half of the 2nd millennium BC). Conversely, hoards dating back to the Early Iron Age are localised in the taiga zone. Being characterised by a distinctive composition and definite chronological contexts, these hoards reflect profound changes in the lifestyle of Siberian aborigines caused by the widespread introduction of metal, the development of reindeer herding, new communication corridors and fur trade. The first group is represented by hoards that comprise symbolic metal items dating back to the second half of the 1st millennium BC (Azov Mountain, Karaulnaya Mountain, Lozvinsky, etc.). Sometimes they are accompanied by arms (arrowheads and chopping weapons). This group of hoards is unanimously considered to be votive in character. The hoards of the second group (from the 1st century BC to the 2nd-3rd centuries AD) are confined to the lower reaches of the Ob and Irtysh, as well as the Surgut Ob area (Istyatsk, Kazym and Gornoknyazevsk). They are characterised by the presence of bronze cauldrons or other packaging, items of long-distance import (Parthian or Bactrian silver medallions; helmets made in Central Asia; a large number of Sarmatian and even Chinese bronze mirrors, often with engraved local images). Hoards of that period, aimed at hiding prestigious and valuable things, are seen as retrievable. Hoards belonging to the third group (3rd-8th centuries AD) can be referred to as weapon hoards (Parabel, Kholmogory, Ishim, etc.). They are localised mainly in the lower tributaries of the Ob in its middle course. They predominantly consisted of various weapons: arrowheads, spears, axes, sabres, broadswords, combat knives. In addition, bronze mirrors and plates having concentric ornaments, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images were found in all complexes. Weapon hoards, interpreted as sacred arsenals, reflect the dominant priorities of that time (formation of the military elite; a special status of military practices) and growing military tensions caused by the struggle for control over the foraging territories and trade routes. © 2019 Tyumen Scientific Centre of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.Russian Foundation for Basic Research, RFBR: 18-09-40011Funding. This work was supported by a grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research No. 18-09-40011

Archaeological exposition: Multum in Parvo

Based on the example of conceptual archaeological expositions "Songs of the ancestors", "Archaeology of Western Siberia in the light of the latest discoveries", "Archaeological Museum of the Ural University", "Lisakov Museum of History and Culture of the Upper Tobol region", "National Historical, Cultural and Natural Reserve Museum "Ulytau"" the article reveals exceptional interpretative resources of artifacts of preliterate periods in the history of the population of the Urals, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan. It raises topical issues of the presentation of archaeological heritage in terms of ethnicity of the past and present. Assessing their own diverse experience, the authors pay attention to the exceptional possibilities of the exposition statement and sometimes independent, paradoxical role of the artifact = sign, on the basis of which different texts of the past and present are created in different situations. With the collapse of communist ideology and the growing processes of globalization, the search for regional identity is becoming more acute. The universal answer is the appeal to regional mythology, embodied in the signs and symbols of the past, which are consonant with modern methods of figurative expression and demonstrate the value of the main social and philosophical discoveries of man. Knowledge, including preliterate history in its various manifestations, creates such an important atmosphere of involvement in the history of one's own land, people, neighbors, anxious about the same search for happiness, peace, security of their loved ones and an interesting life. Museums are a unique resource of patriotic education, which provides opportunities for cognition and adoption of historical experience. © 2019 Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of RAS. All rights reserved

SHAITANSKOYE OZERO II: NEW ASPECTS OF THE URALIAN BRONZE AGE

The present article describes materials from the ritual site of Shaitanskoye Ozero II, Sverdlovsk Oblast. Two excavations carried out at the site measuring less than 100 sq. m in size, yielded more than 130 bronze artifacts: utensils, weapons, rolled copper ornaments, and abundant smelting and casting waste. Apart from Seima-Turbino (celts and laminar knives) and Eurasian types (daggers with cast hilts, truncated knives with guards, fluted bracelets and rings), several metal artifacts were revealed manufactured in the style of the Samus-Kizhirovo tradition. Bronze artifacts, stone knives and scrapers, and numerous arrowheads are accompanied by ceramics of the Koptyaki type. The bronze is mostly stannic. This assemblage is shown to be relevant to the local tradition of metalworking, which, in this particular region, was comparatively ancient having been left uninterrupted by the rapid migrations of the Seima-Turbino people. In addition, the assemblage indicates the sources from which post-Seima artifacts reached the Alakul people. These artifacts may also have been linked with a large metalworking center located in the Middle Urals. © 2009.Российский Фонд Фундаментальных Исследований (РФФИ): 08-01-00073a, 08-06-00136a, 06-01-00037a*Supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Projects 06-01-00037a, 08-01-00073a, and 08-06-00136a