NEW RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH ONTO THE EARLY IRON AGE BURIAL MOUNDS AT THE KHANKAISKY DOL BURIAL GROUND

Author(s):  
DASHKOVSKIY P. ◽  
◽  
OZHIGANOV A. ◽  
SAVKO I. ◽  
Shershneva E. ◽  
...  

The article presents the results of the study of mounds N26 and N33 at the Khankarinsky Dol burial ground, located in the Krasnoshchekovsky district ofthe Altai Territory. The excavations were carried out by the Krasnoshchekovskaya archaeological expedition of Altai State University with the participation of students of the Barnaul State Pedagogical University. As a result of the excavations, it was revealed that both mounds had been robbed, which makes their chronological attribution difficult. At the same time, the inventory in the form of fragments of gold foil was found only in mound No. 33. Recorded during the excavation of mound No. 33 features of the burial rite is the position of the deceased on his right side, facing to the East, accompanying burial of the horse along the Northern wall of the grave, ritual food, have certain analogies to previously explored objects of the Pazyryk culture on the necropolis Khankarinsky Dol and the nearby burial grounds Inskoy Dol and Chineta-II. In addition, such signs of the funeral rite find parallels with similar indicators for the sites of the Pazyryk period excavated in the Central and South-Eastern Altai. Mound No. 26, taking into account the analysis of the burial structure, the eastern orientation of the deceased, the presence of ritual meat food, the location next to the chain of mounds of the Pazyryk culture, gives reason to tentatively attribute it to the Scythian-Saka period. Keywords: funeral ceremony, Scythian-Saka period, burial mound, altai, artifacts

Author(s):  
Kazakov A. ◽  
◽  
FROLOV Ya. ◽  
◽  

The article publishes materials from the Ust-Belokurikha 3 burial ground. The site is located in the Smolensk District of the Altai Territory. The burial ground was destroyed during construction work. There were five burial mounds on the site. One burial mound was excavated. Its artificial hill had been built of stone. There was one burial in the center of the mound. The deceased in the grave was laid on his back and his head was oriented to the southwest. His legs were bent. The specifics of the funeral rite allow dating the site to the Early Iron Age. Preliminary dating of the necropolis can be attributed to the Bystryanskaya culture. The absence of visually prominent mounds at the site is characteristic of most mound necropolises of this kind in the northern foothills of Altai. Those sites were destroyed during the intensive anthropogenic use of the area. Continuing plowing of the land containing archaeological sites in the foothill zone creates an additional threat to the deteriorating condition of the ancient burial mounds. Keywords: burial mound, early Iron Age, Scythian-Saka time, northern foothills of Altai, Bystryanskaya culture


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 84-109
Author(s):  
Kulemzin A. ◽  
◽  
Ilyushin A. ◽  

The article publishes and investigates the materials of the excavations of 1976 and 1980 at the Shestakovo-II burial mound in the Chebulinsky district of the Kemerovo region. The burial monument is located in the Achinsko-Mariinsky forest-steppe on the second floodplain terrace of the Kia River near the village of Shestakovo, next to other archaeological sites investigated (the Shestakovo-I settlement, the Shestakovo-II settlement and the Shestakovo i burial mound), which belong to the final stage of the early Iron Age and form a single archaeological cultural and chronological complex Excavation materials are systematized at the level of elements of burial structures, memorial funeral rite, burial method and burial equipment. A comparative analysis of published materials with sources from neighboring territories and the valley of the middle reaches of the Kii River is carried out. It is concluded that the published sources are close to the excavation materials of the objects of the third and fourth stages of the Shestakovo i burial mound, which is a reference site for the Shestakovo archaeological culture of the transitional Tagaro-Tashtyk time in the Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe in 1979. Based on the statement that the Tesin archaeological culture of the 3rd century BC is the middle of the 3rd century in the steppes of the Middle Yenisei is a synchronous Shestakov archaeological culture of the Achinsk- Mariinsky forest-steppe and, taking into account the observations made by various authors about the late creation of similar processes in this region, we model a cultural and chronological development scheme. This suggests that the Shestakov archaeological culture could have function from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century. This model and the analogies given to the materials from the Shestakovo II burial mound allow us to date this monument to the 3rd — 4th centuries and attribute it to the final stage of the development of the Shestakovo archaeological culture. Key words: Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe, finale of the early Iron Age, Shestakovo-II burial ground, Shestakovo archaeological culture


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93
Author(s):  
Arman Ziyadenovich Beisenov

In recent years, numerous new sites of Tasmola culture have been studied. New materials significantly supplement the existing ideas about the culture of the population of Central Kazakhstan of Saka era. The present article focuses on three monuments of the early Saka time studied by the author in the Nazar site in Central Kazakhstan. This kurgan with stone ridges Nazar and two other kurgans compose the burial ground Nazar-2. The monument is located in the Karaganda region, which is geographically an eastern part of the Kazakh hills. In addition to the studied objects on the coast of the river Nazar, there are three unexplored burial grounds of the Saka era. All structures of these burial grounds, including those which have not been excavated yet, can be combined by common external features. As a result of excavations graves with dromos oriented to the east were discovered in all three mounds. The diameters of the kurgans are 20-23 m, their height is 1,5-1,7 m. A bronze arrowhead of the early Saka type was found in kurgan 1 of the burial ground Nazar-2. Such monuments, which are characterized by a large size and complex structure, belong to the early stage of Tasmola culture - VIII-VI cc. BC. Three radiocarbon dates obtained on bone samples from mounds № 1 and № 2 of burial ground Nazar-2 in the laboratories of the Royal University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom and the University of Miami, USA do not contradict that. According to the author, such detail of the funeral rite as dromos oriented to the east, can be genetically traced back to the cultural traditions of the people of the late Bronze Age in Central Kazakhstan. Tasmola culture of Central Kazakhstan was opened in 1960. New materials largely complement the existing ideas about this culture.


Author(s):  
Edvard Zajkoŭski

The range of Medieval burial structures on the territory of Belarus includes barrows with stone lining. Commonly, one layer of stones encircled a barrow, but two layers’ lining could also be met. Funeral rite can be described as inhumation at the horizon level or in a pit with western orientation of the dead. Individual burials are most characteristic though double burials were practiced too. Not every burial mound contains grave goods. The items are represented by ornaments, amulets and pots of mostly Slavic type. The finds date back to the 11th – early 12th or 12th – 13th century. The same burial ground could also contain barrows composed entirely of earth, ones including stones interspersed or in the form of thin pavement at the horizon. Barrows of this kind are spread both in central Belarus and farther to the north, covering partly the Dzvina Basin, or more often to the south-west – in the Middle Buh Basin including Polish and Belarusian parts. In Ukraine barrows with stone construction were studied in Zhytomyr Polissya Region where almost 20 burial grounds of this type are known. Such barrows can be found in some other places too: in the Ros’ Basin, in Bukovyna (two barrows with stone lining dated back to the 12th – mid 13th century have been excavated there), in Podilia (burial sites in Zhnyborody I, Sokilets’, Hlybochok). In archaeological studies, there’s a tendency to assign all the barrows with stone constructions to the range of so called stone barrows which are considered to be burial sites of the Jaćviahi. Though in the eastern part of Mazur Lake region and in the basin of the Chornaya Hancha river where the Jatvingians have been located according to the evidence from chronicles there’s no barrows dated back to the 10th – 13th centuries at all. At the same time, in the first millennium AD barrows with stone lining were spread in the range of the Eastern Balts tribes: on the territory of Latvia (tribal areas of Latgaly, Siely, Ziemgaly) and Lithuania (the area of the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture) where they dominated between the 4th and 7th centuries and still could be met in the 7th – 10th centuries. However, we know Eastern Balts’ barrows with stone lining of the eleventh century in the south of Lithuania and bordering part of Belarus, which are chronologically close to the barrows with stone constructions in the rest part of Belarus and in the Middle Dnipro region. The emergence of these kind sites in Bukovyna and Podillia became possible in the result of the union of Volhynian and Galician principalities, i.e. after 1199. Key words: barrows with stone lining, grave goods, Middle Buh region, Zhytomyr Polissya region, Bukovyna, Podillia, Jatvingians, the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture.


Author(s):  
Dennis Harding

Burial monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, individual or in cemeteries, were often located in topographically prominent positions, or in zones of concentration that might qualify as ‘sacred landscapes’. In the Iron Age by contrast it is not obvious what governed the choice of location for cemeteries and smaller burial grounds, whether they were sited in relationship to settlement or whether there were traditional locations dedicated to burial. For some of the eastern Yorkshire square-ditched barrow cemeteries Bevan (1999: 137–8) considered proximity to water may have been a factor. Dent (1982: 450) stressed the siting of Arras type barrows and cemeteries adjacent to linear boundaries and trackways, a factor that is very apparent in the linear spread at Wetwang Slack. Though we may distinguish burials that are integrated into settlements from those that are segregated into cemeteries, therefore, there is no implication that cemeteries were remote from settlements. In fact, the contrary is often demonstrably the case. There is some evidence that small cemeteries or burial grounds were located immediately beyond the enclosure earthworks of hillforts. At Maiden Castle, Dorset (Fig. 3.1; Wheeler, 1943), the picture is prejudiced by the dominance of the ‘war cemetery’ in the eastern entrance, but the reality is that there had been a burial ground just outside the ramparts well before the conquest. A possible parallel is Battlesbury, where Mrs Cunnington (1924: 373) recorded the discovery of human skeletons from time to time in a chalk quarry just outside the north-west entrance to the camp. Some of these were contracted inhumations, and apparently included one instance of an adult and child buried together. The attribution of a ‘war cemetery’ (Pugh and Crittall, 1957: 118 evidently refers to this external burial site, which should be distinguished from the burials excavated more than a century earlier by William Cunnington within the hillfort at its north-west end (Colt Hoare, 1812: 69). Iron Age inhumations were also found, just within the rampart circuit, at Grimthorpe in Yorkshire (Mortimer, 1905: 150–2; Stead, 1968: 166–73). One of these was the well-known warrior burial, found in 1868.


Author(s):  
Valeriy Klepikov ◽  
Alexandr Djachenko

Anatoly S. Skripkin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor is turning 80 this year. Anatoly S. Skripkin is one of the prominent experts in the field of Sarmatian archaeology. He has started his research in the 60s of the 20th century and made a huge contribution to the study of Early, Middle and Late Sarmatian cultures. His articles and monographs are well known in the scientific world. Having carefully studied the features of the funeral rite, accompanying inventory, and built the chronology and periodization of Sarmatian history, he consistently moved to ethnohistorical reconstructions, offering a complex and logical picture of the history of Iranian-speaking nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes in the Early Iron Age. At the same time, Anatoly S. Skripkin became one of the founders of Volgograd archaeology, forming a close-knit team of scientists involved in various areas of Sarmatian history, including interdisciplinary research. He was also one of the first teachers and organizers of young Volgograd State University. The scientist s achievements were appreciated by the management and scientific community – Anatoly S. Skripkin is an Honorary Worker of Higher Professional Education of the Russian Federation, an Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, and has received many awards. Despite his age, the researcher actively participates in science projects, supervises the training of postgraduate students, and takes part in expeditions. He is a tireless traveler. His visit to India, teaching in China and his travels in Egypt have given precise observations to lectures on the history of the Ancient East, and have given a different perspective to his works on the contacts of the Sarmatian world with eastern countries. We congratulate the dear anniversary celebrant on his birthday, wish him strength, health and new creative achievements.


Author(s):  
Yakov B. Berezin ◽  

The discussed materials originate from burials No. 2 and 5 of mound 1 of the Nezlobnensky-6 burial mound, investigated in 2006 by the expedition of the NASLEDIE (Stavropol). The documentation stored in the archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as diary entries and field photography of the author were used in the publication. Results. The funeral rite of the burials and gravegoods are described in detail and analyzed in the main part of the publication. The finds were dated, their place among the archaeological cultures of the peoples who inhabited the Central Pre-Caucasus in the Early Iron Age was determined. A circle of analogies is given among synchronous archaeological sites, both in the central Pre-Caucasus and in adjacent territories. Conclusion. Burial 2 dates from the III-I centuries BC and is associated with the culture of the pre-Caucasian Sarmatians, presumably the Sirak tribal union. This type of graves was identified by archaeologists in the middle of the XX century and since then their number has been steadily increasing. Burial 5 is also dated to Sarmatian period, but earlier than burial 2. It belongs to the IV century BC and is a rather rare form of burial, a collective military grave. It is likely that all the people buried there died at the same time, as a result of a military conflict.


Author(s):  
Viacheslav Zabavin ◽  
◽  
Serhij Nebrat ◽  

The article presents the results of new research of the archeological expedition conducted by Mariupol State University in the North-East Azov Area. Archaeological research was carried out in the South of Donetsk region near the village of Yalta in 2016. In the mound 9 graves of the Bronze Age and 1 burial of the early Iron Age were investigated. The primary embankment was built during the Early Bronze Age by the tribes of the Pit Grave culture. The oldest burials in the mound are 4, 5 and 7. The most interesting was the children's burial 7. The buried child was accompanied by four ceramic vessels. Subsequently, another grave of the Pit Grave culture was built in the mound – burial 8. During the Late Bronze Age the population of the Zrubna / Timber-grave culture continues to use the necropolis. Researched at least three burials of the Zrubna / Timber-grave culture – 1, 2 and 10. Based on the typological analysis of the ritual-inventory complex, they can be attributed to the second (developed) horizon of the Zrubna / Timber-grave culture burial grounds of the North Azov Sea Area. As regards burial 3, presented by the authors, date back to the early Iron Age and precede the sites of the Scythian time. The burial 3 from Yalta are determined as complex of Chernohorivka type / Chernohorivka group of Cimmerian Culture or as late Chernohorivka complex. The authors consider peculiarities of the rite and inventory complex as well as some aspects of cultural and chronological character, spiritual and material culture of the tribes which, in the researchers’ view, are conflated with the historical Cimmerians. The burial in the mound placed near the villag of Yalta demonstrate some certain features of ingenuity. The man buried in the mound was most likely to have something to do with the religious or the hieratic sphere of life. The materials of the investigated burial mound enrich our knowledge about the ancient past of the population of the Azov steppes.


Author(s):  
E. A. Savelyeva ◽  

The latest materials of the excavations of medieval sites in the Vychegda basin and the Upper Kama region confirm the ethno-cultural proximity of the Rodanovo and Vym archaeological cultures associated with the related peoples – the ancestors of the Komi-Permians and Komi-Zyryans, which was proved by A.P. Smirnov, V.A. Oborin, A.F. Melnichuk, R.D. Goldina and other researchers. It can be traced in the most conservative, traditional elements of culture – in funeral rites, ceramics, and women's costume decorations. Both cultures are characterized by underground burial grounds, burials in which are made by the method of inhumation and cremation. Ceramics are represented by stucco vessels of cup-shaped and pot-shaped forms, ornamented with comb, rosette stamp, and cord prints. Common adornments of women's costume are umbonoid, arched, anchor and bronze bi-anchor rattle pendants, a variety of tubular thread decorations. The greatest affinity to the Rodanovo culture is found in the sites adjacent to the Upper Kama areas – Sysola, Mid-Vychegda, dating back to the 10th – 11th, 11th – 12th centuries. On the Sysola river, three burial grounds were investigated, different from the Vym, Mid- and Low Vychegda ones. The Votcha burial ground on the Middle Sysola river, dating back to the 10th – 11th centuries, refers to the earliest ones. According to the funeral rite and ware implements, it shows the greatest cultural proximity to the sites of the Kama region, which is most likely due to the relocation of a small group of the Kama population to the Sysola basin. The Uzhga I and II burial grounds on the Upper Sysola are distinguished by their great originality. The burial rite of the Uzhga burial grounds is characterized by dismembered burials, burials of individual skulls, and the tradition of deliberate destruction of graves for ritual purposes. These features of the funeral rite find analogies in the Upper Kama burial grounds, in particular, Averino I in the Afanasyevsky district of the Kirov region, as well as Plotnitsy, located in the Kudymkar district of the Perm region. It is most likely that the population that had left Uzhga burial grounds, was part of the same territorial–tribal association as the northern Upper Kama population, associated with Zyuzdino Komi-Permians, which is confirmed by the data of ethnography and linguistics. The infiltration of the Rodanovo population into the Vychegda basin in the 11th and 12th centuries is documented by the excavations of the Chezhtyyag and Vym Kichilkos I burial grounds. They belong to the Vym culture of the Vychegda Perm, the early complexes of which, dating from the 11th –12th centuries, may be associated with the Rodanovo newcomers. In the burial 37 of the Chezhtyyag burial ground, a characteristic Rodanovo women's costume is represented. At the Kichilkos I burial ground, numerous highly artistic Bulgar silver articles from the Kama region were found, as well as typical Rodanovo decorations, stucco vessels similar in shape and ornamentation, and burials that show the greatest similarity to the Early Rodanovo ones. These materials testify not only to the active trade and cultural relations between the population of the Vym and Rodanovo cultures, but also to the infiltration of the Upper Kama Rodanovo groups into the Vychegda basin in the 11th and 12th centuries.


Author(s):  
FROLOV Ya. ◽  

The Volchikhinsky District of the Altai Territory is located in the southern part of the Kulunda Plain. This territory is the border zone of the southern Kulunda and the Priobskoye plateau. Most of the region is a steppe zone. This area is plowed. A large group of burial grounds of the elite of antiquity and the Middle Ages is concentrated in the Volchikhinsky district. It belongs to a large group of burial grounds with large mounds in the southern part of Kulunda. The Volchikha group includes 17 burial grounds. These are such necropolises as Pyatkov Log-I, Solonovka-I, Vostrovo-I, III. The most grandiose grave structures were found at the Pyatkov Log-I burial ground. They reach 90-100 m in diameter. These are large burial mounds 6 m high. They are surrounded by a wide ditch and rampart. To the south of this burial ground on the border of the northwestern foothills of Altai in the Aleiskaya steppe, a similar monument, Bugry, was investigated. This necropolis dates back to the end of the Scythian-Saka time. The mounds of the Pyatkov Log-I burial ground and most of the other elite mounds of the Volchikhinsky region also belong to this period. Keywords: Altai Territory, barrow group, "elite" burial structures, early Iron Age, Scythian-Saka time, Kulunda, Priobskoe plateau


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