Preliminary results of 2020 archaeological studies of the monuments of Kazakh Altai

Author(s):  
Aidos Erbulatovich Chotbaev

Archaeological studies in the context of scientific interpretation were carried out in the region back in pre-revolutionary times and continue to the present. The research that have continued now for a third century led to accumulation of a rich historiographical foundation of archaeological material and solid literature dedicated to various aspects of life of the region’s ancient population. The first research have begun in 1960 by the South Altai archaeological expedition. S. S. Sorokin performed reconnaissance explorations across Bukhtarma from Katon-Karagai to the Kurtu River. As a result of these surveys 15 monuments were discovered., one of which is the Kurtu burial site. After the research of S. S. Sorokin, the works on the site have terminated, and half a century later, in 2019, they were resumed. One of the outcome of the conducted research consists in specification of the topo-landscape situations of Tautekeli necropolis; this led to substantiated division of Kurtu necropolis previously studied by S. S. Sorokin, which included the group Tautekeli. The historical name of the necropolis Topkayin was introduced into the scientific discourse. Until the present day, it was a known fact for the archaeological science that Topkayin and Tautekeli burial sites consist only of funerary-memorial complexes of the beginning of Nomadic era, i.e., the Indo-Skythians period. The conducted archeological explorations resulted in acquisition of the material that chronologically relate to the transitional time from the Mayemer period to the Pazyryk period. The unique materials that contain knowledge on the burial rite of the population, armament, horse munition and burials of the horses themselves, were obtained.

Author(s):  
Vitaliy Vasilev

Based on the available archaeological material, the article covers a number of issues related to the kurgans of nomads from the middle of the 1st millennium BC within the sub-mountain zone of the Bashkir Trans-Urals, embankments of which were built using stone. The author analyses the representativeness of archaeological records, provides typological and chronological attribution of the burial complexes. Previously these materials allowed to identify the “Irendyk-Kryktyn nomadic group” which existed in the considered landscape zone. According to the author, the investigated stone kurgans are divided into two groups. The first one might be dated back to the Saka Age (VII-VI centuries BC), the second one belongs to the Savromatian-Sarmatian period (not earlier that the mid of V-IV centuries BC). Within the existing chronology there is no explanation for the time gap between those periods. Hereby, this fact may indicate the presence of two culturally unrelated nomadic groups. The analysis of the archaeological material allows us to say that the signs of the burial rite, which are typical for the monuments of the foothill strip of the Bashkir Trans-Ural (Irendyk-Kryktyn group), are widespread far beyond this landscape zone, and are common for nomads who left stone kurgans in the steppe part of the region on both sides of the Ural Ridge. Furthermore, the author draws attention to the existing statement about the process of sedentarization of nomads of this region in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The study of the source base on this issue shows that single finds of ceramic in “settlements” of nomads are their common locations. Settlement monuments in the mountainous Urals and steppe Trans-Urals, where few fragments of Kenotkel and Gafurian tableware were found, demonstrate the lack of dwellings, tools and remnants of handicraft production. This fact testifies to the temporary or episodic nature of the appearance of small groups of population at such monuments, and is not associated with nomads. Moreover, the sedentarization of nomads in the northern marginal zone is not confirmed by either historical or ethnographic sources. The article contains materials to supplement the archaeological records for studying issues related to stone kurgans.


1978 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 949-971
Author(s):  
T. G. Rautian ◽  
V. I. Khalturin ◽  
V. G. Martynov ◽  
P. Molnar

abstract This paper reports preliminary results of an analysis of the spectral content of seismic waves from over 1,000 local earthquakes in the Garm, Tadjikistan region. Very low values of Q (∼100) were obtained for the Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the Peter I Range compared with those in the crystalline rock of the South Tien Shan (Q ≳ 500). For events with the same low frequency spectra, earthquakes in the South Tien Shan are recorded with more energy at higher frequencies than earthquakes in the Peter I Range, at least in part, because of the greater attenuation of the sedimentary rock in the latter region. There is a wide variety of spectra radiated by earthquakes throughout the Garm region, but a marked difference between spectra radiated by earthquakes from these two regions is not apparent. Nevertheless although calculated stress drops of earthquakes appear to vary considerably throughout the region, there appears to be a dependence on the type of rock in which the earthquakes occurred. The variation in calculated stress drops, however, is greater within either region than between the two. For most regions and for most of the range of seismic moments studied the shape of the spectrum is relatively independent of seismic moment. Consequently, calculated stress drops increase with seismic moment, with the functional dependence varying from region to region. For the largest events, the spectrum shifts to lower frequencies with increasing moment and stress drops become essentially independent of moment. Preliminary results suggest that the stress drops are not detectably different for earthquakes with thrust or normal faulting fault-plane solutions. A limited amount of data are consistent with a change in spectral content and stress drop of earthquakes in the vicinity of and before stronger earthquakes but a clear, consistent pattern is not yet evident. Toward high frequencies, S-wave spectra both begin to decrease at lower frequencies and seem to decrease more rapidly than P-wave spectra, in contrast with predictions of published dislocation models of earthquakes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-307
Author(s):  
Aleksandr V. Lysenko ◽  
Valentina I. Mordvintseva

Abstract Metal jewellery used as votive offerings is discovered at the “barbarian” mountain sanctuary of Eklizi-Burun (the Crimea) and dating from the 1st to the 3rd centuries AD. Most of these items were probably part of female costume known from funerary contexts in the Central Crimea, which differ both regarding their location (in the Crimean Foothills and on the South-Coast), as well as the specific features of the burial rite (“cremation” vs. “inhumation”). A small part of the jewellery is characteristic only for the cemeteries in the South-Coast area containing burials with remains of cremation. An analysis of the cultural environment, in which the jewellery items deposited in the Eklizi-Burun sanctuary of the Roman period were produced and used, suggests that its worshippers came from communities living on the southern macro-slope of the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains and practised cremation of the dead. Apparently, these people appeared in the Graeco-Roman narrative tradition and local epigraphic documents of the Roman period as “Tauri”, “Scythian-Tauri”, and “Tauro-Scythians” inhabiting “Taurica”. They are presumed to have appeared in the Crimean Mountains in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC (migrating from areas with archaeological cultures influenced by the La Tène culture?) and to have maintained their cultural identity until the beginning of the 5th century AD.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 116-138
Author(s):  
Justina Kozakaitė ◽  
Žydrūnė Miliauskienė

In 2014–2015, an unknown 16th–17th-century cemetery was discovered at the Subačius Street 41 plot in Vilnius. The uncovered human remains are considered to be one of the most abundant and best-preserved anthropological material in the territory of present-day Vilnius. Paradoxically, historical sources do not mention this burial site, although the abundance of the interred individuals does not imply an accidental burial, but perhaps a functioning cemetery for some time. In such exceptional cases, the only source of information is the synthesis of archaeological and anthropological research data.This article presents preliminary results and a brief overview of bioarchaeological (demographic, paleopathological, and dental research, height reconstruction) investigation. A total of 151 individuals were studied, with almost half (45%) of them consisting of children. Almost 60% of the individuals had one or more pathological lesions. The average height of male individuals was estimated 168.2 cm, the average height of females was 157.8 cm. The aim of this study can be defined as twofold: an attempt to identify the people buried outside the city walls and systematize for the first time the bioarchaeological data of one-out-of-many Vilnius populations. Currently, the Subačius Street 41 population does not resemble a typical urban community, so the study itself is the first attempt to reveal the osteobiography of these 16th–17th century Vilnius residents.


1970 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
R.G Bromley ◽  
J Bruun-Petersen ◽  
K Perch-Nielsen

In the 1969 summer season mapping was concentrated in those areas of southern Scoresby Land and northern Jameson Land which had not been visited in 1968 (see Birkelund & Perch-Nielsen, 1969). Mapping was extended westward to the main fault of the post-Caledonian sedimentary basin against the Stauning Alper and to the south as far as 71°10'. The field work was carried out by R. G. Bromley, L. and C. Malmros, K. Perch Nielsen, J. Bruun-Petersen, C. Heinberg, and E. Hjelmar. The preliminary results of the mapping are given in this report together with a geological map at a scale of 1:300 000, compiled from the existing maps (Aellen, in press; Bearth & Wenk, 1959; Callomon, in press; Triimpy & Grasmiick; 1969) and our own observations. Special attention was given to trace fossils by. R. G. Bromley and the heavy mineral assemblages in the Mesozoic sediments by J. Bruun-Petersen.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-257
Author(s):  
І. V. Zotsenko

The material and archaeological context of the research of Architectural and Archaeological Expedition of the IA NAS of Ukraine in 2016—2017 are considered in the paper. The group of sites dating to the 11th—13th centuries is located in the southern part of Kyiv named Feofania. This archaeological complex includes the hill-fort and three settlements. The officers of the Kyiv Archaeology Department Dr. O. Manigda and V. Kryzhanovsky made the surveying of the site. The exploration in 2016—2017 is connected with the construction of residential complex on the territory of settlement 2. Due to it the large area of the settlement — 2850 m2 — was discovered and explored. During the excavations 55 archaeological sites of Old Rus time were discovered. Among them are the residential and industrial buildings, outbuildings. The latter includes the object with a complex of adobe kilns (such structures have a very few analogies). The large number of archaeological material was collected among which are the items with the city nomenclature. Paleobotanical remains are distinguished in a separate numerous category of material. The traces of two fires have been occurred at the settlement. If the second fire is related to the collapse of the settlement during the Tatar-Mongol invasion (1240), the first one dates to the end of 11th — beginning of the 12th century, and the reason of it is unknown. Summing up the previous results, it is possible to refer the settlements No. 2 to the type of settlements privately owned by representatives of the feudal class. The group settlements and the hill-fort formed the block-post controlling the way to Kyiv from the south. In addition to Medieval antiquities the number of finds and objects of the Late Bronze — Early Iron Ages, as well as three burials of the late 18th—19th centuries, which apparently related to the cemetery of Saint Panteleimon Monastery, were discovered.


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