Review of the Monograph: Likhacheva O.S. Weaponry and warfare of the population of the Forest-Steppe Altai in the Early Iron Age (8th–1st centuries B.C.). Barnaul: Publ. IP I. A. Kolmogorov, 2020. 320 p. ISBN 978-5-91556-710-7

The paper presents a review on a monograph by O.S. Likhacheva, concerned with the analysis of different types of weapons and reconstruction of some aspects of the warfare of the tribes of the Forest-Steppe Altai in the 8th–1st centuries B.C., which contains a representative album of illustrations, including photographs and drawings of artifacts, artistic interpretations of weapons and images of warriors, made by the author. O.S. Likhacheva carried out a meticulous analysis of numerous categories of weapons and their fragments. However, in the opinion of the author of this review, for a considerable part of the presented inventory there is a lack of context description of the finds in the ceremonial burial complexes. This leads to the description of the votive weapons as combative, ceremonially broken items as intact, and fragmentary separate armor-clad plates as a complete armor suit. Certain selectivity of the author in writing the historiography section narrows the attention of the researcher on only one region under consideration, thus ignoring the trans-cultural nature of some types of the weapons of short-range and long-range combat among the nomads of the Central Asia in the 8th–1st centuries B.C., as well as the body of the material from the monuments of the Novosibirsk Ob region which fit in the topic area of the research. The author recommends the book of O.S. Likhacheva to all interested in the history and archaeology of Altai Krai and Upper Ob region.

Microbiomarkers of the local environment and interior of Neolithic and Eneolithic dwellings (settlements of Mergen 6 and 7)

The paper concerns the analysis of the local environment around the multi-layer settlements of Mergen 6 and 7 situated in the immediate vicinity of each other. The settlements existed successively (partly contempora-neously in the early and high Neolithic) in the forest-steppe belt of Western Siberia. Two methods were chosen to obtain the results: spore-and-pollen (palynological) and microbiomorphic analyses of the cultural layers of the settlements of Mergen 6 and Mergen 7. In the settlement of Mergen 6, the following samples were collected for the palynological and microbiomorphic investigation: a vertical column from the center of the ditch of the dwelling no.5; areal soil samples of the dwelling no.5 from underneath the pottery debris of the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods; areal samples from the bottom layer of the dwelling no.21. In the settlement of Mergen 7, two vertical core samples were selected for the pore-and-pollen analysis: in the ditch of the dwelling no.1; and in the inter-dwelling area. Samples from the hearthing of the dwellings and from the inter-dwelling space were collected for the microbiomorphic analysis. The obtained results show that both settlements existed during the forest-steppe conditions, although the original landscapes of the sites chosen by the people for building the settlements were different in the early and high Neolithic. It appears that during the early Neolithic, the settlement of Mergen 6 was associated with an open site with meadow-steppe vegetation; birch forests constituted a small part of the land-scape, whilst there were no pine forests in the close vicinity. During the middle Neolithic, people in the settlement of Mergen 7 preferred to settle in a birch wood, having cleared out a small area to build the dwelling. The results of the microbiomorphic analysis show that, despite the lack of pine forests nearby the settlements, people still used pine tim-ber in housebuilding, apparently, intentionally. The frequent occurrence of remains of the wood detritus at the level of the floor of the dwellings and under pottery supports the initial archaeological observations about timber decking inside the houses. However, pollen and phytolithic studies do not demonstrate a wide use of the wetland waterside vegetation in housebuilding, apparently, because the lake at the time was not overgrown on the banks by reed and cattail. There-fore, despite the close location of the two sites and their similar hunting-fishing specialization of the subsistences, their populations in different chronological periods preferred distinct local conditions.

Everyday Life of the Russian Nuns in the Holy Land at the Time of Changes in the Middle East, 1940s–1950s

This study aims at providing an overview of the everyday life of Russian nuns in Palestine after World War II. This research encompassed the following tasks: to analyze the range of ego-documents available today, characterizing the everyday life and internal motivation of women in choosing the church jurisdiction; to identify, on the basis of written sources, the most active supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate to examine the nuns’ activity as information agents of the Russian Orthodox Church and Soviet government; to characterize the actors influencing the everyday life of the Russian nuns in the context of the creation of the state of Israel and new borders dividing the Holy Land; to present the motives and instruments of influence employed by the representatives of both secu-lar and church diplomacies in respect to the women leading a monastic life; to describe consequences of including the nuns into the sphere of interest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR; to show the specific role of “Russian women” in the context of the struggle for securing positions of the USSR and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in the region. The sources for the study were prodused by the state (correspondence between the state authorities, meeting notes) and from the religious actors (letters of nuns to the church authorities, reports of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, memoirs of the clergy). By combining the methods of micro-history and history of the everyday life with the political history of the Cold War, the study examines the agency of the nuns — a category of women traditionally unnoticeable in the political history. Due to the specificity of the sources, the study focuses exclusively on a group of the nuns of the Holy Land who came under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patri-archate. The majority of the Russian-speaking population of Palestine in the mid-1940s were women in the status of monastic residents (nuns and novices) and pilgrims, and in the 1940s–1950s, they were drawn into the geopolitical combinations of the Soviet Union. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, staffed with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, becomes a key institution of influence in the region. This article shows how elderly nuns became an object of close attention and even funding by the Soviet state. The everyday life of the nuns became directly dependent on the activities of the Soviet agencies and Soviet-Israeli relations after the arri-val of the Soviet state representatives. At the same time, the nuns became key participants in the inter-jurisdictional conflicts and began to act as agents of influence in the region. The study analyzes numerous ego-documents created by the nuns themselves from the collection of the Council on the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the USSR Council of Ministers. The study shows how nuns positioned themselves as leading a monastic life in the written correspondence with the ROC authorities and staff of the Soviet MFA. The instances of influence of different secular authorities on the development of the female monasticism presented here point to promising research avenues for future reconstruction of the history of women in the Holy Land based on archival materials from state departments, alternative sources should also be found. The study focused on the life of elderly Russian nuns in the Holy Land and showed their activity in the context of the geopolitical transformations in the Near East in the 1940s–1950s.

Medieval mass burial in Pereslavl-Zalessky

The paper presents the results of the anthropological study of a mass grave located in the grounds of the kremlin of Pereslavl-Zalessky (European Russia). It has been preliminary dated to the 13th — first half of the 14th century. This study is aimed at craniological investigation and establishing anthropological connections of the Medieval population of Pereslavl-Zalessky, as well as clarification of the circumstances of appearance of the mass burial within the town territory with the aid of anthropological methods. The human remains were analyzed to identify the number of individuals and to determine their sex and age. Determination of sex and age and recording of injuries were carried out on the craniological material. The craniological program was used to study 28 male and 16 female skulls. A canonical discriminant analysis was used for the intergroup analysis. The mass burial contained separated bones of 80 adults and 19 children. It was possible to identify 30 males and 24 females. The male component of the group was represented by virtually all age groups. The female part comprised mainly women aged 20–35. Therefore, the interred were placed in the grave spontaneously, considerably later after their death; the bodies had time to decompose completely. Eleven instances of skull injuries without signs of necrotic process and healing were recorded. The location and characteristics of the burial and presence of several instances of fatal lacerated wounds indicate that the city residents died in the course of a military clash. Therefore, the studied series represents a time slice of the population of the medieval city. The canonical discriminant analy-sis on the craniological series of 53 revealed that the studied series is distinct from the territorially and chronologically close series of Yaroslavl and Kostroma Krivichs. It also showed that the formation of the population of Pereslavl-Zalessky was strongly influenced by the migration of the Ilmen Slovens and Smolensk-Polotsk Krivichs. Among the specifics of the Pereslavl series, also noteworthy is the strong influence of southern Russian migrants. On the contrary, the influence of the Finno-Ugric morphological component on the urban population of the 13th–14th centuries was very insignificant.

Late Medieval complexes of the forest-steppe and sub-taiga Trans-Urals (based on materials from the settlement of Stary Pogost)

The paper concerns the results of the archaeological investigation of the Late Medieval sites in the forest-steppe and sub-taiga regions of Trans-Urals (Western Siberia). With the example of the fortress of Stary Pogost, and using the materials on all studied Late Medieval sites of the region (the hillforts of Yelyak-Alyp, Maloye Bakalskoye, Chingi-Tura, Isker, Kuchum-gora, Ivanovskoye, Dolgovskoye 1, the sanctuary of Tsingalinskoye), the main aspects of the material culture of the population of the 14th–16th centuries have been reconstructed. The building structures are represented by above-ground or slightly sunken permanent buildings with pise-walled hearths. In the cultural level, ashy spots, cumulations of fish-scale, and bones of fish and animals were recorded. The sea-sonal occupancy of most of the settlements, thin cultural layer, small quantity or complete absence of ceramics complicate distinguishing of the Late-Medieval complexes from the full array of Medieval monuments of the forest-steppe and sub-taiga Trans-Urals. A statistical analysis of the ceramics collections from all Late Medieval sites of the Trans-Urals was carried out. Four main types of the ware were identified. By correlation with contemporaneous collections of the Middle Irtysh, local specifics of the ceramics of the studied region were determined. The small amount of the stoneware was noted. The decline of the ceramics manufacture reflected in the composition of the clay dough, surface finish, and shape of the vessels, and it was manifested by poor ornamentation or complete absence of décor. One type of the ware – large cauldron-shaped vessels with thick vertical or slightly inside-bent walls, flattened bottom, and poor ornamentation – was recorded only in the territory of the forest-steppe and sub-taiga Trans-Urals, as well as in the Ishym River area. This indicates its earlier chronological position (13th–14th cc. A.D.) and association with the population of the emerging Siberian Tatars. A widespread became the ware made from organic materials – wood and bark, as well as imported ware, including metallic items.

Alcohol and its functions in the culture of the Khanty of the Surgut Ob region

The aim of the research is to show the functions of alcohol in the traditional culture of the Eastern Khanty. The basis of the work is formed by the author's field data collected in 2002–2018 in Khanty Surgut Ob region, including the right bank of the Ob River (Lyamin, Pim, Tromyegan, and Agan) and its left bank (Bolshoi Yugan, Malyy Yugan), as well as the right tributary of the Irtysh River (Demyanka). The study of the role of alcohol in the traditional rituals of the Eastern Khanty was based on the methodology of gift exchange proposed by M. Mauss [2011]. The structural-functional approach was used to analyze the functions of alcohol, its place in the traditional culture, and social relations of the Eastern Khanty [Malinovskiy, 2006]. Despite the problems associated with alcoholism, as well as the negative impact on the health of the Eastern Khanty, alcohol performs a number of functions in the traditional culture. The recognition of the legitimacy of alcohol in the traditional worldview is based on the cosmogonic myths. In the ritual sphere, alcohol is a gift to the deities, from whom the indigenous people, in return, expect assistance to a person in hunting and fishing, prosperity, health, and safety. Alcohol performs the function of erasing social boundaries in the community of participants in a traditional ritual. During traditional ritu-als, alcohol is a tool for a person's transition to an altered state of consciousness. In everyday life, alcohol per-forms the functions of relaxation and stress relief. Alcohol serves as a social catalyst when a stranger is included in a traditional collective. Until recently, alcohol occupied not the last place as an equivalent of money in the in-kind exchange of goods and services. At the beginning of the 21st century, structural changes caused by the industrialization of the Surgut Ob region, as well as economic and social reforms of the Post-Perestroika period, led to reduction in the consumption of alcohol by the Eastern Khanty. Today, these changes are represented by two oppositely directed trends. The first tendency is represented by the processes of the revival of traditional culture, nature management, and religion. The second trend includes reappraisal of traditional religion and transition of a part of the Eastern Khanty to Protestantism.

Female festive costume of the Khanty and Mansi in the late 20th — early 21st century: dynamics and functions

In order to determine dynamics and causes of transformation of everyday dress into a festive costume, specifics and functions of the women’s costume of the Khanty and Mansi have been studied. Towards this, the comparative-typological method was employed to study the costume composition, its local features, and differences with respect to the traditional everyday dresses, and the functions of the costume were determined. The study is based upon the materials of ethnographic expeditions carried out in the 1990s–2010s in the regions occupied by the Ob Ugric population (North-West Siberia and Northern Trans-Urals). It has been ascertained that the festive costume commonly comprised a dress, a breast decoration, and a shawl, and in its local variants it was complemeted by other items. The costume was all-season and had common and local elements. The common elements include multi-completeness (it consists of several items), variability according to weather conditions, use of silk and woolen fabrics and beads. The local specifics are manifetsed in the costume composition, silhouette variability, and techniques of decoration. In the end of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century, traditional clothing of the Khanty and Mansi changed in the appearance due to the use of modern synthetic materials (it changed the colour, sillhuette, means and techniques of decoration) and became merely festive. To the large extent those changes were caused by the industrial development on the territory occupied by the Ob Ugric population in the last quarter of the 20th century, and later by the cultural, social, and economic transformations in Russia. The range of use of the traditional clothing shrank due to the spread of factory-made clothing. The growing interest to the ethnic culture stimulated demand for the national costume. It has become made from import synthetic fabrics, because the home-produced cotton fabrics disappeared from the shops. New fabrics changed the appearance of the clothing and its function, as it became merely festive.

Natural conditions of the formation of the monument of Maly Gonbinsky Kordon-2 of the Odintsovo Culture of Altai in the 4th–8th centuries A.D.

The study is aimed at reconstructing the natural and climatic conditions of the Upper Ob River region (south of Western Siberia) in the early Middle Ages (4th–8th centuries A.D.), based on the paleosol data obtained from the fortified settlements of Maly Gonbinsky Kordon-2/11 and Maly Gonbinsky Kordon-2 / 6-3. Settlements are located on the terrace of the right bank of the Ob River. The fortification elements are represented by a horse-shoe-shaped system of a ditch and a rampart, adjacent to the edge of the above-floodplain terrace, inside which there were dwellings and outbuildings. Archaeological investigations of the settlements permitted to study the sediments of the first terrace above the floodplain and to select core samples for palynological analysis. Applica-tion of this method allowed reconstruction of the vegetation during the occupational period of the complex of monuments MGK-2. For interpreting of the actual data, the method of landscape analysis was employed. The need for its application for carrying out paleogeographic reconstructions is warranted by the presence of the relict elements in the morphological structure of the landscapes. To establish their paleogeographic status, within the framework of this study, there was determined the percentage ratio of the amount of pollen and seeds of plants extracted from the deposits of the first above-floodplain terrace, corresponding to the existence of the Odintsovo Culture and belonging to different ecological groups. As the result, the dominance of sparse birch forests and forb dry meadows in the landscape structure of that time was established, whereas the vegetation associations featu-ring pine forests were in the status of progressive elements of the landscape structure. Also, supersedence of birch forb forests by green moss pine forests was revealed. The use of the landscape approach allowed recon-struction of natural conditions of the territory occupied by the complex of fortified settlements of MGK-2. On the basis of the digital elevation model, 3D visualization of the surface of the sediments overlapping the cultural layer of the monuments was rendered, which shows the location of the objects at the lowest elevations of the surface I above the floodplain terrace and the effects of the surface water flow. This necessitated construction of a drai-nage system, the main elements of which might be represented by shallow ditches.

Natural and climatic conditions in the south-east of Western Siberia and development of ethnocultures of the Ket’ River region (5th c. BC — 17th c. AD)

The paper presents the analysis of the natural and climatic conditions of the Early Iron and Middle Ages in the archaeological region of Priketye (Ket’ River region; Verkhneketsky district of the Tomsk Oblast, middle taiga) based on the available archaeological data and spore-and-pollen diagram of Maksimkin Yar, 58°30'N, 86°48'E, 100–150 m.a.s.l. (Blyakharchuk, 2012). The chronology of the archaeological sites and monuments covers a large time span — from the Neolithic to the late Middle Ages, including the time of the arrival of Russian farmers into the area. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the dynamics of the natural environment during the existence of the archaeological cultures of the indicated time interval using paleopalynological data from a nearby spore-and-pollen section, as well as to demonstrate the capabilities and advantages of complex paleoecological-archaeological research in the taiga zone of Western Siberia (middle course of the Ket’ River near the Maksimkin Yar village) previously not covered by such studies. The material and source of the archaeological data com-prised collections and archives of exploratory and stationary excavations of the archaeological sites from the area in the vicinity of the Maksimkin Yar village. Paleopalynological (spore-and-pollen diagram) and paleoecological (botanical composition of peat) data were obtained and published by one of the authors earlier (Blyakharchuk, 2012). In this work, comparative historical and statistical methods of the analysis of archaeological data were employed, along with two paleoecological methods (spore-and-pollen analysis and analysis of the botanical com-position of peat) with respective statistical processing of the numerical data from these analyses. The pa-leoecological block of information is presented graphically in the form of a spore-and-pollen diagram built on the basis of the paleopalynological data and two radiocarbon dates covering the studied time interval. The Bacon software was used to calibrate the radiocarbon dates and to date each sample. The studies have shown that the climate change in the boreal forest zone of Western Siberia influenced the lifestyle and economic activities of the population of the Priketye area. Correlation of the climatic and cultural events of the studied area with neighboring southwestern, southern, and southeastern regions showed their synchroneity with the dynamics of the hydrocli-mate on these territories. During the Iron Age and after the end of the late Middle Ages, there was a synchronous increase in humidity, both in the steppe zone and in the forest zone. In the Bronze Age and during the high Middle Ages, the steppe zone was humid, but less atmospheric precipitation fell out in the forest zone. These fluctuations in the moisture content are well correlated with the 500–600-year hydrological cycles in the steppe zone, identi-fied by geochemical indicators of the steppe Shira Lake in Khakassia (Kalugin et al., 2013, p. 251). Changes in the hydroclimatic conditions in the forest and steppe zones had different effects on the local cultures and could stimulate either their rise or decline, as well as migrations.

Craniological sources on the problem of ethnogenesis of the Narym Selkups

The Narym Selkups are an indigenous population of the Middle Ob River region speaking various dialects of the Selkup language related to the South-Samodian branch of the Ural language family. In the course of the study of Medieval and relatively recent burial grounds in the territory of the Narym Ob area of Tomsk Oblast, considerable amount of craniological material has been collected, which constitutes an important historical source for solving general problems of their origins. According to the archaeological and ethnographic materials, the Medieval burials were left by direct ascendants of modern Narym Selkups, whereas the materials from the later burial grounds are directly associated with their specific local-dialect groups. This paper is aimed to introduce into scien-tific discourse virtually all craniological materials known today from the burial grounds left by the Narym Selkups, and, on the basis of the results of group cross-correlation, to identify trends of the territorial variability of the whole community. Significant increase of new finds from the vast territory of the Middle Ob region, population-driven approach to the data analysis and development of the craniometric technique warranted re-grouping of the finds by the territorial principle and their repeated measurement and analysis. In view of the current problem, all cranio-logical materials were grouped into ten sampling series, five of which are published for the first time (the burial ground of Ostyatskaya Gora and four combined craniological series from the burial grounds of Lower Chulym, Narym Ob, Upper Ket, and the Tym and Vasyugan rivers). Analysis of the variability of the series from the Narym Ob region in chronological and geographical bands showed their weak variability in space and time. Therefore, prior to the Russian colonization of Siberia, this region of the Middle Ob area was not invaded by considerably large groups of people of different anthropological appearance. All studied craniological series were samples from the single unity. Although the territorial variability of the anthropological features within the groups of the Narym Selkups is not large, in some cases an influence of territorially closest neighbours on the anthropological structures of particular Selkup populations can be discerned. It appeared that the southern groups exhibit resemblance with their territorially closest Turkic populations of the Chulym and Lower Tom regions, while in the composition of other Narym groups, there have been identified an admixture of the component genetically related to the Turkic populations of the Western-Siberian forest-steppe — Barabino and Tobol-Irtysh Tatars, and, although being very weak, an influence of the Ob Ugric populations can be discerned.