Suchergebnisse

The article presents the oldest evidence of non- utilitarian use of marmot incisors in North Asia. The ornamented marmot incisor comes from the Early Holocene layer of the Kaminnaya Cave. The artifact was studied by methods of high precision three-dimensional modeling, experiment and traceological analysis. In order to obtain detailed information on the morphological characteristics of the artificial relief, a high-precision three-dimensional scanner of structured light and a three-dimensional surface profiler were used to analyze and compare the features of artificial modification on the surfaces of both the prehistoric artifact and its experimental replicas. As a result, the method of modification was reconstructed, and the non-utilitarian function of the object was identified. The concluding part of the article touches upon the interaction between marmots and man in the Pleistocene and Holocene of the Altai Mountains, with special attention paid to their use in the Holocene funeral practices.

The technologies of sewing complex forms of clothing with the use of awls, borers, and miniature eyed needles played an essential role in human adaptation to harsh environments of the Late Pleistocene Northern Eurasia. Classic eyed bone needles were widely distributed during the second half of MIS 3 from Western Europe to East Asia. Questions of where and when tools of this type, as well as other functionally related instruments, arise are the subject of discussions. The collections of the Initial and Early Upper Paleolithic sites of Siberia are of crucial importance in the discussion of this problem. In this study, based on the analysis of various published and archival sources, the authors update and systematize data on the chronology, cultural and technological contexts of the earliest bone needles of the Siberian region. The amount of archaeological and natural science data accumulated to date, the results of the latest interdisciplinary investigations significantly clarify the cultural and chronological attribution of many unique items. Based on broad interregional comparisons, the authors discuss the relationship between the spread of different types of sewing tools, on one hand, and the migrations of Palaeolithic communities, on the other.

The article studies peculiar anthropomorphic rock images of the Mongolian Altai, representing some persons in shoulder clothes. The co-authors analyzed the results of their own field studies and published materials from the excavated complexes of the Mongolian Altai, Tibetan petroglyphs and stone sculptures of Xinjiang. They offer an experience of typological research of the "Chemurchek type" anthropomorphic figures, a chronology and semantics of these images, and present their hypothesis about the prototypes of "Chemurchek anthropomorphs" in the cult sculpture of the Bactria–Margiana archaeological complex.

The study is focused on the analysis of distribution of the dentoalveolar pathologies (caries, calculus, periodontitis, dental fluorosis, antemortem enamel chips, alveolar abscess, antemortem loss of teeth), which are generally used for revealing the diet component composition of ancient groups and as the markers of the stress episodes (enamel hypoplasia, child dental caries). In addition, several anomalies in the structure of the dentition (dystopia, crowding, hypo- and hyperdentia) are considered. The study is based on the anthropological materials of the Bolsherechenskaya culture of the Bystrovka-3 burial ground, dated to the second half of the 1st millennium BC. The series consist of 130 skulls: 46 male, 34 female, 26 infants and 24 individuals whose gender could not be determined. The frequencies of the pathologies of the Bystrovka-3 sample were compared with those of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages populations of Western Siberia. The results of the study reveals that diet of the Bystrovka-3 people included both animal and plant products. The presence of endemic fluorosis on the teeth of four people (two female and two infants) may indicate the migration of a small group of people from outer regions with high fluoride content in soil and water to the Bolsherechye area. It was also found that the representatives of the study group experienced significant stress caused by adverse environment event. In addition, in the main group several rather rare dentoalveolar anomalies were identified, which, according to some researchers, are hereditary. Comparative analysis of frequencies of dentoalveolar pathology of the study group and the Neolithic-Bronze Age population of the south of Western Siberia revealed that the component composition of the diet of Bolsherechye people had significant differences from that of the Bronze Age pastoralists and is more similar to the Neolithic and pre-Andronovo bronze populations of Baraba forest-steppe, which had similar economy structure based on fishing, gathering and hunting.

Historical and literary works and archaeological materials (such as pottery figurines, tomb murals and reliefs, paintings etc.) recorded the spread of foreign dog breeds in the territory of China since the period of the Northern dynasties and their highest popularity among Chinese upper class during Tang epoch. At the present time there is information about two breeds — "Persian" dogs and "Roman" dogs. "Persian" dogs (Bosi gou, Bosi quan) were the hunting dogs with a thin elongated body, long legs, short-haired, probably, related to Saluki. "Roman" dogs (Fulin gou, Fulin quan) were miniature dogs with short body and legs, long-haired, black and white spotted, probably, originated from Maltese dogs. They performed a decorative function and served as companions of women and children. Apparently, originally both "Persian" and "Roman" dogs were imported into China along the Silk Road via Sogdian city-states of Central Asia and the states of Western Regions (Xiyu). Later, the breeding of these dogs started in China in order to meet the demand for the prestigious home pets among the Chinese elite.

The article discusses the possibilities of taxonomic determinations of zoomorphic rock representations and the significance of these data for further interpretations, indirect dating and other scientific tasks. In addition to the applied method of zoomorphological description on the depicted animal's exterior features, two approaches to the analysis of proportions have been proposed. The first basic-zoological approach is focused on the animal as a biological object and describes the ratio of animal body measurements according to the zoological standard of body measurements of large mammals. The second comparative-zoological approach requires the selection of proportions that are significant for each particular species, based on the morphological features of the animal exterior features. Both approaches have been tested on a sample of 30 petroglyphs from the rock art sites Kalbak-Tash I and Shalabolino, representing images of wild boars and bears. The obtained data on the proportions were analyzed using the principal component analysis (PCA), which allowed to verify the degree of differentiation between the images of the two selected species. As a result, we conclude that the comparative-zoological approach as a tool aimed at distinguishing the most significant features for taxonomic definitions of rock images is expedient.

The tradition of producing bifacial leafshaped points in Altai demonstrates a relationship with the culture and life support strategies of its earliest Upper Palaeolithic inhabitants. Here we present the reconstruction of bifacial technologies, based on the study of published data and archaeological collections, the latest results of geological and mineralogical data and experiments. The application of the well-known techniques of processing thin flint bifaces characteristic of the Russian Plain to the raw materials of Altai and to the local canons of producing bifacial tools makes it possible to reveal a number of factors that have a considerable effect on the morphology of the bifacial end products. We concluded that the transition from the massive Middle Palaeolithic bifaces to the thin and symmetrical leafshaped forms of the Initial and Early Upper Palaeolithic was associated with changes in stone processing. We found that the peculiarities of the Altai raw materials with their specific consumer characteristics and a high level of petrographic diversity did not exert much influence on the techniques of biface manufacture, but had a profoiund effect on the process of secondary thinning. As a result, the finished products turned out to be more massive than those made of flint. The results of the study confirm the need for a flexible approach to understanding the term «thin» biface.

Research in recent years has demonstrated complex Neanderthal activity, comparable to that of anatomically modern humans, in the context of bone tool production, pigments, adhesive compositions and non-utilitarian activities. The most numerous and widespread bone tools in Eurasian and African Middle Paleolithic are retouchers, which have been investigated for more than a century. The paper discusses various research approaches to the study of bone retouchers and the scientific results obtained throughout the history of the study of these tools. Traditionally, retouchers have been perceived by researchers as informal, situationally applied tools for retouching, or shaping various stone tools. Nevertheless, the scientific results obtained in the study of retouchers demonstrate the possibilities of their interpretation as formal tools and often link them to possible ritual activities, including the practice of cannibalism.

Incipient Jomon — 14 000—10 000 BP (16 000—11 500 cal. BP) — the first period of the Neolithic on the Japanese Archipelago the content of which includes the significant changes in lithic industry, the origin of pottery-making, the transformation of economic and settlement patterns against the background of climatic and landscape fluctuations in the Final Pleistocene and the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. The abundance of archaeological materials and an extensive database allow us to evaluate different variants of the internal division of Incipient Jomon, to examine the common and local manifestations of transitional periods for Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu, and to make a correlation of Incipient Jomon lithic industry with the industry of the Initial Neolithic Osipovka culture in the neighboring territory of the Russian Far East.

In 2019, the Russian-Kazakhstani archaeological expedition discovered the first stratified Mesolithic site in Eastern Kazakhstan — the Karasai site. The site is located in the mid-mountain part of the Shilikta Valley, about 1500 m asl. In the course of excavations a rich cultural layer (layer 2) with numerous artifacts of the Early Holocene age was recorded. The industry includes elements of all stages of lithic production, and the typological features of the primary knapping and the tool kit correspond to the Mesolithic time. This chronological characteristic is confirmed by a series of AMS- and OSL- dates in the range of 12000—9000 cal BP. The Karasai industry has a similarity with the complexes of the initial Holocene without geometric microliths in the Northern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Mongolia.

The article presents the results of studying of an extraordinary children's burial excavated at the Gorny-10 necropolis. This complex, which today is the largest of the studied sites dated to the beginning of the early Middle Ages in the south of Western Siberia, is located in the Krasnogorsk region of the Altai Territory. The published object (grave 63) is an undisturbed burial of a 10—12-year-old child with representative accompanying grave goods, including horse equipment, costume elements, tools, jewelry and weapons. An analysis of the discovered items made it possible to establish the dating of the burial within the last quarter of the 6 th — the first half of the 7 th centuries AD. It has been established that the qualitative and quantitative composition of the finds indicates a high lifetime status of the buried person. There are grounds to assume that the originality of the grave goods was determined not only by the position of the child's family, but also by his personal qualities, including participation in the traditional occupations of the early medieval population of the south of Western Siberia.

The article presents the results of excavation and different aspects of interpretation of the "elite" children's burial, investigated at the Gorny-10 necropolis. This site, located in the northern foothills of Altai, is today the largest burial ground of the era of the Turkic Khaganates in the south of Western Siberia. The published complex is an undisturbed burial of a child of 6—7 years old with extraordinary grave goods, including horse equipment, jewelry, costume elements, as well as Chinese coins, rare for this territory. Analysis of the common and special characteristics of ritual practice and goods, recorded during the excavation of grave 48, made it possible to establish the dating of the object within the framework of the end of the 6th—7th centuries AD. There are grounds to conclude about the high status of the child's family in the early medieval society. In addition, identification of items, presumably associated with amulets, testifies to the presence of some specific ideology among the population that left the necropolis. Further study of materials from the excavations of the Gorny-10 burial ground and other synchronous complexes will allow us to consider at a new level the history of the population of the periphery of the nomadic empires of Central Asia in the first centuries of the Middle Ages.

The article presents the first results of a comprehensive study of the new archaeological site Surungur in the Fergana Valley. Interdisciplinary research was conducted in 2018—2019 by an international Russian-Kyrgyz expedition. The direct archeological work at the site was preceded by geophysical surveys, which helped to identify the most promising areas for future research. The archaeological excavations made it possible to identify a series of fire places, to obtain a representative archaeological collection of paleofaunal material, lithic industry and bone tools. The stone industry is represented by blade knapping, among bone awls, point and elongated bead. Archaeological research indicates that Ovis, unidentified ovicaprin and cervid bones predominate in the Early Holocene sediments. Pollen analysis and analysis of small mammals allowed reconstruction of the paleo-environment at different stages of Early Holocene. The data obtained indicate that the Surungur site has been continuously inhabited since the Early Holocene. New data indicate that the materials of the lower cultural horizons of the site under study fit organically into the context of the known Neolithic cultures of the mountain part of Central Asia and find more analogies with the Hissar culture.