Suchergebnisse

One of the main problems in studying the Ekven burial ground is determining its age and cultural affiliation. From the very first years of its research to the present, the typology of harpoon tips and the stylistic analysis of ornaments on bone items constitute the basis for solving the corresponding range of issues. This approach allowed defining that the burial ground belongs to the early phase of the sequence of the Neo-Eskimo cultures, namely the Old Bering Sea culture. Meanwhile, an analysis of the ceramic collection of the Ekven burial ground shows that the site contains only ceramics typical of the late Birnirk culture, characterized by circular and arched ornamental patterns. This differentiate the Ekven burial ground from other reference sites of the ancient Bering Sea culture located on the American side of the Bering Strait and containing ceramics that preserve the ancient traditions of Paleo-Eskimo ceramics, characterized by linear and "checked" imprints on the vessels surfaces. Such situation is rather contradictory and requires some explanation. Apparently, the materials from the Ekven burial ground have not yet been fully understood, and research to determine its cultural affiliation needs to be continued. The article provides a brief overview of the materials related to the establishment of cultural and chronological affiliation of the burial ground, summarizes the data on its absolute dating and the results of the analysis of its ceramics. Several possibilities for resolving the contradictions that arose after studying the Ekven ceramic collection are discussed.

The burial ground located on a bank of Tankovoye Lake (Kuibyshevskoye) is one of the key sites in the archaeology of the Kuril Islands. This is due not only to the fact that huge archaeological collections reflecting all stages of peopling of the region have been collected here over many years of excavations but also to the fact that this burial ground still remains the only object of this kind throughout the entire islands chain. Moreover, apart of the burials themselves, the stone burial structures, which have not yet been recorded on other sites of the Kuril Islands, but have analogies in the Jōmon culture, were also revealed at the site. Interest in this site is also enhanced by recent genetic studies, which unexpectedly demonstrated a high level of genetic similarity of a person buried here with modern Koryaks and Itelmens. At the same time, despite the site's uniqueness, it is heavily underrepresented in available scientific publications. Information about it can be found only in the field reports and in few the hard-to-reach regional publications. Therefore, this article provides a brief overview of all data gathered at this site. It is based on the field reports, data from the private archive of Y. Knorozov, museum collections of the Sakhalin Regional Museum, and on the results of the author's own research as well. Summing up the outcomes of long-term researches, we have to state that the site's unique objects remain almost unexplored. For many years, studies here were limited to visual examination, cleaning up of the dune opening, and surface artifact gathering. Therefore, the nature of the burial objects found at the site might be recognized only in the most general terms. Their cultural affiliation also remains questionable. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the early Epi-Jōmon epoch is most powerfully represented near the lake, while the bulk of the ceramics collected here belongs to the later stage of this epoch (in accordance with archaeological data from Hokkaido). In addition, artifacts of Middle and Final Jōmon, Okhotsk culture, Satsumon-Tobinitai culture, and Ainu are presented here as well. Presumably, people could bury their dead here during the epochs of Final Jōmon, Epi-Jōmon and, possibly, the Okhotsk culture.