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Authors:I. I. Razgildeeva, E. V. Akimova, A. V. Barkov, E. I. Demonterova, A. M. Klementiev Abstract: We analyze a part of the Paleolithic layer of Afontova Gora IV (Ovrazhnaya) in Krasnoyarsk, evidencing intentional exploitation of outcrops of red sandstone and other local rocks. We describe archaeological finds and faunal remains, identify species important for subsistence. Based on the results of the intrasite spatial analysis, we separate an area of domestic activities centered on an open hearth. Scar-patterns and raw material links were analyzed. The preservation of the cultural context was demonstrated. The area likely functioned within a single activity episode. Types of activity are reconstructed. Primary reduction techniques applied to oval-flat pebbles to get first or second order blades were the same as those used to obtain ready wedge-shaped microcores transported to the site. To test the idea that red rocks were used as sources for mineral pigment, rock samples and archaeological artifacts were examined. In samples from Afontova Gora IV, no minerals that could be used to obtain the red pigment of the “ocher” type were found. Pieces of red rock brought to the site must have been used differently. The 14C-date of the complex with cultural remains is ca 18 ka cal BP. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:Т. A. Chikisheva, M. S. Kishkurno, Z. V. Marchenko, A. E. Grishin Abstract: We describe the skeletal remains of a male, aged 25–30, from the Neolithic burial 33 at Krokhalevka-5 in the Upper Ob basin, 21 km northwest of Novosibirsk, dating to the mid-5th millennium BC. Craniometric, dental metric, and nonmetric traits are analyzed. Cranial measurements are evaluated in the context of their variation in 58 individuals representing 11 local populations of the Paleolithic and Neolithic of Northern Eurasia. Data were processed using the principal component analysis in the STATISTICA 10 software. The first PC differentiates crania in terms of general size. The structure of loadings on PC2 indicates the presence of western and eastern trait combinations. The position of individuals on PC1 and PC2 reveals heterogeneity apparently caused by the conservatism of the underlying substratal populations. The Krokhalevka-5 individual is closest to those from Firsovo XI (Barnaul stretch of the Ob) and Zarechnoye-1 (Salair region). They are rather similar to the Volosovo individual from Sakhtysh-2A in Central Russia and a Kitoy individual from Fofanovo in the Trans-Baikal area. These findings point to a complex origin of the Upper Ob population on the basis of one of the evolutionarily conservative Mesolithic or Neolithic substratal components, possibly admixed with more consolidated eastern and western ones introduced by migration. Neolithic crania from Baraba contrast with those from the Upper Ob, suggesting that different substrates were involved in the population history of those regions. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:A. P. Okladnikov, V. E. Medvedev Abstract: Long-term archaeological excavations have been carried out at a large group of Late Neolithic (Zaisanovka culture) settlements on the left bank of the lower Partizanskaya River in southern Primorye, mostly dating to early 2nd millennium BC and somewhat earlier. Remains of half-dugout dwellings were unearthed. Many sites, including Sopka Bulochka, Sopka Bolshaya, and Pereval, have been previously published. The only exception is Pod Lipami, a site consisting of a single dwelling, on which this study focuses. Its sub-rectangular foundation, ~46 m2 in area, had been dug into the slope of the hill, forming a terrace-like platform. The wattle dwelling had a hearth in the center. Numerous stone agricultural tools were found—hoes, querns, grinders, pestles, etc. Other lithics are adzes, scraping, cutting, and grinding tools, including those made of obsidian. Ceramics are represented by shards and larger fragments of crushed handmade flatbottomed and potand vase-like vessels, mostly decorated with carved vertical zigzags, curvilinear figures, and spirals, which are more common in the Neolithic of the Lower Amur. Small as it is, the site with its radiocarbon dates extends our knowledge of the Zaisanovka culture and of its creators, sedentary farmers. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:E. S. Bogdanov Abstract: Findings of excavations at the burial mound-vault Skalnaya 5 of the Tes stage in Khakassia are presented. The article focuses on ritual aspects of clay-plaster coatings of human crania and their semantics. The coating was applied to cervical vertebrae and trepanned skulls. It consisted of a single type of local clay; sculptural portraits were modeled of plaster (with two main layers and a finishing layer), and pigments were made of ocher with various shades, cinnabar, and charcoal. The masks, apparently made by various artisans, represented unique faces with ethnic features. Female masks had more elaborate paintings (one or several trefoils) than male ones which were uniformly red. Wooden structures, certain details of the funerary rite, and the technology of clay-plaster coatings reveal high similarity among the burial mounds at Skalnaya 5, Noviye Mochagi near Kaly, and Lisiy near Sabinka, possibly because they were contemporaneous (first to third centuries AD). Trefoil designs are paralleled by those on two female masks from Kamenka III burials, suggesting that these women belonged to a single ethnic group. Nomadic pastoralists of Southern Siberia did not make sculptural representations of painted plaster, suggesting that the tradition was introduced from the west. But conceptual resemblance is found only among Egyptian plaster funerary masks of the Roman Age. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:E. V. Balkov, Y. G. Karin, O. A. Pozdnyakova, I. O. Shaparenko, Z. V. Marchenko, A. E. Grishin, D. I. Fadeev Abstract: In 2019, a group of previously unknown mounds with “mustaches” was discovered in the north of the Kulunda steppe. They are quite unusual: all of the mounds are ground and located on floodplains. In 2023, a set of remote sensing methods (aerial photography, electromagnetic profiling, and electrical resistivity tomography) was used at Karasuk-1 and Troitskoye-1 to assess the design of the mounds and see if additional features were present on their periphery. For this type of structure, geophysical methods were employed for the first time. Maps based on aerial photography data have made it possible to record the relief features of objects in high detail. Troitskoye-1 consists of five rather than four mounds. Using the electrical tomography method, the composition of the mound platforms was shown to be homogeneous. On geoelectric sections, they correspond to conductive areas ca 0.5 m thick. At both sites, the central mounds do not have “walls” on the eastern side. Apparently, no removal of soil was carried out on that side, in order to provide access to the ritual areas from the space enclosed by the “mustaches”. According to the results of aerial photography, at Karasuk-1 cup-shaped depressions were discovered on the surface of the western ends of the “mustaches”. They can be tentatively associated with the design of the mounds. The northern “mustache” is markedly broken. No additional features were identified inside or near the mounds. The results suggest that both complexes were built at the same time and are autonomous. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:S. G. Skobelev, D. D. Vasiliev Abstract: We describe a rare Old Mongolian inscription carved on an outcrop of Devonian sandstone near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in northern Khakassia. Tentative translation, dating, and cultural attribution are provided. The condition of the inscription and adjacent representations of humans, animals, and tamgas are described. Three groups of signs of which the Old Mongolian inscription consists are identified. Variants of translation to modern Mongolian and Russian are proposed. One group of signs renders the text: “In the Year of the Snake, the second winter month, the 21st day…” Other graphemes, translated from Mongolian, mean: master, elapsed, horseman, give, herd, steppe (talo). Certain words are indistinct and illegible. The lower and upper chronological limits of the inscription are 1204 to early 1720s. Horsemen figures are carved in the same technique. Old Buryat parallels suggest a rather recent date. Pre-Mongolian tamgas are pecked rather than carved. The script belongs to the latest instances of Old Mongolian epigraphy in the region. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:E. F. Fursova Abstract: The study describes a new method of integrating field and archival sources relevant to the migration of peasant families from the Ryazan Governorate to the Altai in the 1880s. Late 19th to early 20th century documents from the archives of the Ryazan and Tomsk regions were used. A new comparative method was applied to analyze the findings of ethnographic surveys in places of the original (Ryazan) and subsequent (Shubinka Volost, Biysk Uyezd, Altai) residence of migrants. Based on interviews with their descendants, adaptation to the new areas of residence was explored. Both before and after the 1917 Revolution, the migrants retained their two basiс distinctions—Orthodoxy and the Southern Russian dialect. Adaptation processes included development of the new habitat and marriages not only with members of their group but also with Siberian old residents. These adaptive strategies opposed migrants from Ryazan to those from other Southern Russian Governorates such as Kursk, Voronezh, etc., who maintained ties mostly with migrants from Poltava, Chernigov, and other southern regions. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:Z. I. Kurbanova, I. V. Oktyabrskaya, Z. K. Suraganova Abstract: This article focuses on the structure, content, and symbolic form of gift exchange practices among the Karakalpaks in the 20th and early 21st centuries, drawing on methodologies used by Russian and Western ethnographers. Our approach is based on a comparative analysis of practices and ideology of donating textile products among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia. We used field, archival, and published materials on the ethnography of the Karakalpaks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Altaians, etc. Characteristics of gift exchange traditions are outlined, functions and symbolism of textiles in rituals are described, and tendencies of their transformation in modern society are assessed. Findings suggest that among most Turkic peoples of Central Asia, gift exchange using textiles has traditionally accompanied many social practices. In Karakalpak family rituals, pieces of cloth were regarded as both material and spiritual values, and their exchange ensured the transfer of vital forces and strengthening the clan structure. As the analysis of modern Karakalpak gift exchange practices has shown, textiles are no longer regarded as products, but have retained their symbolic function at the level of social communication. Such an exchange has become a symbolic expression of mutual aid and solidarity at the family, clan, ethnic, and national levels. PubDate: 2025-01-13 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:A. P. Derevianko Abstract: The study published in the previous issue of this journal addressed the dispersal and early morphological and genetic evolution of H. s. denisovan in Iran, following the split of the ancestral taxon H. heidelbergensis into two taxa, Neanderthals and Denisovans, in the Levant ~400 ka BP. The latter taxon was first described owing to the sequencing of DNA extracted from the fragment of the fifth finger phalanx from layer 11.2 of Denisova Cave, Altai. Having left the Levant 400–350 ka BP, Denisovans began to spread via Iran to Central Asia and eventually to the Altai. Humans appeared in Denisova Cave ~300 ka BP, having crossed vast territories of Central Asia different in terms of environment, climate, landscape, flora and fauna, and partly populated by aborigines—the late populations of H. erectus. Adapting to changing environments, assimilating native humans, and undergoing natural selection, H. s. denisovan evolved both genetically and morphologically. Here, the spread of Denisovans in Tajikistan will be discussed. PubDate: 2025-01-12 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:D. V. Marchenko, A. S. Samandrosova, A. M. Klementiev, E. P. Rybin, D. Bazargur, Y. Tserendagva, B. Gunchinsuren, J. W. Olsen, A. M. Khatsenovich Abstract: Исследование измеряет роль хищных птиц в тафоценозе мелких млекопитающих в пещере Цаган Агуй в Гобийском Алтае в Монголии и реконструирует палеоклиматические условия там через состав останов мелких млекопитающих в слоях 4 и 5.1–5.3 Главных камер пещер. Скопления костей мелких млекопитающих были обнаружены в этих слоях в раскопе 2 во время наших полевых сезонов 2022 и 2023 годов. Мы предполагаем, что эти содержания коррелируют с гнездами крупных хищных птиц в потолке пещер. Мы использовали математическую статистику, программную среду R, и сгенерировали графики, чтобы обозначить границы этих концентраций и объяснить закономерности их накопления между литологическими слоями. Осадконакопление в раскопе 2 было нарушено водой, притекающей из дымохода в потолке пещеры, что вызвало появление красных обломков с поверхностью окружающего известнякового массива. Наши результаты показывают, что хищные птицы сыграли ключевую роль в накоплении останов мелких млекопитающих ... PubDate: 2025-01-12 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:V. M. Kharevich, A. V. Kharevich, S. V. Markin, К. A. Kolobova Abstract: This paper presents a new approach to assessing the integrity of flaking sequences at Paleolithic sites. It combines experimental modeling with subsequent attribute analysis of the archaeological collection. The method is based on changes in the proportion of various technical spalls at different stages of core and bifacial reduction, as well as changes in the sizes of cortical flakes. This methodology was applied to reconstruct the strategy of the use of lithic raw material by late Neanderthals of the Altai, on the basis of the Chagyrskaya Cave assemblage. The study has shown that the most common method, using the proportion of cortical spalls, is not universal, and has limitations due to the structure of lithic industry and the specificity of raw material. When pebbles and boulders of various sizes are used, as in the assemblage from layer 6c/2 of Chagyrskaya Cave, a high proportion of cortical spalls can result from the production of bifacial tools at the site. The study demonstrates that the first stage in core reduction occurred outside the cave. The high proportion of cortical spalls in the assemblage is due to the fact that bifaces were manufactured in situ, whereas tools on cortical flakes and cortical tool blanks had been transported to the site. The study reveals a connection of various technical spalls with stages in core and biface flaking sequences, and their number is evaluated in the cases of complete versus reduced flaking cycles. PubDate: 2025-01-12 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:K. A. Kolobova, I. E. Tyugashev, A. V. Kharevich, V. M. Kharevich, A. S. Koliasnikova, M. V. Seletsky, P. V. Chistyakov, S. V. Markin, A. P. Derevianko Abstract: This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of lithics from layer 3 of Okladnikov Cave and their relevance to the Sibiryachikha industries of the Altai Mountains. Attribute analysis has shown that the industry of layer 3 demonstrates technological and typological similarities with the Sibiryachikha industries. These include radial flaking with an offset technological axis, a predominance of convergent side-scrapers, and a series of planoconvex bifacial tools. Functionally, the site was a camp where horse and rhinoceros carcasses were butchered and consumed. The analysis of flaking sequence integrity revealed similarity between Okladnikov layer 3 and Chagyrskaya industries in terms of primary and bifacial reduction. The initial stages of core decortication were carried out outside the cave, at the rock outcrops. Subsequent stages of core utilization and all stages of bifacial flaking were carried out in situ. The main difference between Okladnikov layer 3 and Chagyrskaya layer 6c/2 industries concerns only the stage of manufacturing and modifying stone tools. At Okladnikov Cave, these processes were much more intense than at Chagyrskaya, which may indicate transportation of numerous tools and blanks made of high-quality raw material from more distant sources. PubDate: 2025-01-12 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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Authors:A. V. Vishnevsky, N. Е. Belousova, A. Y. Fedorchenko, V. A. Mikhienko, M. B. Kozlikin, M. V. Shunkov Abstract: On the basis of the analysis of thin leaf-shaped bifacial points, which are very elaborate and sensitive to the quality of rocks, we reconstruct the adaptive strategies of humans at the early stages of the Upper Paleolithic. Mineral raw materials and their exploitation relating to different resource bases of the central (the Ursul River basin) and northwestern (the Anuy River basin) parts of the Altai region are analyzed. To attribute the rock sources for bifaces, we have compiled a comparative database of petrographic and petrochemical characteristics of artifacts and pebbles from nearby rivers. Chemical criteria were proposed for differentiating rocks, including those that are hard to distinguish, and non-destructive techniques were applied to assess the chemical composition of rocks using a portable XRF spectrometer. Findings suggest that rocks available in the Anuy and Ursul basins met the conditions for biface manufacture. Bifaces from the Ursul valley were made of local fine-grained rocks—felsic volcanic tuff and ignimbrite; those from the Anuy valley were also of local rocks, but of lower quality—hornfels transformed (meta-sedimentary) siltstone and finegrained sandstone or felsic volcanic rocks. In the Anuy valley, scarcity of quality raw material was compensated for by imported high silica jasper-like rocks. Results suggest that the Early Upper Paleolithic inhabitants of the region, when implementing technical skills, showed stable behavioral and technological stereotypes despite habitat change and deterioration of the resource base. PubDate: 2025-01-12 Issue No:Vol. 52 (2025)
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