Archeology of Altai. Altai mounds

If we can say about the archeology of the Saka period in Central Asia and Western Siberia that it remains a matter of the future, then the finds in the Altai mounds represent the present day of Soviet science. They opened a new page in the cultural history of the nomads of Eurasia and, thanks to their unusualness and truly high artistic value, gained worldwide fame.

At the end of the 18th - first third of the 19th centuries. An excellent collection of works of art found in Altai was compiled by the Altai engineer P.K. Frolov (ill. 59-62). Among them, especially remarkable are well-preserved wood carvings, such as are known in the Scythian complexes of the Black Sea region. In 1865 V.V. Radlov excavated two large mounds: one within the modern Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region in the valley of the Katun River - in Katanda, the other - in the basin of the upper reaches of the Bukhtarma River within the borders of Eastern Kazakhstan - Bereli. These were the first scientific excavations in the Altai mountains. Among the finds were well-preserved fur clothes and various decorations carved from wood, similar to those already known from the collection of P.K. Frolova (ill. 63). For a long time, these things remained unique and were surprising for their preservation, since usually objects made from organic materials disappear in graves without a trace.

In 1911 in the southern part of Western Altai A.V. Adrianov excavated two mounds in the Mayemira steppe on the Mayemira River, the left tributary of the Narym River, three mounds were excavated by him under Solnechny Belok near the village of Altaiskoye and four on the upper Bukhtarma near the village of Chernova - all in modern East Kazakhstan. In the graves under stone and earth mounds they had log houses with the remains of looted human burials, and next to the log houses the skeletons of one or two horses. In addition to the mounds of A.V. Adrianov excavated a ring-shaped arrangement of boulders on the Mayemira River, under the largest of which were bronze parts of a bridle and along with them seven heavily crumpled gold plates with embossed figures of a characteristic curled-up predator, albeit with an excessively elongated body, but with a rather realistic interpretation of the head and clawed paws (ill. 64, 65). Judging by the shape of the bit and the style of the images on the plates, which probably covered the wooden decorations of the bridle, this find dates back to the beginning of the 6th century. BC.

A remarkable example of early Scythian-Siberian art is also represented by a bronze mirror found in Altai with a low vertical rim, with traces of a double-column handle and engraving on the back (ill. 66) [the engraving was on the casting mold, and on the mirror itself there is a design with a convex outline]. There are six identical profile figures of standing deer placed one after another on it. The general outline of each animal is outlined with a free, expressive line with great skill. Deer have a round hip separated by a bend from the body, four legs with sharp hooves, as if hanging in the air, a short tail and withers rising at an acute angle. On the raised elongated head, only a round eye protruding from its outline is shown; directly adjacent to it is an acute-angled ear and a horn consisting of S-shaped curls. In general, the image of a deer on the Altai mirror is close to the images of this animal engraved on vessels from the Nalchik Museum in the North Caucasus, and just like the curled up animal on the gold Mayemiri plaques, it is typical of the 6th century. BC. An eye protruding beyond the contour of the head is found in many motifs of Scythian art, but is especially characteristic of images of a bird’s head, which from the earliest times was often indicated only by a circle-eye with an adjacent curved beak.

For the first time after V.V. Radlov's study of large Altai mounds was undertaken in 1927 by M.P. Gryaznov. He excavated a stone mound two meters high in the Shibe tract in the valley of the Ursula River, a left tributary of the Katun River (Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region). It contained a double burial chamber with a sarcophagus-deck and fourteen horses in the northern part of the burial pit. Despite the robbery, the mummified corpses of an adult man and a child, numerous gold plaques and buttons, various images carved from gold sheets, wooden, horn and leather horse harness decorations and other things were preserved in the grave, confirming that similar items included in the collections of P. TO. Frolov and V.V. Radlova, come from mounds of this type.

An even more vivid picture of burials with similar materials was revealed as a result of excavations by S.I. Rudenko in the Pazyryk tract in the Bolshoi Ulagan valley in Eastern Altai (Gorno-Altai Autonomous Region), where one mound was explored in 1929, and in 1947-1949. four more mounds. In 1950 S.I. Rudenko excavated two large mounds in Central Altai - in the Bashadar tract near the Karakol village on the Kulada River, and in 1954-1955. two mounds near the village of Tuekta in the valley of the Ursula River.

The large Altai mounds excavated by Soviet archaeologists have enriched the State Hermitage with an absolutely exceptional collection of items made of wood, leather, felt and various fabrics, which are also distinguished by high artistic merit. These things opened up a completely new world, which until now could only be guessed at from meager hints in other extant materials from the same culture and time. At present, the finds from all these excavations have been published and therefore there is no need to give a detailed description of them, but we can limit ourselves to a general description.

The graves under the Altai mounds of the Pazyryk type were arranged in the form of a large rectangular pit with an area of ​​50 to 55 sq.m and a depth of 4-5 m. It contained a burial chamber, consisting of one or, much more often, two log cabins inserted into one another; between the chamber and the wall of the pit on the north side there was a space left in which from five to twenty-two horses were laid. The interior of the burial chamber was low, from 1.1 to 1.5 m. The walls and ceiling of the chamber from the inside were hewn flat and lined with felt; the plank floor also had a felt covering. The body of a deceased person or two, in cases where the deceased was accompanied by a wife or concubine, was placed in a large sarcophagus dug out of thick larch with a lid. Sometimes in the chamber there are two smaller sarcophagi for each of the two dead people separately. In two cases (the first Tuektinsky and second Bashadarsky mounds) the sarcophagus was covered with carved images of animals (ill. 67), and in others it was decorated with applications in the form of figurines of elk (ill. 68), cockerels or ornaments carved from leather or birch bark. Along with the sarcophagus, the chamber contained some household items - low tables with shaped carved legs, wooden seats in the shape of pillows, vessels with food and other equipment accompanying the dead. The ceiling of the chamber was covered with several layers of sewn panels of boiled birch bark and larch bark, and the entire grave was covered with a thick (up to 2 m) flooring of many rows of logs, on top of which the earth taken out when digging the grave was poured first, and then stone. This kind of embankment, from 36 to 46 m in diameter, was up to 4 m high. The stone embankment above the Altai mounds deserves special attention, since the degree of preservation of the burial goods depends on its size, as we will see below.

At the time of scientific excavations, all Altai mounds with stone embankments turned out to be plundered in exactly the same way by persons who were well aware of their structure. The robbers, having dismantled and excavated the mound mound above the grave in the form of a funnel, got to the log ceiling and, having cut a narrow hole in it, fell straight into the burial chamber, free of earth and stones, which they emptied in most cases almost completely, leaving only non-valuable, with their points of view, and cumbersome things. In one case, the robbers even stole gold jewelry from horse equipment stacked between the walls of the log houses; in another, they tried to get to the horse burial by cutting through the side wall of the chamber, but, as a rule, they left the horses, placed behind the chamber between the log house and the wall of the grave pit, without attention, since to extract something from under the stones and logs piled above them was too difficult and not so tempting to justify the effort expended. They were well aware that apart from thin gold sheets covering the wooden carved decorations of horse harnesses and bronze bits, there could be nothing valuable in the horses’ equipment. Thanks to this, most of the things found during scientific excavations of Altai burial mounds come from horse burials untouched by robbers.

The graves under the stone embankments were filled with ice; when examining them, this ice had to be gradually melted using hot water, which was repeatedly poured into the grave, and then scooped out along with the water resulting from the melting of the ice. It was noticed that the ice filling the chambers was not homogeneous: on top there was a thick layer formed after the mound was dug up by robbers, when water with earth and debris flowed into the chamber through the funnel they dug, below there was a thin layer of completely pure ice that had formed even before the grave was robbed due to the formation of a permafrost lens under the rock embankment. In some graves, burial items were frozen into this layer and the robbers had to either leave them untouched or cut them out of the ice.

The sacrificial food placed with the dead had time to decay so that only bones remained, and the corpses of the horses buried in the graves also underwent decomposition. In the first Tuektinsky mound, where the wooden decorations of the harness were perfectly preserved, the felt, fur and leather parts of it had almost completely decayed. All this indicates that some time passed between the funeral and the formation of permafrost, which, however, cannot be accurately determined, just like the time when the graves were robbed and filled with ice as a result of access to the grave of water and cold air through the robber's pit .

It is possible that the plunder of the burial mounds of the Scythian period in Altai is associated with the invasion there of a new people, who did not limit themselves to expelling the former population of the country, but also desecrated the graves they left behind. It is known that this is exactly what the Wuhuan people did with the graves of the Huns they defeated. They dug up and plundered the tombs of the Hunnic leaders - the Shanyu. Probably, the destruction of burials under riprap mounds dates back to the time of the conquest of Altai by the Huns. In any case, these mounds were robbed not secretly, not through inconspicuous tunnels, with which thieves penetrated the tombs of their rich contemporaries in the Northern Black Sea region, but completely openly - with holes dug in the mound from above, which, with deep veneration of ancestors, could only become widespread in relation to the graves of enemies. Altai mounds of the Pazyryk type are located in the mountains at an altitude of more than 1000 m above sea level, but still in an area in which permafrost is not observed under normal conditions. Despite the harsh climatic conditions of the Altai highlands with its long winters and short summers and correspondingly low annual temperatures, a large stone embankment was a necessary condition for the formation of sub-mound permafrost. No signs of permafrost were found under small mounds of the same type. The mass of stones, with its poor thermal conductivity and, conversely, good air permeability, acted as a capacitor. A special microclimate was created in and under the stone embankment, which differed from the environmental climate in that it was lower in temperature and weakly responsive to summer heating. As a result, a lens of permafrost formed under the embankment, corresponding to the relief of the embankment, that is, thicker under the center and thinning towards the edges.

Thanks to the permafrost that covered the graves under the stone embankments, the preservation of wooden structures, buried corpses and various things left behind by the robbers in the graves turned out to be relatively good. From the point of view of preservation, human corpses should be considered the least indicative, because before burial they were carefully

prepared for the purpose of mummification. Through incisions in the skin, subsequently sewn up with hair or tendon threads, entrails and partially muscles were removed from the corpses, and the skulls were trepanned to remove the brain. In some cases, the prepared skeleton bones were connected to each other with straps passed through specially drilled holes in them.

To maintain its shape, various herbs are stuffed under the skin, and in some places even hair is placed. All this closely corresponds to the story of Herodotus about the Scythian custom of mummifying the corpse of the king.

According to racial characteristics, the majority of those buried in the Altai mounds belonged to Caucasians, but there were also typical Mongoloids among them, which indicates contact between two racial types and, probably, a mixture of different ethnic groups. The heads of the buried were shaved entirely or only at the front; women wore tied braids, and men hung an artificial beard from their shaved faces. The skin of one of the men was covered with a tattoo representing animals in a style characteristic of appliqués and wood carvings on items from the same Altai burial mounds (ill. 69); the tattoo was applied long before the death of this man with deep injections of black paint on the arms, on the chest, partially on the back and on the legs from the knee to the ankle. In all likelihood, it meant, as was the custom among many barbarians, the high social position that the buried person occupied during his lifetime.

It is impossible to get a complete picture of the burial goods in the Altai graves, since all the chambers were thoroughly plundered by robbers. The corpses of the dead turned out to be randomly scattered, and others completely disappeared, having been taken out of their graves. Everyone was undressed, the heads of two corpses in the chamber of the second Pazyryk mound were cut off, probably in order to remove expensive neck jewelry (grivnas), a woman from the same couple had the feet of both legs, lower legs and the hand of her right hand cut off to remove ankle and hand bracelets . Even the felt upholstery was torn off from the walls of the cells in order to remove the copper nails with which it was nailed. Nevertheless, what has been preserved, sometimes in tattered form, in fragments and fragments, gives an amazing picture, immeasurably surpassing in its diversity everything that is known from mounds in which there was no permafrost, and therefore, the conditions of conservation did not exist. What are the differences between Altai mounds and large stone mounds?

There is a fairly complete selection of clothing - men's and women's. All of it, except for shirts woven from hemp or kendyr, was made of leather, fur and felt. Apparently, woolen fabrics were not used for clothing. Men's clothing includes tight trousers made from numerous pieces of leather such as suede, felt stockings, boots with long tops and soft soles, and a spacious caftan with long decorative sleeves. All this is very similar to the attire of the characters depicted on the gold plates of the Amu-Darya treasure and Persepolis reliefs. On their heads, men wore a felt hat with earflaps, covered with leather, or a felt cap. One of them is crowned with a crown with stepped teeth, characteristic of Achaemenid Persia.

Among women's clothing, felt stockings and boots with short tops have been preserved. Dress ankle boots with bell tops are completely ornamented, including the sole, embroidered with beads and pyrite crystals, which only made sense given the custom of sitting with legs bent crosswise and heels turned outward. Outerwear was a caftan with decorative sleeves and a bib. Women's hats were more varied than men's. One of them, carved from wood in the form of a cap with two hollow horns at the top, through which two braids were threaded, ended with a vertically fastened braid made of horsehair; the deceased’s own braids were attached to it. Several woven belts were found, one with silver ornamental plaques (ill. 71).

Very little of the personal jewelry in the Altai mounds survived, although before the robbery it was probably represented in a rich assortment, as evidenced by the various gold items in the Siberian collection of the Hermitage. In the looted Altai mounds during excavations, only one pair of gold earrings of fine jewelry work with grain was found (ill. 72), fragments of a hryvnia in the form of a ring made of a copper tube with griffins inserted at the ends, carved from wood and horn, and then covered with gold ( Fig. 70, 73), and several gilded plaques with images of animals sewn onto clothes. Beads and beads, in particular from turquoise, were found in small quantities. The toiletries include a horn comb and three mirrors: one bronze with a short handle, another silver with a long horn handle, and a fragment of the third made of white metal, Chinese Qin type, dating from the 4th century. BC.

Also, very few weapons have survived. In one of the burials, the remains of a short iron sword and dagger were found, and in all the graves there were quite a lot of fragments of arrow shafts, the tips of which had been removed by robbers. Defensive weapons include shields made of leather and wood, and one wooden one, imitating a leather shield with sticks. In the first Tuekta mound, wooden leggings were preserved.

From the household furnishings in the burial chambers, in addition to the mentioned tables-dishes on figured legs, in one case turned on a machine, wooden and clay vessels, felt stands for vessels, a stone lamp, leather bags, flasks, wooden and clay vessels, more or less survived. wallets and cases, fur bags, felt and leather rugs and bedspreads, horn drums, a musical instrument such as a harp and a very interesting copper incense burner with a wooden cone-shaped six-legged set above it, covered with a felt or leather rug on top. Hemp seeds found here indicate that this device was used for smoking drugs (hashish) in the manner described by Herodotus. According to him, the Scythians throw hemp grains onto hot stones, covered with felt on wooden stands, and breathe the smoke rising from them. However, Herodotus confused this method of smoking with a steam bath, and only finds in the Altai burial mounds made it possible to correctly understand what he was talking about.

The inventory of horse burials turned out to be incomparably more preserved. First of all, it should be noted that in some mounds fairly well-preserved corpses of horses with meat, skin and hair were found. Among them, along with small herd specimens, were large high-breed horses. All horses are geldings from two to twenty or more years old, almost all of them are riding horses. All have trimmed manes, and the tails, cut at the top, are braided and, in some, tied in a knot. Sometimes horses were wearing felt caps and leather cases for tails. All horses are killed by a blow to the forehead or crown of the head. All of them have different marks of the owners in the form of cuts on the ears, from which it follows that these horses did not belong to the deceased during his lifetime, but were given as a gift to him as a leader, probably by subordinates.

In most cases, horse equipment was not left on the horses, but was removed from them and placed separately or on the corpses of the horses. It consisted of a bridle with a bit and a chumbur. Two-piece bits with stirrup-shaped or round ends for cheekpieces and reins. The earliest cheekpieces have three holes, the later ones have two holes. The first ones are combined with bits with stirrup-shaped ends, and the two-hole ones - with ringed ones. The saddles consisted of two pillows sewn together, stuffed with deer hair or grass and equipped with a saddle cloth, a girth, and a chest and tail strap. Among them there are specimens with both high and low saddle bows. The girths were fastened with a variety of buckles - bronze, horn and wood. Saddle cushions and saddle pads were decorated with scenes of animal fights, made with colored appliqué from thin leather or variously colored felt. The carved figures were complemented by inserts of gold and tin sheets, the details were outlined with colored thread. The set of decorations for bridles and saddles made of plaques and pendants with a variety of pictorial and ornamental motifs, mostly carved from leather and wood and overlaid with gold or tin, is remarkably rich and varied. It should be noted that the wooden parts and decorations of horse equipment were by no means hastily made imitation of more durable metal products specifically for funerals. Traces of wear, breakage and repairs indicate that they are household equipment, which hides a cheap base behind the shine of thin gilding.

Among the most remarkable finds in the Altai burial mounds are original masks worn on the heads of horses. The best preserved of them were a kind of cases with large ears. One was crowned with large deer antlers, and in front along the horse's muzzle was decorated with an image of a tiger carved from fur (ill. 74). At the top of the second mask is a sculpted wooden head of a deer with leather antlers, and on the third is a winged lion griffin, and in front there is also a figure of a tiger, clinging to this griffin with its teeth and paws (ill. 75). The fourth mask has a sculpted head of a ram with curved horns and a bird with raised wings standing on it. Other masks are in worse preservation, but many of them have signs of long-term use, showing that this accessory of horse gear had not a specifically funeral, but a domestic purpose, although undoubtedly related to the cult.

It should be noted that horse masks are not at all a specific feature of the Altai burial mounds. Similar horse decorations are also known among the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region, where parts of the bridle are found with images of the same content as on the Altai masks. Thus, the forehead plate, characteristic of the Scythian bridle, often has the appearance of a sculpted head of an animal with a schematic representation of the front paws and the head of the animal between them on the shield that serves as its base. This is a reduced reproduction of the motif of fighting animals, characteristic of Pazyryk masks. Cheekpieces of this kind of bridle are often interpreted as a pair of hind legs or paws of an animal on the forehead, sometimes in such a stylized form that their original pictorial content can only be established through typological comparisons. These cheek-paws correspond to the back of the animal on Pazyryk masks, presented in the form of figured blades hanging down on the sides of a horse’s head. Metal - gold, silver or bronze - forehead and cheek pads as part of a horse bridle appeared in the 5th century, but were especially widespread in the 4th century. They show that the Scythians of the Black Sea region had the same forms of cult as in Altai, and probably used the same horse masks. The replacement of masks with foreheads and cheekpieces with animal images on horse bridles is almost never observed in Siberia. The Minusinsk bronzes have a single forehead with a sculpted bird's head.

In the fifth Pazyryk mound, in the backfill of the northern part of the grave, together with the horses, there were two carpets - one felt with colored appliqués, and the other piled wool, which gained world fame as the oldest example of this type of product. The felt carpet appears to be part of a tent, the base of which was a frame of four logs found in the backfill of the grave with nests cut into them for the poles that made up its frame. On the tops of these poles were attached a figure of sculptural swans sewn from felt. On a large, about 30 sq.m., white felt carpet (ill. 76), friezes of ornamental figures alternate with a several times repeated composition representing a horseman in a flowing cloak (ill. 78) in front of a goddess sitting on a throne with a lush plant in her hand ( Fig. 77). This is a cult scene, vividly reminiscent not only in content, but also in the form of the image, in the 4th-3rd centuries. widespread in the art of the Northern Black Sea region.

The seated woman is the goddess of the fruitful forces of nature. In her outstretched hand, the plant with curving branches ending in stylized leaves and flowers has nothing in common with the forms of trees and plants in Siberian art, but is reminiscent of Chinese ornaments. The goddess's other hand is raised to her mouth. She sits in profile in a chair with turned legs, such as those found on tables found in the Pazyryk burial mounds, with a curved back, ending in the same arrow-shaped figure as on the branches of the plant in her hand.

Apparently, the goddess’s head was shaved, like the women buried in the Pazyryk mounds. She wears a headdress in the form of a cap with a back plate, decorated along the crown with wide triangles. The goddess has a flat back of the head, a high forehead, small eyes with straight eyebrows, a large hooked nose and a heavy protruding chin. The ear is depicted as a curl with two protrusions at the lower end. The goddess is dressed in a kind of long, ankle-length robe, wrapped on the left side and decorated with ornaments in the form of large angular curls. Her neck is covered by a thick collar, probably of lower clothing, and her narrow sleeves end in cuffs.

The horseman facing the goddess with a large bare head has the same Armenoid facial features as hers and, in addition, a long mustache curled upward. On his head is a cap of wavy hair, marked on top by a row of semicircular protrusions. This is a typical representative of the Central Asian race. He holds the reins in one hand, the other hand is not visible. The rider is dressed in a short jacket, decorated with sewing along the shoulder, along the side and hem. He is wearing tight pants and soft boots. A short cloak decorated with large circles flutters behind. Such a cloak is not found in any other image of the Scythians or Saks; they appear only in the Sarmatian period on Bosporan frescoes and reliefs. However, in the 4th century. in Greek art, barbarians (Persians) are sometimes represented with cloaks. Such images are found, for example, on the calaf from Bolshaya Bliznitsa and on the Kerch vase of Xenophon.

In the Krasnogorsk Kurgan in the Urals in the burial of a killed Sarmatian warrior of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC. A short cloak cut from leather was found. K.F. Smirnov believes that the pieces of thin leather are light yellow in color, found in the 5th century mound. BC. near the village of Klyastitsky near the city of Troitsk, there may be remains of the same cloak. It follows that

The image on the Pazyryk carpet reproduces, although not widespread, the real affiliation of the men's costume of the closely related Sakas of Southern Siberia and the Issedons of the Urals.

Suspended from the belt of the horseman represented on the felt carpet on the left is a goret with a bow inserted into it and a box for arrows, the same as in other Siberian images of this weapon accessory. Under the rider is a saddle with high bows, equipped with chest and tail straps with decorations. A horse with a trimmed mane with two peaks and bangs. Bridle with plaques at the cross-straps, with a nosepiece and a fang-like cheekpiece.

To repair the edge of this carpet, pieces of the same felt carpet with appliqués were used. On one of them there is a fantastic creature standing in profile with a curved body with the upper part of a man and the lower part of a predatory beast with clawed paws and a tail running between them. The human head with a thick nose and upward curled mustache, like that of the horseman in front of the goddess, is complicated by a sharp animal ear and deer antlers rising above it. The hair on the head is raised in a forelock at the front and curved into a pigtail at the back. There is a wing behind the back of this figure, and three-fingered hands extended forward; Circles with cross-shaped figures made of small circles inscribed in them are scattered along the body. The horns, wing and end of the tail are interpreted as curvilinear, pointed forms, similar to the tree in the hand of the goddess in the composition described above (ill. 79). This figure appears to be part of a composition that included the bird; All that remained of it were part of the body with the ends of the wing feathers, long legs and a tail, interpreted in the same way as the horns and tail of a man-beast. The content of the composition as a whole represented the struggle of a fantastic man-beast with a bird (ill. 79, 80).

The image of the man-beast has long existed in Western Asian art. The fantastic man-beast of the Pazyryk carpet comes close to the Sphinx, common in the East and Greece, when this four-legged creature with a human head is depicted rising on its hind legs, as it is represented, for example, on one of the sectors of the Kelermes mirror. On the pectoral from Ziwiye, the man-beast has human hands. The most distinctive feature of the Pazyryk man-beast is the large deer antlers on its head. Horns of this kind are found among fantastic beasts of prey in Scythian-Siberian art and probably have a certain symbolic meaning, which one can only guess at.

In Iranian art, the image of a man-beast, in addition to the guardian of the entrances of the winged man-bull inherited from Assyro-Babylonia, is found on some seals reproducing Assyrian samples. It follows that the man-beast in Siberian art, as in Achaemenid Persia, goes back to an earlier Near Asian motif. It could have the same meaning as in the East - a guardian genius fighting evil, fertilizing nature in the form of a sacred tree, etc.

Other human images in Altai art take the form of faces presented from the front, as, for example, on bridle pendants from the first Pazyryk mound, where a beardless human face, lusciously carved from wood, is framed by a beard separated by strands, like the hair on the head (ill. 82), or on schematic pendants carved from leather from the same mound (ill. 83), in which animal ears and horns rise above the head, similar to the same elements of the man-beast on the felt carpet. Luristan art is rich in this kind of masks, in which the head of a goddess was depicted on the disc-shaped tops of votive pins, usually surrounded by animals, but where bearded and mustacheless heads are also found, as, for example, on the umbon located in Tehran, which are also similar to the Pazyryk mask that the hair on the head and beard are treated as similar strands. Closely related to the Luristan masks is the image of the Gorgon in Greek art, which became widespread in the Northern Black Sea region mainly in the form of sewn-on gold plaques of Greco-Scythian craft production, appearing there from the 5th century. BC. Particularly similar to the faces from the Pazyryk mounds is the bearded face with a protruding tongue, like a Gorgon’s, presented on a round gold plaque from the Amu-Darya treasure.

Particularly noteworthy is the ornamental interpretation of the tree in the hands of the goddess and the horns, wings, paws and tails of the man-beast and bird on felt Pazyryk carpets designed in the same spirit. This interpretation reveals a close relationship with Chinese ornamentation, known from numerous examples on early Chinese bronzes. In this case, perhaps the most obvious and early elements of Chinese origin in Altai art appear.

The unique rectangular pile carpet, measuring 1.89 x 2 m, is distinguished by its fine workmanship: it has 3,600 knots in one square decimeter. On its central field, the same pattern is repeated many times - a square frame with a cross-shaped figure of four petals and triangular leaves between the crosshairs. This field is framed by a wide border of five stripes, the first of which from the middle contains a row of small squares with the figure of an eagle griffin with its head turned back. Next comes a strip occupied by repeatedly repeating figures of grazing dappled deer with a wide-bladed jagged horn on their head, all facing one direction - to the left. The third stripe consists of a row of the same cross-shaped figures as those placed in the central field, but without square frames. In the next, widest stripe there is a row of alternating mounted and dismounted horsemen heading to the right (Fig. 81).

Although the human figures are depicted very schematically, nevertheless, their headdresses are given quite clearly in accordance with those customary for the Sakas and Persians, as they are presented on the gold plates of the Amu Darya treasure and on the frieze along the stairs in the palace in Persepolis. This is a hood with the top folded back, tied under the chin. The dismounted riders leading their horses by the reins, as on the Persepolis frieze, are placed behind the horses so that only their busts and legs are visible. But the horses are depicted in all their splendor. Before us are massive stallions with curved necks in rich attire. On the head of each of them stands a sultan, the bridle is decorated with plaques. On the back of the horses, instead of a saddle, there is apparently a patterned rug framed with fringe and festoons on top of a felt saddle blanket with a chest strap; a bib with a tassel in the middle. The horses' tails are tied in a knot.

The last, outermost strip of the border is filled with squares with a griffin figure in the same way as the first of the stripes framing the central field. All these stripes are separated from each other by narrow frames of multi-colored squares and edgings.

Both stylistically and iconographically, this carpet is not of Altai, but of Persian-Achaemenid origin, just like the second pile wool carpet, represented in small fragments, found in the second Bashadar mound. This second carpet is distinguished by its unusually fine workmanship: in each square decimeter there are about 7000 knots, that is, twice as many as the described Pazyryk carpet. In addition, not simple, but so-called Persian, or one-and-a-half, knots are used here. These are the oldest examples of carpets in the world, testifying to the high level of skill achieved by carpet weaving back in the middle of the 1st millennium BC.

In the same fifth Pazyryk mound, in which the felt and pile carpets described above were found, two fragments of fabrics, also of Iranian origin, were found as part of a horse headdress. One of them was used as the cover of a felt saddle cloth and was an example of the finest work with a woven pattern in the form of square frames filled with a geometric design of elongated rectangles with triangular teeth at one end and a strip of teardrop-shaped figures at the other. Along the sides of the saddle cloth was sewn the same kind of woolen fabric with a different pattern in square frames. Here the same scene is repeated, representing an incense burner in the center with two pairs of women standing on either side. The front ones are taller, in jagged crowns, from which a veil descends down the back, and are depicted in a prayerful pose - one hand is raised, in the other, apparently, a flower. The women standing behind them are shorter: they are probably maids. Their heads are also crowned, but without veils. In one of their crossed arms they are holding some kind of soft object folded in half, probably a towel. The long, body-hugging garments with wide sleeves, as well as the jagged crowns of these images, find their closest analogies in the Persian monuments of the Achaemenid period. Other details, as well as the composition as a whole, are also associated with Western Asia.

The saddle breastplate of the same horse dress as the saddle cloth is trimmed with a narrow strip of fabric with a frieze of lions marching one after another with an open mouth, a protruding tongue and a curved tail (ill. 84). Their shoulders and hips are highlighted with colored circles and arcs. Such images of lions are widespread in the art of Western Asia, and are especially characteristic of Achaemenid Persia, where the lions of Pazyryk fabric also find the closest stylistic analogies.

Along with Iranian items, there were also Chinese items in the Pazyryk mounds. This is the already mentioned mirror, and silk fabrics should also be added to it - one polychrome with a complex geometric pattern of rows of various diamond-shaped figures, found in the third Pazyryk mound, the other with beautiful embroidery representing trees with phoenixes sitting on them in various poses. The last of these fabrics was used, like fabrics of Iranian origin, to cover a saddle cloth.

In the filling of the grave of the fifth Pazyryk mound was a disassembled wooden chariot, the parts of which were tied together with belts. It had two pairs of high wheels with bent rims and spokes placed close together, almost touching each other. Above its body, consisting of two frames connected by carved posts, rose a wagon with lattice walls and a flat roof. The drawbar with a yoke and lines shows that it was harnessed by a pair of horses, the other two horses were fastened with lines. Four draft horses were placed in the grave along with the riding horses. In shape, this bulky, slow-moving cart, unsuitable for mountain roads, is similar to Chinese chariots. It could only serve for ceremonial exits, and for this purpose it probably ended up in the grave inventory. Dendrological research allowed us to establish a number of interesting facts regarding the lifestyle and customs of the ancient population who left the Altai mounds. Located in mountain valleys, in places most suitable for wintering livestock, these mounds, as shown by the plant remains found in them, were built in the spring or summer. Those who died in winter, therefore, expected burial until the onset of spring, which is probably why the need to mummify corpses arose.

The same fact that the mounds were grouped into small cemeteries shows that the pastures on which they are located belonged to certain families or clans, who kept them in their possession from generation to generation. The confirmation and proof of the right to land of the corresponding social unit was its cemetery on this land. It was noted that for the burial structures of the first Pazyryk mound, trees (larches) were harvested in one cutting area and at the same time. In the second mound, the logs for rolling over the grave were cut down seven years earlier than the logs for the chamber. Some of them turned out to be damaged by bark beetles after cutting while they were lying in the forest. Logs for burial structures are not thick - 16-25 cm in the butt part; Only for the pillars were logs about 50 cm in diameter used. Huge trees, about 1 m thick, were required for the sarcophagus decks. The trees were cut from two opposite sides, the half-cut middle part broke when felled. Then the logs were carefully finished: branches and all irregularities were trimmed off. In the log houses, the logs were tightly fitted to each other. When making blocks and boards, logs were split lengthwise and trimmed. Due to the lack of saws, all work was done with axes and adzes; judging by the traces of work, they were light and narrow, with a blade width of about 35-55 mm. Adzes differed from axes not only in the way they were mounted on the handle, but also in the asymmetry of the sharpening of the blade. Funeral logs were prepared outside the grave, in which they were then assembled in accordance with the notches-marks made on the logs.

Huge sarcophagi-decks were hollowed out with adzes. They reached a length of 5 m with an average width of 70 cm and a height of 50 cm. But there were decks 95 cm wide and up to 72 cm high. The thickness of the side walls of the decks ranged from 3 to 4 cm, and the bottom from 9 to 13 cm. The end walls were even thicker. At the ends of the decks, solid side eyelets were necessarily installed, into which thick ropes were threaded, necessary for transporting them and when descending into the grave. Covers for decks were made in the same way. Old and often hollow larches were used to prepare logs. Damaged places in the tree were wedged and covered with resin, and dangerous cracks were even secured with straps passed through special holes drilled along their sides. To transport trees and stones, they used primitive single-axle drag carts. In the mounds, wheels with a diameter of 30-47 cm, a thickness of 35-40 cm, and bushings with a diameter of 12-16 cm, with which they were put on axles of the corresponding thickness, were found cut from larch trees. The frames of the carts were made of square beams. In one case, trunks with part of the rhizome were used for the frame; they stuck out in front like the heads of sleigh runners. These carts withstood a heavy load, as evidenced by the strong wear and deformation of the axles and wheels. One of the wheels still bears traces of heavy tar lubrication.

According to calculations by M.P. Gryaznov, for the construction of not the largest of the Pazyryk mounds - the first mound, it was necessary to prepare 1800 cubic meters of stone and about 500 logs, as well as dig a grave pit with a volume of 196 cubic meters. All this and other less significant work took from 2,500 to 3,000 man-days, which could only have been achieved as a result of the participation of a large team - a large clan or even a tribe - in the work.

As can be seen from the short list of finds, the materials used by the ancient population of Altai were very diverse. If, due to the conditions of preservation in the Black Sea Scythian graves, only items made of metal and horn or bone are known, then the Altai mounds, in addition, contain a large number of various items made of wood, leather and fur. Felt, birch bark and horsehair were widely used. Of particular note is the combination of different materials in the same item. For example, masks for horses are made of leather, felt, fur, horsehair and gold plates with parts tinted with adhesive paints.

Of the metal objects that survived the looting, one can note in the second Bashadar mound - a bronze stamped image of a vulture, in the first Tuekta mound - a fragment of a silver scabbard decoration with images of tigers and bronze stamped plates with figures of goats and mountain sheep (ill. 85). Silver pendants with images of horses and two relief plates come from the second Pazyryk mound.

88. Wooden decoration of a saddle bow - a bird with open wings.
Bashadar, second mound.

with heraldic griffins (ill. 86), stamped copper plates in the form of birds, a griffin and lying animals. In their forms, these objects do not differ from the products presented in the Altai burial mounds in other materials.

In accordance with the variety of materials, the technique of making things was also different. Wood carving is especially characteristic; appliqué and inlay made of leather, felt, fur and other materials are also very common. Some items are a real mosaic of pieces of fur, leather and felt sewn together in a variety of color combinations. For example, a pouch and a handbag from the second Pazyryk mound were made in this way.

A rare item from funeral or household furnishings, clothing and horse equipment does not have more or less pronounced elements of decoration. Most of them are real works of art, made in various techniques using a variety of decorative motifs. These motifs are dominated by animals - elk, deer, rams, goats, tigers, various types of birds and, finally, fantastic creatures. All of them are depicted both as whole figures and their combinations, as well as their individual elements, freely transforming into an ornament of a floral or geometric nature.

Most often these are sculptural works - a round sculpture and reliefs or a combination of both in one work, when, for example, the body of an animal is given in relief, and the head in a round sculpture (ill. 94, 95). It is remarkable that the sculpture was made not only from wood. Three-dimensional objects, such as figurines of swans, were sewn from colored felt and leather (ill. 96 a, b). A griffin, a rooster and a ram on horse masks are made of felt covered with leather. Even more common is the combination of these materials with wood or horn, when certain parts are made from soft materials. For example, a griffin with a deer’s head in its beak is carved from horn, and the wings, crest, horns and ears of these animals are made of leather (ill. 97), figurines of deer with huge antlers are a combination of wood and leather (ill. 98). Bas-reliefs were sometimes cut on leather.

Along with sculptural forms, flat images are widespread, also very diverse in material. Among them there are graphic drawings, like animals on the Bashadar sarcophagus (ill. 67). But more common are silhouette figures cut from leather or felt and sewn or glued onto a surface made of another material. Such are, for example, animals in scenes of fighting on saddle tires or moose and roosters on jugs and the walls of coffins (ill. 102, 103). Polychrome is a characteristic feature of ancient Altai art. It is achieved not only by combining different materials, but also by dyeing felt and leather in different colors, using overlays of gold and tin sheets, outlining with colored thread and, finally, by painting with paints. Bright pure colors dominate - red, blue, yellow, green in contrasting juxtapositions. Paints are both vegetable - madder, henna, indigo - and mineral - ocher, cinnabar, mummy, etc.

Thanks to the excellent preservation of the tree, it was possible to accurately establish the relative chronology of the excavated Altai mounds using annual tree rings. The first Tuektinsky mound turned out to be the oldest. One hundred and thirty years after it, the first and second Pazyryk mounds were built in the same year. All Pazyryk mounds arose within less than half a century - the fourth seven years after the first and second, the third after thirty-seven years and, finally, the fifth after forty-eight. This, the latest of the Pazyryk mounds, the wood of which was studied, was built one hundred and seventy-eight years after the first Tuekta mound.

The absolute chronology of the Altai mounds, based on the results of the analysis of radioactive carbon in wood samples, is determined as follows: the second Bashadar and the first Tuekta - 520 BC, the Great Katanda - 460, the second Pazyryk - 390 with a possible error of one hundred and thirty years. Considering the magnitude of this error and the still insufficient reliability of the method, and therefore the results of the analysis, the radiocarbon determination data are so far only important for confirming the relative chronology established by the study of annual tree rings, and for the most general dating of the Altai mounds to the 6th-4th centuries. BC. Noteworthy is the strikingly accurate coincidence of the time interval between the first Tuektinsky and second Pazyryk mounds of one hundred and thirty years, obtained both through dendrological and radiocarbon analyses, which cannot be ignored as confirmation of the correctness of the radiocarbon determinations. M.P. Gryaznov divided the Altai mounds into three groups or stages. He dated the first, Mayemiri, to the 7th-6th centuries, the second, Pazyryk, to the 5th-3rd centuries.

and the third, Shibinskaya, - II century. BC. - I century AD S.V. Kiselev, agreeing with the initial dating of the first of these groups, added to it those excavated by himself and A.V. Adrianov Tuekta mounds and expanded the chronology of this group to the 4th century. He called all the other Altai mounds, including Katanda and Shibinsky, the Pazyryk group and dated them to the 3rd-1st centuries. BC. S.I. Rudenko, based on the conclusions of radiocarbon analysis and the relative chronology established by dendrological means, agrees to consider the Mayemiri mounds to belong to the second half of the 7th century, he dates the second Bashadar and Tuekta mounds to the mid-6th century, the first and second Pazyryk mounds to the second half of the 5th century. , the fourth and third mounds of this group are dated to the last quarter of the same century, and the fifth at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries, the sixth Pazyryk mound, in his opinion, can be attributed to the first half of the 4th century. together with the Karakol and Shibinsky mounds. The latest is the first Bashadar mound, dating back to the second half of the 4th or the beginning of the 3rd century. BC.

Considering this chronology, in general, to be justified, it should still be recognized that in the light of comparisons of Altai monuments with Iranian and Black Sea ones, it is somewhat overestimated, especially for the ancient Mayemirian stage. The gold plates found in the Mayemiri mounds, which covered horse harness decorations carved from wood, represent a characteristic motif of the Scythian animal style - a coiled predator with the very signs with which it appears in the most ancient monuments of Scythian art in Ziviya and in the Black Sea region, but not in the 7th century. , and at the turn of the first half of the 6th century. In all likelihood, the Mayemir finds are no older or slightly older than the Kelermes mounds in the Kuban. By the nature of their artistic forms, the Pazyryk mounds are similar to the Seven Brothers mounds in the lower Kuban, which date back to the 5th-4th centuries. Here, as there, the general pattern of development of the Scythian-Siberian animal style is equally evident, consisting in a gradual transition from volumetric realistic forms to schematized ornamental ones. Although there was no complete identity in the art of Altai and the Black Sea region, the same direction of development leads in Siberia to very similar expressions with some delay compared to the Black Sea region. Taking this into account, the later Altai mounds of the Pazyryk type may even date back to the 3rd century. BC.

Thanks to the exceptional preservation of products made from organic materials in permafrost conditions, the Altai mounds showed for the first time how deeply art penetrated into the life of the barbarians of Eurasia in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. and how closely the culture of these barbarians was connected with the higher cultures of Western Asia and China. The bright and original art of the barbarians, despite borrowings, creatively reworked in their own spirit, was expressed in a wide variety of materials, in things for a wide variety of purposes. This art accompanied man from birth to death and, always remaining applied, served not only to satisfy his aesthetic needs, but also to form ideological ideas determined by the economy, life and social relations that developed in a certain historical environment. In this sense, it was no different from any other art of all times and peoples.

In addition to the rich princely burials in large mounds with riprap, a number of burials belonging to the middle and lower stratum of the population were excavated in Altai. They are, in general, of the same type, but differ in the smaller size of the mound, the simpler structure of the grave and the smaller quantity and value of grave goods. Many of them contained one or two horse burials. In addition to the already mentioned small Tuektinsky mounds on the Ursul River, such mounds have been explored on the same river near the village of Kurota, on the Ursula tributary, the Karakol River, near Kumurtuk on the Chuloshman River, near the village of Kurai, in Yakonur, Ust-Kan region and in other places. In recent years, mounds of this kind have been excavated by S.S. Sorokin in the burial ground on the Kok-su River, the left tributary of the Argut.

As for the ethnicity of the Altai mounds with stone embankments, they are probably monuments of one of the divisions of the Iranian-speaking Sakas - Se, most likely the Yuezhi, since the time of these mounds corresponds to the period of domination of the latter in Western Mongolia, which is geographically closely connected with the Altai Mountains. By the time the Yuezhi were defeated by the Huns and pushed further west, to Dzungaria, the Altai culture of the Saka type ceased to exist.

The distribution of Pazyryk-type mounds is not limited to the Altai Mountains; such stone mounds with wooden chambers, as we have seen, have been studied in Eastern Kazakhstan and Semirechye, found in areas adjacent to the Altai from the east

valleys of the Sayan ridge. There are, apparently, similar mounds to the Altai ones on the other side of the border - within Western Mongolia and Northwestern China.

In the basin of the upper Yenisei, in the Tuva Republic, mounds similar to the Altai ones were studied with burial chambers - log houses or stone boxes, in which the dead of a Caucasoid appearance, less often with Mongoloid features, were usually buried in a crouched position. The most remarkable of them are the mounds of the Saglin Valley, undisturbed by robbers, located in the southwestern part of the republic, near the border with Mongolia, at an altitude of about 2000 m. The graves here were also covered with permafrost, but of a different origin than in Altai. The main factor in its formation was not the stone grave mounds, which were absent here, but the harsh climatic conditions of the high mountain zone. In well-preserved wooden chambers, they contain the remains of several buried people (up to eight people). According to the observations of A.D. Rook, each of them was a repeatedly used family tomb, as evidenced by special passages leading to the chambers. In only one case, in the Sagly-Bazhi burial ground, skeletons of two horses were found near the burial chamber; in other graves there were no horse burials. Due to the fact that the graves were not looted, a significant amount of metal objects were preserved there. Among them were found bronze akinaki daggers with wing-shaped crosshairs, knives with a loop at the end of the handle, coins with threads, awls, tips of stalked arrows (bronze and bone), mirrors, buckles, fasteners, buttons and other items, including horse accessories. equipment. Most of these items are similar to the corresponding Altai and Minusinsk finds.

Of the works of art found in the Sagly-Bazhi mounds, a bronze mirror with a handle in the form of an openwork protrusion with a scene of an animal fight, consisting of a profile figure of a predator tormenting the head of a goat, is of particular interest. The upward curled tail of a predatory animal on one side and the horn of a deer on the other close the sides of this composition. The second predator is represented by one head facing forward, placed on the back of the first of them.

On the hip and shoulder of the full-figured predator there are leaf-shaped notches, its ear is depicted in the form of a triangle, while the ears on the head of the beast in front are semicircular (ill. 104). In general, and in the interpretation of details, the scene on the mirror handle is close to some works from the Siberian collection of gold objects of the Hermitage, but is more schematic and cruder in execution. Mirrors of the same type are known from finds in the Minusinsk Basin.

Among non-metallic objects, carved bone plates deserve attention. One is in the form of a lying horse with bent legs and a large head with a mane, interpreted by a row of curved leaf-shaped figures with recesses, such as are intended for colored inserts in metal objects. The entire figure of the horse is filled with a carved curvilinear pattern, only partially corresponding to the structure of the animal’s body. There is a round hole on the horse’s shoulder, and a pair of small holes at the neck under the muzzle and under the tail (ill. 105).

The other two plates look like an elongated rectangle with a round hole in the middle and small rectangular protrusions at the narrow ends. On one of these plates there are two horses lying one behind the other, with the back of the body turned upside down, on the second - two rams facing opposite sides with ribbed horns curled down around the head (ill. 106, 107). The figures of these animals are also filled with a carved curvilinear pattern, forming curls on the shoulder and thigh. All these bone-carved images are close to the forms of Scythian-Siberian art, especially to the carvings made on the deck from the second Bashadar mound.

HELL. Grach distinguishes two variants in Tuvan monuments - Altai and Tuvan with differently oriented chambers and burials, but dates both of them to the same time of the Pazyryk mounds, that is, the 5th-4th centuries, although the bronze mirror mentioned above definitely belongs to a later time. However, earlier burials have been found in Tuva - VI-V centuries. Among them we can name a plundered paired burial in mound No. 48 in the Kokel burial ground, where a bronze hook was discovered, known from Sarmatian finds, in this case in the form of a capricorn’s head, and the not yet fully published mounds of Kuylug-Khem I, where from a large number Among the finds, we note golden plaques in the form of a profile animal with a curved tip of the tail (ill. 108), similar to those found in Kazakh burial mounds, a bronze buckle of two heads of roe deer facing in different directions (ill. 109), plaques in the form of the same head with a long ear , interpreted in the manner of Altai wood carving, and others (ill. 110). Continuation of excavations in the Tuva Republic promises new finds of unlooted burials, although, as can be judged from existing data, not as rich and preserved in terms of things made of organic materials as the Altai graves, but containing metal implements that are almost completely absent in Altai. The burials of the Saka period still known in Tuva show that bronze was the most common metal; iron is rare and, apparently, not earlier than the 5th century. BC. The prospects for further research in Tuva are evidenced by the findings of the first (1971) year of excavations of the huge Arzhan mound (diameter 120 m), located in the center of the Turan-Uyuk basin on the left bank of the Uyuk River. One southwestern sector of this mound has been excavated so far. In its center there was a square log house with an area of ​​about 120 sq.m. with the remains of looted burials, among which were found scraps of clothing, a smooth gold hryvnia, a gold earring, a bronze dagger with a figurine of a boar on the handle and other things. Along one side of the frame there were placed six riding horses with bronze bits with stirrup-shaped ends with a ring at the base of the stirrup. The log houses radiating radially from the central structure housed horses; the first two contained thirty heads each, and the log house in the row next to them had fifteen. Further excavations will show how many horses there were in total.

The most remarkable find in this mound so far is a large (a quarter of a meter in diameter) bronze plaque in the form of an openwork figure of a “panther” curled into a ring with clawed paws.

This work with its generalized forms is closely similar to the gold plates from the Mayemiri burial mounds and the same gold plaque with a similar image from the Siberian collection of Peter I, together with bronze objects known from the Minusinsk finds, and with bits of the same type as those coming from Tagisken burial ground in the Aral region, belongs to the same style and dates the entire Arzhan mound no later than the 6th century. BC. At the same time, this plaque shows that the motifs and forms that appeared in the centers of their origin, judging by the knob of the sword from Ziwiye, no earlier than the end of the 7th century. very quickly reached the most remote outskirts of the spread of Scythian-Siberian art of the animal style.

On this day:

• Birthdays
• 1855 Was born Robert Koldewey- German architect, architectural historian, teacher and archaeologist, one of the largest German archaeologists involved in Middle Eastern archaeology. He identified the location and, with the help of excavations that lasted from 1898-1899 to 1917, confirmed the existence of the legendary Babylon.

Archeology of Western Siberia and Altai:
experience in interdisciplinary research.

Collection of articles dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Professor Yu.F. Kiryushina.

// Barnaul: Alt Publishing House. un-ta. 2015. 416 p. ISBN 978-5-7904-2025-2

About the hero of the day.

Tishkin A.A. The main stages of the scientific, pedagogical and administrative activities of Yuri Fedorovich Kiryushin. - 9

Grushin S.P., Leontyeva D.S. The role of Yu.F. Kiryushin in the study of the monuments of the Andronovo culture of the forest-steppe Altai. - 14

Dashkovsky P.K. A word about the scientific supervisor. - 19

Kungurov A.L. Katun expedition of Altai State University: beginning. - 21

Rykun M.P. “Life is a springboard!” - 23

Theoretical, methodological, methodological and practical developments of modern archeology.

Beisenov A.Z., Duisenbay D.B., Akhiyarov I.K. Research in Northern Betpakdala. - 28

Kovalevsky S.A. About the initial period of studying Irmen antiquities. - 31

Kovtun I.V. Pre-Andronovo/Andronovo antiquities and the “Andronovo dialect”. - 39

Kuzminykh S.V., Chizhevsky A.A. The final Bronze Age and the early Iron Age in northeastern Europe: cultural genesis, boundaries and contacts of archaeological cultures. - 44

Kungurov A.L. Works of Altai State University on the river. Tytkesken (Altai). - 54

Marsadolov L.S. 1200-, 600- and 300-year periodizations of archaeological eras and stages for ancient, ancient and medieval cultures in the Altai Mountains. - 59

Matsyna A.I., Zhuvak D.V., Nikitin A.Yu. Electronic map as the basis for comprehensive research of the VNK “Aerial reconnaissance of archaeological monuments.” - 66

Mertz V.K. The adaptation system of ancient pastoralists in the mountain-steppe zone of Northern Eurasia and methods for searching for their settlements. - 69

Pleshakov A.A. Creation of an open-air museum based on the reconstruction of economic complexes. - 74

Tataurov F.S. Items from archaeological sites as sources for reconstructing the social appearance of ancient societies. - 78

Tataurova L.V. Natural scientific methods in the archeology of Russians in Siberia and the experience of conducting field youth scientific schools. - 82

Tataurov S.F., Chernaya M.P. The Earth Chronicle of Tara: an archaeological commentary on the history of the city. - 86

Tikhonov S.S. Possibilities of ethnographic and archaeological study of fishing of the population of Siberia. - 91

Shmidt A.V. Age structure of the population in paleodemography: principles of construction. - 94

The use of natural scientific methods in archaeological research.

Gavrilov D.A., Shumilovskikh L.S., Amirov E.Sh., Kamaldinov I.R. Results of microbiomorphic and palynological analyzes of the cultural layer of the Zhankent settlement (Kazakhstan). - 101

Gaiduchenko L.L., Kiryushin K.Yu. Burnt marks from ceramic vessels from the Novoilinka-III settlement in Northern Kulunda. - 106

Golyeva A.A., Kiryushin K.Yu. Characteristics of landscapes during the functioning of the Novoilinka-VI settlement according to natural science data. - 110

Dashkovsky P.K., Novikova O.G. Preliminary results of the study of varnish samples from mound No. 31 of the Chineta-II burial ground (Altai). - 115

Dashkovsky P.K., Tishkin A.A. New data on radiocarbon dating of mound No. 5 of the Khankarinsky Dol burial ground (Altai). - 119

Senotrusova P.O., Mandryka P.V., Tishkin A.A. Composition of alloys of non-ferrous metal products from the Prospikhinskaya Shivera-IV burial ground (summarization of preliminary results). - 125

Solodovnikov K.N., Khokhlov A.A., Rykun M.P. Anthropological connections of the population of the Afanasyevskaya culture of the Kurotinsky, Aragol and Ulitinsky types of burials in the Altai Mountains. - 129

Solomonova M.Yu., Kiryushin K.Yu., Silantyeva M.M., Speranskaya N.Yu. Final results of phytolithic research on the territory of the archaeological site Novoilinka-III. - 134

Tishkin A.A., Kazakov A.A., Matryonin S.S. X-ray fluorescence analysis of a collection of metal objects of the Bystryansk culture from the Kamenka burial ground (based on materials from excavations in 2014). - 138

Tishkin A.A., Frolov Ya.V. X-ray fluorescence analysis of arrowheads from the archaeological collection of the MKUK “District Museum of History and Local Lore named after. V.M. Komarova" (Volchikha village, Altai Territory). - 144

Development of Altai and Western Siberia in the Stone Age and Eneolithic.

Bobrov V.V. Stone tools from destroyed burials from the northern foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau. - 148

Zakharov S.V. The problem of the formation of the stone industry of the Botai culture. - 154

Zakharov S.V. The original area of ​​the wood composition of the molding masses of the Botai culture. - 158

Kiryushin Yu.F., Kiryushin K.Yu. Bolshemyssky complex of the Novoilinka-VI settlement. - 164

Rybin E.P., Khatsenovich A.M., Shelepaev R.A., Popov A.Yu. Varieties of stone raw materials and features of their selection by ancient man in the Paleolithic industries of the monuments Kharaganyn-Gol-5 and Tolbor-21 (Tolbor archaeological microdistrict, Northern Mongolia): preliminary results. - 170

Stepanova N.F. On the characteristics of the grave goods from the Afanasiev burial complexes (Altai Mountains). - 178

Khatsenovich A.M., Kanomata Y., Gunchinsuren B. Median incisors of the Kharganyn-Gol-5 monument: specifics of manufacture and traceological analysis. - 183

Chemyakin Yu.P., Pogodin A.A., Klementyeva T.Yu. Kelteminar arrowheads in the Urals and Trans-Urals. - 188

The process of formation of cultures and communities of Siberia in the Bronze Age.

Bobrova L.Yu., Umerenkova O.V. On the problem of reconstructing headdress decorations of the Bronze Age (based on materials from the New Beloyarsk-I monument). - 195

Gaiduchenko L.L., Loman V.G. Faunal complex of the Dongal settlement in Central Kazakhstan. - 200

Gerasimov Yu.V., Korusenko M.A., Polevodov A.V. Some problems of studying the Bronze Age of the forest-steppe Ob-Irtysh region in the light of the latest finds in Omsk. - 204

Goryachev A.A. On the issue of the construction of ancient temples of the Bronze Age in the mountainous zone of the Trans-Ili Alatau. - 209

Grushin S.P., Leontyeva D.S., Fribus A.V., Valkov A.S. Preliminary results of the study of the Andronovo burial ground Signal-I. - 214

Kovtun I.V., Bashtannik S.V., Fribus A.V. Andronovo burial of the Yurman-I burial ground and snake/dragon fighting motifs in the ornamentation of funerary vessels. - 220

Merts I.V., Voloshin V.S. Accidental discovery of a polished stone hammer ax on the lake. Zhamantuz (Kazakhstan). - 226

Milyaev G.A. Model of livestock farming of the Andronovo society based on materials from the settlements of Eastern Kazakhstan. - 232

Molodin V.I. Berlik culture in the West Siberian forest-steppe. - 237

Papin D.V., Stepanova N.F. Technology of pottery production in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the Altai Ob region. - 245

Petrova L.Yu., Grigoriev S.A. Buildings of the Alakul culture of the Mochishche-I settlement. - 250

Podobed V.A., Usachuk A.N., Tsimidanov V.V. Dead ends in Bronze Age cultures (some aspects of semantics). - 255

Soyonov V.I., Trifanova S.V. On the problem of structuring and chronology of archaeological cultures of Altai during the Early Bronze Age. - 261

Sotnikova S.V. Andronovsky (Fedorovsky) burials with inverted vessels: towards the reconstruction of ideas about the role of women in mythological ritual practice. - 267

Tishkin A.A., Kosintsev P.A., Nekrasov A.E., Grushin S.P. Finds of bird and fish bones at the settlement of Berezovaya Luka. - 272

Tkachev A.A., Tkacheva N.A., Trofimova E.A. Chronological and cultural affiliation of the early complexes of the settlement Roza Vetrov-III. - 276

Fedoruk A.S., Papin D.V., Rednikov A.A., Fedoruk O.A. Construction of the Andronovo period at the settlement of Zharkovo-3. - 284

Nomads of the steppes of late antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Beisenov A.Z. Studies of the Saka settlement in the east part of Central Kazakhstan. - 289

Beisenov A.Z., Dzhumabekova G.S., Bazarbaeva G.A. Study of monuments of Tasmolin culture in Western Saryarka. - 294

Beisenov A.Z., Duisenbay D.B. Study of a new monument of the Korgantas time at the Bayke-2 burial ground (Central Kazakhstan). - 298

Bobrova A.I. Kataiginsky settlement III - a new monument of the Early Iron Age from Upper Ket (preliminary message). - 301

Golovchenko N.N., Telegin A.N. Applications of headdresses of the population of the Upper Ob basin of the Early Iron Age (classification and semantics). - 305

Ilyushin A.M. Iron daggers in the culture of nomads of the developed Middle Ages of the Kuznetsk Basin. - 308

Kazakov A.A., Grushin S.P., Seibert V.O. Maly Gonbinsky cordon-2/6 is a new monument of the Odintsovo culture of the Barnaul-Biysk Ob region. - 312

Likhacheva O.S. Darts from the territory of the forest-steppe Altai XII-VI centuries. BC. - 315

Lukpanova Y.A. New elite burial from Western Kazakhstan. - 321

Matryonin S.S. A child’s burial from the era of the Great Migration of Peoples with military equipment from Central Altai. - 325

Munkhbayar Ch., Munkhbat Ts., Enkhtur Ch., Gal-Od B. About Turkic sculptures discovered on the territory of Tsetseg Somon (Mongolian Altai). - 330

Pletneva L.M. Bronze plaque from Timiryazevsky settlement IV. - 334

Seryogin N.N. The main trends in the distribution of Chinese imported items in the archaeological sites of the early medieval Turks of Central Asia. - 341

Soyonov V.I., Konstantinov N.A., Trifanova S.V. Cenotaphs of the Stepushka-2 burial ground. - 347

Tishkin A.A., Matryonin S.S. Parts of the “golden diadem” from the mounds of the Yaloman-II monument (Zhuran period, Central Altai). - 351

Khasenova B.M. Earrings of the Saltovsky type from central Eurasia: search for form and content. - 355

Khudyakov Yu.S. Weapons of Scythian warriors from the Edigan River valley in the Altai Mountains. - 359

Shulga P.I. Dating of Pazyryk mounds and Chinese mirrors with T-shaped signs. - 366

The art of the peoples of Central Asia and adjacent territories in antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.

Bobrov L.A. Features of the design and decorative design of Kazakh “eight-shaped” quivers of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries. - 372

Goryachev A.A., Egorova T.A., Egorova K.A. Turkic petroglyphs of the Oy-Dzhailyau tract. - 375

Dzhumabekova G.S., Bazarbaeva G.A., Demidenko S.V. Ritual vessel with zoomorphic decoration from Zhetysu. - 381

At all times, humanity has tried to record the main and important events. Nowadays we write books and make documentaries. And our distant ancestors left rock carvings - petroglyphs. Basically, these are images of animals - deer, bison, wild boars, wild horses; Among them are those that are no longer found on earth today - long-haired mammoths, saber-toothed tigers. Occasionally one comes across outlines of human figures and heads, ritual masks. Later, in the Neolithic era, they began to depict scenes from the life of a primitive tribe - hunting, battles, dancing and some obscure rituals. Such compositions approximately date back to the 6th-4th millennia BC. e.

Altai was repeatedly visited by treasure seekers, Scythian gold hunters, and people of science. I rummaged through books and compiled the material in chronological order: from the beginning of archaeological expeditions to the present. I recommend it to anyone interested in archeology and history of Altai. One of the first to touch the past of the Turks and publish his works was Professor of the University of Dorpat K.F. Ledebur. The scientist had long dreamed of visiting a distant and mysterious mountainous country hidden in the depths of Asia. In the summer of 1826, he entered the Altai Mountains with a small expedition.

In 1993, on the Ukok plateau (Altai Republic), the South Altai detachment of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS under the leadership of N.V. Polosmak discovered a “frozen” burial of the Pazyryk culture with a preserved mummy of a woman. This became an event not only for domestic, but also for world archaeology. What was surprising was that the “frozen” burial was not disturbed, as usually happened. This made it possible for the first time to see intact an ancient burial with all the details and features of the funeral rite, with the entire complex of things that were placed in the grave more than two thousand years ago.

Vast expanses of European and Asian steppes, semi-deserts and foothills, from the Carpathians in the west to the Pamirs and Altai in the east, were inhabited about 2,500 years ago by various tribes and nationalities, whom the Greeks called Scythians, and the Persians called Saks.

In 1924, S.I. Rudenko came to Altai for the first time. He was in his forties. Behind were many years of fruitful hard work in anthropology, ethnography and archaeology. It was in the scientist’s extremely broad approach to historical and ethnographic issues, in their close linkage with natural geographical conditions, that the originality of Rudenko the historian was revealed.

Twenty-five years ago, thanks to the discovery of a paired burial of the ancient Pazyryk culture on the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, the homeland of the famous “Altai princess,” the hypothesis of the Altai Amazons was born. Anthropologists were sure that a girl aged 16-17 years was buried in the burial, although they always emphasized her “unfeminine” features.

The territory of the Altai Republic has a unique historical and cultural heritage. First of all, these are world-famous archaeological monuments, including the “royal mounds” of the Scythian era, this is a concentration of rock art monuments, these are fortifications, settlements, irrigation systems and much more.

Gorny Altai occupies a leading place in the country in the number of runic inscriptions on rocks. Caves with traces of ancient man are also unique in that they carry information about ancient communities, being in some way a “data bank.”

Gorny Altai is closely connected with all the most ancient stages of human evolution from paleoanthropes to the modern type.

Age of Stone

Recent archaeological materials allow us to conclude that the ancestors of modern humans lived in the Altai Mountains many hundreds of thousands of years ago. The oldest site of primitive people is the Ulalinskaya Paleolithic site, which is located within the city of Gorno-Altaisk. During excavations at the Ulalinskaya site, primitive stone tools were found made from blanks obtained by fire technology, i.e. heating and sudden cooling of stones. Ulala materials date widely within the Lower Paleolithic - from 150 thousand years to 1.5 million years.

The later periods of the Stone Age include extensive materials from excavations at the cave sites of the Ust-Kanskaya Cave, as well as open-type sites: Kara-Tenesh, Kara-Bom, Ust-Sema, Maima, Ust-Kuyum and many other monuments. Various objects, cores, pointed points, scrapers, plates and others, as well as bones of animals and birds such as bear, yak, goat, hare, hyena, horned antelope, wild horse, woolly rhinoceros, black grouse, partridge, duck.

Palaeometal Age

At the end of the 4th millennium BC. In the history of Gorny Altai, the era of stone ends and a new period begins - the era of paleometal. The first metal was copper, and then bronze appeared in the Altai Mountains. Copper and bronze began to be widely used by our ancestors in the production of weapons, tools, household items and jewelry. Archaeological paleometal sites belong to the Afanasiev and Karakol cultures.

Afanasyevsky monuments are represented by the burial grounds and settlements of Balyktuyul, Elo, Kara-Tenesh, Tenga, Bolshoy Tolgoek, Aragol, Kurota and others. The funerary monuments of this culture represent

ring fences and cromlech fences, in which there were oval or rectangular grave pits with an overlap. Inventory items include ceramic vessels of sharp-bottomed, round-bottomed or flat-bottomed shapes, incense burners-vases, tools and decorations.

The Karakol culture is a unique archaeological culture of the late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC. Characteristic features are a rectangular cemetery fence, stone boxes, as well as unique polychrome drawings on the slabs of boxes and rock paintings carved in a certain manner. The Karakol culture includes the burials of the Karakol, Ozernoe, and Besh-Ozek burial grounds in the central regions of Altai. An image of a person belonging to the Karakol culture was found in one of the rock surfaces near the village of Bichiktu - Boom in the Ongudai region.

In the paleometal era, the population of the Altai Mountains moved from appropriating forms of economy - hunting, gathering and fishing - to producing forms: agriculture and cattle breeding. Since then, the ancient Altaians began to build reclamation structures, cultivate arable land and grow crops such as millet, barley, rye and others. Domestic herds of sheep, goats, cows, and horses began to be driven to alpine meadows in the summer, and returned to river valleys by winter.

Iron Age

In the 1st millennium BC. The Bronze Age gives way to the Early Iron Period. The Scythian time of the Altai Mountains is primarily associated with monuments united in the Pazyryk archaeological culture. They are known throughout the Altai Mountains - these are the famous Pazyryk, Bashadar, Tuektinsky, Shibinsky, Ulandryk, Ukok mounds, as well as thousands of others.

In the Altai Mountains, the Pazyryk culture was identified - by the name of the Pazyryk tract in the Ulagan region, where objects and things were discovered that have survived to this day in connection with the formed sub-mound permafrost. These are: the most ancient pile carpets from Western Asia, a wooden chariot, horse harness, musical instruments, products made of wood, leather, felt and much more. Typically, the mounds of the Pazyryk culture are chains stretching from north to south. Under the stone embankments in the pits there are log houses with wooden floors or stone boxes. Objects are relatively well preserved in mounds with permafrost. Embalmed bodies found in the burials of the Pazyryk culture are still sensations on a global scale. This is evidenced by finds made by Novosibirsk archaeologists in recent years on the Ukok plateau. Many objects and cultural values ​​found during the sensational excavations of mounds related to the Pazyryk culture are stored in the Hermitage and other state museums of the country. Currently, well-known objects, including rock paintings reflecting the Pazyryk culture, are included in the Russian Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture).

Monuments of the Hunno-Sarmatian period were almost unknown until recently. But in recent years, dozens of monuments from the 2nd century have been discovered and studied. BC. - V century AD These include the burial grounds of Ust-Edigan, Chendek, Verkh-Uimon, Sary Bel, Bulan-Koby, Bely Bom, Bike, Airydash, Kuraika and others, as well as objects of a different nature - settlements, settlements, sanctuaries, production centers: Yustyd, Ber-tek, Maima, Kucherla, Cheremshanka, etc.

The materials obtained indicate that the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains did not disappear without a trace, but was transformed into a Hunnic-type culture. The fact that the bearers of the Pazyryk culture became the basis of the population of later periods is evidenced by the continuity of the funeral rite and a number of categories of things, as well as such facts as, for example, the discovery of a burial of the Bulan-Koba type (after the name of the burial ground in the Ongudai region) in Srednyaya Katun of a complex of things of the Scythian culture, and in the mound of the Pazyryk culture - bow guards of the Hunnic type.

In turn, the Bulan-Kobin people took a direct part in the formation of the population of the Turkic times of the Altai Mountains.

Turkic time

The Turkic time of the Altai Mountains is represented by various archaeological sites. The most famous of them are the mounds and memorial complexes of Kudyrge, Kuraya, Tuekty, Yakonur and others. Kudyrgin monuments of Turkic times are characterized by burials in ground pits with a southern orientation and accompanying burials of horses. Among the grave goods, there are remains of bows with strongly curved end plates, stirrups with a rectangular loop on the neck, single-ringed bits with two-hole psalia, belts with hanging straps, and much more. The dead were also provided with ritual food, usually lamb.

In the Kurai steppe, for example, in one of the mounds of the Kurai culture, excavated in the 30s, the remains of a noble Turk were found in a log with the accompanying burial of three killed horses and, apparently, a slave. Among the various things placed in the grave, a silver jug ​​and a belt tip with runic inscriptions were discovered. The inscription on the belt tip meant: “Master (Mr.) Ak-kyun... sash...”

Written monuments date back to Turkic times. More than a hundred runic inscriptions have already been discovered on rock surfaces. In terms of the number of such inscriptions, Gorny Altai occupies a leading place in the country. A significant number of petroglyphs made using the technique of embossing and graffiti belong to the Turkic period, production centers, and

also other monuments: ancient settlements, irrigation canals, roads, crossings, stone sculptures, balbals and others. More than two hundred enclosures from Turkic times have been excavated in the Altai Mountains to date. They are square or rectangular structures made of stone slabs placed on edge. Inside the fences there is a pavement made of slabs, boulders and broken stones or a pile of pebbles. According to their design features, Altai fences are conventionally divided into five types: Kudyrginsky, represented by collective adjacent fences; Yakonursky - adjacent fences with statues or steles; Yustyd - single fences, built, as a rule, of four slabs with the remains of a tree trunk in the center; Ulandryk - with a stele or boulder in the center of the fence; Ayutinsky - fences surrounded by a rampart and a ditch.

Another type of monument associated with funeral and memorial rituals is stone sculptures. The category of the most famous monuments of the Altai Mountains includes the Kezer sculpture, discovered in the Kurai steppe. "Kezer" is currently stored in the funds of the Gorno-Altai Republican Museum of Local Lore.

Among the petroglyphs of the Turkic time of the Altai Mountains, in addition to images of animals and horsemen, there are battle scenes, hunting scenes, images of various birds, snakes, etc.

The ancient settlements of the Turkic period are known. The most famous of them is the settlement at the mouth of the river. Big Yaloman.

Chinese chronicles characterize the Turks as skilled metallurgists, supplying iron and blacksmith products to their neighbors. Recently, more than a dozen iron production facilities have been opened in Gorny Altai.

Thus, the studied archaeological materials indicate that the territory of the Altai Republic in all historical times was inhabited by a population that enjoyed the high achievements of its time.