Siberia 4 1st millennium BC. Who lived in Siberia BC

VI. IN SIBERIA The main difficulty for maritime navigation between Europe and the northern coast of Asia is the ice of the Kara Sea. Attempts to use this route for trade relations between the West and the East have been made repeatedly by England since 1876,

The steppe and forest-steppe expanses of Southern Siberia and Kazakhstan in previous times, during the Bronze Age, were inhabited by sedentary pastoral-agricultural tribes. With the transition of the population of the steppes to the VIII-VII centuries. BC e. To nomadic cattle breeding, the living conditions of those pastoral tribes that remained sedentary changed significantly. The rapid accumulation of livestock among the nomads contributed to the further development of intertribal exchange, and the struggle for pastures and the increasing frequency of military clashes for the sake of capturing herds or agricultural products missing by the nomads led to greater mixing of the population of different tribes. The consequence of all this was the widespread distribution among pastoral tribes of identical forms of tools and weapons, and a similar style in the fine arts. However, each tribe or related groups of tribes developed their own, in many respects, original culture, and their history was formed in different ways, depending on many local conditions. The history of these tribes is known to us almost exclusively from archaeological sites, which in many areas are still completely unexplored. The most fully studied monuments of this time are in the Altai Mountains, in the area of ​​the upper reaches of the river. Ob and in the steppes of the Minusinsk Basin (Khakass Autonomous Region and steppe regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory).

In the steppe valleys of the Altai Mountains, the first nomads in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e., like the nomads of Central Asia of that time, did not yet use iron. They made their knives and axes, swords, daggers and arrows, as well as bits, buckles and much more from bronze1. In the mounds of this early period their history, called the Mayemirian stage, was already reflected in the uneven accumulation of wealth in individual families. Among other burials, mounds of larger sizes stand out, located in small groups in a row in the direction from north to south. These are family cemeteries of the ancestral nobility. Gold jewelry was buried in the graves with the dead. In separate graves under a specially constructed mound, a riding horse with a bridle and saddle was buried - the most valuable and necessary thing in the daily life of a nomad.

The culture of the Altai nomads of this time is quite original and at the same time developed with lively cultural communication with neighboring tribes, through which products from distant countries penetrated into Altai and the Altai tribes borrowed the cultural achievements of other tribes. In Altai, for example, a bronze helmet of the Early Scythian type was found, made somewhere in South-Eastern Europe no less than 2500 km from the place of its discovery. The cultural ties of the Altai tribes with the Scythians are also evidenced by the distribution of similar forms of many objects among both of them, for example, bronze mirrors and arrowheads, as well as a similar design of horse bridles. The latter was used in the steppes of the Black Sea region without significant changes in the design of bits and cheekpieces, and in Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan, with various improvements that led to the creation in the 5th century. BC e. a new design of a bridle with two-hole cheekpieces, which then became widespread among the steppe nomadic tribes. Consequently, the ancient Altai tribes not only borrowed cultural achievements from their neighbors, but also actively participated in the general process of development of the culture of ancient nomadic tribes. Cultural ties with the Scythians and other tribes are also indicated by the visual arts that developed in Altai in the so-called “Scythian-Siberian animal style.” The subject of the image is a deer, a goat, a tiger, a bird of prey - the methods of its implementation are in many ways similar to those of the Scythian and other steppe tribes.

The monuments of the next period, more numerous and varied, reflect the already fully developed, unique culture of the early nomads of Altai, which existed without significant changes from the 5th to the 1st centuries. BC e. During this period, the population of Altai mastered iron metallurgy and gradually replaced bronze products with iron ones in their everyday life. In earlier monuments only bronze tools and weapons are found, then bronze and iron, and finally, starting around the 2nd century. BC e., - only iron. First of all, iron replaced bronze in such products as daggers, battle coins and knives, then horse bits, later it began to be used for the manufacture of buckles and other household items, and last of all - for arrowheads, which began to be made from iron, apparently only after beginning of our era. Iron products appear earlier and in large quantities in the burial mounds of the tribal and clan nobility.

The remains of settlements of this period (winter roads) in Altai are unknown. Only the mounds were studied, in which, unlike the Bronze Age, the dead were always buried with a riding horse, and men were also buried with weapons. The most vivid and abundant material for studying the history of the culture of early nomads was provided by excavations of large mounds of tribal leaders. Five such mounds were excavated in the Pazyryk tract, two in Bashadar and one each in Katanda, Bereli and Shiba1. The earliest of them (the first and second Pazyryk and the second Bashadar) were built in the V-IV centuries. BC e., later ones (Katanda, Bereli and Shibe) - in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e., but they all belong to the same culture and, possibly, to the same tribal union that united the population of the steppe valleys of the mountainous and western Altai.

These huge mounds are made of stone. Small pockets of permafrost formed under their mounds, and the graves turned out to be frozen to the bottom. Thanks to this, grave structures and objects buried with the dead, even those made from such unstable materials as wool, fabric, fur, felt and leather, were perfectly preserved.

Each mound contained a large square grave with an area of ​​about 50 square meters. m, with a depth of 4 to 7 m. The largest southern part of it was occupied by a log house, usually built with double walls and a ceiling. This was the room for the deceased. Riding horses were buried between the log house and the northern wall of the grave pit. The log house and horses were covered on top with a thick layer of birch bark, larch bark and stems of mountain shrubs - Kuril tea, and on top of this with several layers of logs and sometimes large stones.

All the graves were plundered in ancient times, soon after their construction. The robbers cut through the entire thickness of the logs with a bronze ax and, having penetrated the frame, emptied it, dragging everything up, sometimes even corpses, so that there, in the light, it would be more convenient to remove their clothes and gold jewelry. In other cases, they did it inside a log house. Working there in cramped conditions and in the dark, they chopped, broke and tore objects and left behind a disorderly pile of various fragments and scraps.

Usually two corpses are buried in the grave - male and female, artificially mummified, placed together in one huge deck, less often separately, in two decks. The decks are decorated with images of roosters, elk, tigers, mountain sheep, and wild boars. The walls of the burial log house are hung with embroidered felt carpets. On the floor there are low tables, dishes, clay jugs and wooden bowls, bronze and stone incense burners with a small conical tent above them, wooden seat cushions and other things. Among the clothes that have been preserved are shirts made of kendyr cloth, fur outerwear, felt caftans, stockings and socks, leather and fur boots, hats, and belts. Almost all of these clothes are luxuriously and richly decorated with fine embroidery and gilded plaques. Various types of fur and leather bags, flasks and bags artistic work, bronze and silver mirrors, musical instruments - tambourines and harps, and many other items.

In each grave, usually five and seven or twice as many were buried - 10 and 14 riding horses of golden-red or other color similar in color. All of them were killed by blows to the head with a military weapon - a bronze coin. The best of them, with their tall stature, slender build and other features, differ significantly from the horses buried in the mounds of the general population, and from the modern herd horses of Altai and Kazakhstan. Of the modern horses, the closest to them are the Akhal-Teke horses (Turkmen SSR), descendants of the Parthian and Bactrian horses that were famous in the time of Herodotus.

The saddles and bridles placed on the horses, and sometimes even put on them, are richly decorated. The belts are hung with a variety of usually wooden or leather plaques, covered with gold leaf and tin. The saddles are elegantly decorated with spectacular tires, pendants and saddle cloths made from multi-colored felts and leather, and sometimes expensive Chinese or Iranian fabrics. Most of the decorations depict mythical beasts and zoomorphic monsters, often depicted in scenes of struggle. In each grave, one or two horses stand out with particularly magnificent attire. Their head is covered with a decoration made of felt and leather in the form of a mask with images of mythical animals, and artistically designed covers are put on their manes and tails. The most impressive is such a mask on a horse from the First Pazyryk Mound, crowned with huge deer antlers sewn from leather.

The materials from the excavated mounds indicate a well-established nomadic life of the population, who were at the same time well acquainted with the construction of strong wooden houses, which apparently served as permanent dwellings in the area of ​​winter pastures. The main occupation was cattle breeding. Mainly sheep, cattle and horses of small steppe breeds were bred. Only rich representatives of the tribal and clan nobility had high-breed riding horses, probably obtained through exchange from Central Asia. Fully preserved bridles and saddles introduce us to one of the first types of riding horse equipment. The structure of the saddle, which did not yet have a wooden base and stirrups, is unique. This is a pair of leather pillows, usually stuffed with deer hair and secured to the horse with a girth, as well as chest and undertail straps. Horses were also used as draft power. In the Fifth Pazyryk Mound, a large chariot and four draft horses, disassembled into its component parts, were placed in the grave. Slow-moving, about 3 m wide and more than 2.5 m high, on high wheels, it could only be used in the flat steppes. When moving to mountainous wintering areas, it could be delivered by loading it unassembled onto bulls or horses. Draft oxen were also widely used for transport, not only on the plains, but also in mountainous regions. Among the log filling of the grave pits, two yokes, wide axles, and primitive wheels in the form of thick chocks with a hole in the middle for putting on the axle and other parts of wide low carts were found.

Among the early nomads of Altai, livestock was already the private property of patriarchal families. Owners marked their animals with a sign of ownership. For example, all 10 horses of the first Pazyryk mound had marks in the form of a different number of cuts on the right or left ear, and all horses were marked with different signs. They belonged to different owners and were probably presented as a gift to the deceased leader. Rich owners of livestock and valuable treasures were buried in Pazyryk and other large stone mounds. Stolen from their graves, no doubt a large number of from pieces of gold and other metals. Objects of foreign origin or made from foreign materials remaining in the graves were also of great value. Cheetah fur, tables with machine-turned legs, harps, Persian fabrics and a magnificent pile carpet were undoubtedly obtained partly from Central Asia from the Saka-Massaget tribes, partly through them from Persia itself. The best riding horses were also of Central Asian origin. Silk fabrics, smooth, patterned and embroidered, lacquerware and artistic white metal mirrors were delivered from China.

With the development of private ownership of livestock and other wealth, the right of the patriarchal family to inherit this wealth arose, which contributed to the further development of social inequality, as individual families began to get richer from generation to generation. This is clearly reflected in archaeological monuments: family cemeteries of early nomads in Altai usually consist of burials of equal richness. The construction of huge stone mounds and the complex arrangement of graves was beyond the capabilities of even the richest families. This was the work of large groups, such as a clan or tribe. Obviously, those buried in such large mounds as the Pazyryk or Shibinsky were representatives of the highest public authority in the tribe, probably tribal leaders, and their power, like wealth, was inherited. A hereditary clan and tribal aristocracy was created. Large farms of the tribal and clan nobility could not be serviced by forces own family. Undoubtedly, they were created and developed through the exploitation of other people's labor, the specific forms of which are still unknown to us. One can only assume that, along with patriarchal slavery, the appropriation of the surplus product of the labor of relatives was also practiced in the forms of tribal mutual assistance and communal organization of labor, which allowed wealthy livestock owners to provide maintenance for their herds at low costs of their own labor.

In conditions of general economic growth, the early nomads of Altai further developed a bright, colorful decorative art, enriched with many new artistic images and visual techniques thanks to constant cultural communication with neighboring tribes, and through them with the peoples of ancient Persia and China. Weapons, clothing and various household items were decorated with original, purely ornamental patterns, but more often with images of various animals and fantastic zoomorphic monsters, reflecting an established mythology rich in artistic images. These images are found on many objects from the burials of the main strata of the population, but there are especially many of them, and in the best examples, in the graves of the tribal nobility. Made graphically, with silhouette and multi-color applique, bas-relief and round sculpture from different materials (wood, bone, metal, leather, fur, felt, etc.), they amaze with the variety of subjects, composition and depiction techniques and at the same time with the unity of the artistic style. These images harmoniously combine pretentious or strict stylization and realism in conveying the characteristic forms and poses of animals.

The nomads of Altai not only economically, but also in terms of the general level of their culture reached at that time great success than the surrounding population of forest-steppe and forest regions of Siberia.

The history of the tribes that lived along the forest banks of the upper reaches of the river was different. Obi. The population here continued to live sedentary lives. Excavations of an ancient village of the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. near the village Bolshaya Rechka revealed dwellings in the form of spacious dugouts, abandoned by their inhabitants suddenly, probably as a result of an enemy raid. A large number of remains of household and household equipment have been preserved in the dugouts. It was an ordinary village of an agricultural and pastoral tribe, in whose economy fishing and hunting were also of great importance. It is characteristic that hunters hunted large numbers of fur-bearing animals - sable, beaver, etc.

At this time, the custom of burying a man with weapons - arrows, spears, maces - appeared. Compared to the previous period, the burials are poorer. There is very little jewelry, instead of a knife for the most part a small fragment of his blade was placed in the grave; More than half of the burials contain nothing at all except skeletal bones. The whole general character of the monuments of the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. indicates a significant decline in the economic and cultural level of the population of the upper Ob. The normal course of his economic life was obviously disrupted by the predatory raids of warlike nomadic neighbors.

However, over time, economic and political relations between the nomadic and sedentary tribes adopted some more beneficial forms for both sides, which ensured that the nomads regularly received the agricultural and fur hunting products they needed, and the sedentary tribes received normal conditions for running their economy. In the burial grounds of the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. a noticeable increase in the well-being of the settled population of the upper Ob is clearly expressed. The dead were buried in clothes with bronze and sometimes gold decorations, mounds were often built over the graves, and at each funeral a funeral feast was held, for which one or two rams were slaughtered.

The history of the population in the Minusinsk steppe basin was different. Surrounded on three sides by difficult mountain ranges, and on the fourth by the Siberian taiga, it was protected from unexpected invasions of Central Asian tribes, which had not yet formed powerful political associations. There were no wide open spaces for wandering. The many mounds preserved here, always built with a fence of massive stone slabs, sometimes of enormous size, with burials rich in accompanying grave goods, speak of the dense population of the region and the economic security of its inhabitants. The basis of the economy of the ancient Minusinsk tribes was semi-nomadic cattle breeding of the yailage type and hoe farming using primitive artificial irrigation.

Monuments of the 7th-3rd centuries. BC e. indicate the formation here of a unique Minusinsk kurgan culture, or, as it is often called, the Tatar culture, the features of which are most clearly expressed in the exceptionally numerous bronze items of the characteristic Minusinsk type. However, despite the unique forms of the Minusinsk bronze items, they are still close to the Altai ones of the same time and to the Scythian and Saka ones. This applies to such products as cast daggers and arrowheads, bits, cauldrons, mirrors, etc. Also similar to Altai, Scythian and Saka is fine art, represented by numerous images of animals decorating weapons, clothing, parts of harness and many household items.

The presence of rich copper deposits, widely exploited in ancient times, allowed the Tatar tribes to produce a huge number of different bronze items not only for their own consumption, but also for exchange. The tribes neighboring the Tatars, receiving finished bronze products from them, melted them down into new products, in relation to their needs, and mainly to save metal. For example, the Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk and Upper Ob tribes, who did not have their own metal deposits, produced bronze celts (axes) of smaller sizes, weighing 2-3 times less than the Minusinsk ones.

Archaeological monuments of other regions have not yet been studied in sufficient quantity, and from the extremely scarce and fragmentary data available it is difficult to judge historical process throughout Siberia as a whole. However, the examples considered show that in Southern Siberia, just as it was in the Scythian Black Sea region, close economic, cultural and political ties were maintained between nomadic pastoral tribes and sedentary pastoral-agricultural tribes, which different shapes, depending on local conditions and the historical situation.

At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. The forest spaces from the Yenisei to Lake Baikal were inhabited by numerous tribes who, like their ancestors, were engaged in hunting and fishing.

The settlements of these hunters and fishermen of the East Siberian taiga are best studied in the lower reaches of the river. Angara, below Bratsk and near Irkutsk, on the islands located in the place where the Angara flows from Lake Baikal.

Stone tools and weapons were now entirely or almost entirely replaced by metal products made of copper and bronze. At sites and among random finds, cast bronze adzes and celt axes, the same knives and daggers, awls, mirrors and other metal objects become common. Some of these products came from foundries of neighboring steppe tribes. For example, copper cauldrons of the Scythian type on a high conical tray were delivered from the steppes. Many products were made, although according to samples characteristic of the steppe culture of the Bronze Age, but on the spot - on the Angara and Lena. In metal products from the Baikal region, features are finally found that indicate indigenous local traditions. Along with knives of steppe forms, close to those of Minusinsk and Transbaikal, plate knives of a peculiar type were found on Sosnovy Island near Irkutsk, which have their prototypes in knives of the Glazkovsky period.

The same imprint of originality lies on the entire material culture of the forest tribes of Eastern Siberia, primarily on their ceramics. Unlike their steppe neighbors, they made not flat-bottomed, but round-bottomed clay vessels, the shape of which directly and directly continued the shape of the vessels used by their Neolithic predecessors and the people of the early Bronze Age of the Baikal region - the Glazkovites. What was new, however, was the ornamentation that adorned these vessels. They were covered from top to bottom with convex strips of stuck-on rollers arranged in horizontal belts, often looking like arches connected together.

Among the tribes of Eastern Siberia, ancient forest art continued to exist without major changes. The rock art of the Angara and Lena, dating back to the Bronze Age, predominantly depicts elk. Cave paintings continued to be done mainly with red ochre; sometimes they were knocked out on smooth rock surfaces.

The old beliefs continued to exist steadily, and the ancient shamanism of forest hunters consistently developed. A striking monument to these beliefs is the large frieze on the Shishkinsky rocks in the upper reaches of the river. Lena, where a row of boats are depicted in dark crimson paint, apparently sailing one after another along the sacred ancestral river in world of the dead. People or anthropomorphic spirits are sitting in the boats with their hands raised in the air. A doe stands below, on her thigh there is a circle of circles or spirals concentrically inscribed into each other. A group of people or spirits with horns on their heads and strange tails on the side are visible near the doe.

No less interesting is the large figure of a mythical monster, depicted in red paint on the same rocks in Shishkino, trying to swallow some round object. It is very likely that this drawing depicts a monster well known in the myths of Central Asia - Mongus, trying to swallow the moon or the sun itself. A remarkable feature of the life of the forest tribes of Eastern Siberia was their cultural ties with distant China, traces of which are clearly visible in the Bronze cauldron of the “Scythian mud” , found in the most common archaeological material in the Krasnoyarsk region - ceramics. Next to the fragments of round-bottomed vessels of the local type on the Angara Islands, fragments of vessels of a completely different type were found, with a small tray in the form of a ring, covered with unusual stucco ornaments and textile prints on the outside. Exactly the same vessels have long been used by the ancient Chinese, during the Bronze Age, where they were called dou.

A direct connection with the ancient Chinese bronze celts of the Yin dynasty is revealed by the taiga type bronze celts characteristic of Eastern Siberia. These celts are distinguished by their elongated proportions, rectangular shape and specific ornamentation of convex stripes, forming triangles and circles inscribed in each other with a dot inside. Comparing this ornament with the ornament of the Chinese Celts of the Yin time, it is easy to see that the Baikal bronze age foundries almost entirely used the Chinese ornamental scheme, only simplifying it.

In the north and east of Siberia, in modern Yakutia, the first signs of acquaintance with metal and the beginning of its local processing can be dated back to the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e.1. The burials found near Oleksinsk, on the river, date back to this time. Kullaty, above the city of Yakutsk, and also further to the north, beyond the Arctic Circle, on the river. Ichchilyakh and Bugachan. As the objects found in them show, along the banks of the river. The Lena River and the numerous rivers flowing into it at that distant time were inhabited by forest tribes who, along with purely Neolithic tools made of stone and bone, used metal objects of the simplest form in the form of copper plaques, needles and awls. At one of the sites of these ancient reindeer hunters and fishermen of the Far North, at the mouth of a small river. Siktyakh, along with the waste from the production of stone tools, with stone arrowheads and the same knives, made with great skill, turned out to be hearths for melting copper or bronze, miniature melting crucibles in the form of spoons and even frozen splashes of molten metal.

Over time, by the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e., the descendants of the first metallurgists of Yakutia followed the path they paved even further. They mastered the art of making excellent bronze celtic axes, daggers, swords and spearheads. Their products often amaze with their unusual large sizes, and in terms of the thoroughness of finishing they are not inferior to the products of steppe craftsmen.

The taiga warriors and hunters of the Bronze Age, therefore, had excellent bronze weapons.

At the same time, ties between the tribes of Yakutia and other countries continued to develop. The bronze sword found on Vilyui is extremely similar to swords and daggers of the Karasuk type. Bronze cauldron discovered in the upper reaches of the river. Markhi, repeats in shape the steppe cauldrons of the so-called Scythian type. A bronze vessel was also found in the Vilyui basin, similar in shape and ornament to Bronze Age vessels made Chinese masters Zhou time.

With all this, the forest tribes of the Bronze Age on the territory of modern Yakutia stably preserved in all other respects the ancient way of life, their primordial cultural traditions. As before, their clay vessels had, for example, not a flat, but a round bottom. They still painted images of deer and elk on their sacred ancestral rocks, as well as schematic figures spirits and shamans in horned headdresses. Their ornamentation still remained rectilinear geometric, based on the rhythmic alternation of horizontal and vertical, long and short lines. There was nothing in it similar to the lush ornamental and decorative style and whimsical patterns of the steppe cattle breeders of the same time. It was special cultural world, stretching for thousands of kilometers of taiga, forest-tundra and tundra along one of the greatest rivers in Asia - the river. Lena and its tributaries.

At the end of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppes of Transbaikalia and further east, up to the Gobi and Ordos, lived numerous tribes that led the same way of life and had a strikingly similar culture.

These tribes, unlike their northern taiga neighbors, were typical pastoralists. Therefore, in comparison with the inhabitants of the taiga and tundra, they were the bearers of a new, advanced culture, based on an incomparably more advanced economy and a fundamentally new way of life.

The relatively early emergence and rapid development of cattle breeding in Transbaikalia and neighboring Mongolia depended on favorable natural conditions these areas.

Abundant and boundless pastures opened up ample opportunities for the growth of herds in the conditions of extensive pastoral-type livestock farming.

Cattle breeders of Transbaikalia could graze their herds all year round, without spending any effort to prepare hay for the winter, since their country had many open spaces and hilly hills, from which strong steppe winds blew snow away, exposing dry vegetation.

In the most severe times of winter, steppe pastoralists could stop for the winter near rivers, in secluded valleys, under the protection of neighboring hills, where Bronze Age burial grounds are usually located, as well as traces of temporary stops of pastoral communities. These traces are always very few and scarce. They usually consist of fragments of one or two broken clay vessels, as well as a few copper or bronze items that were accidentally lost or forgotten at the site of the abandoned camp. There are no remains of dwellings at such camps, for example, in the form of dugouts. The ancient inhabitants of Transbaikalia at this time, presumably, had a portable felt yurt as their main type of dwelling - the traditional dwelling of steppe nomads for thousands of years. Transbaikal cattle breeders in the 1st millennium successfully bred all the main types of domestic animals, primarily horses, as well as small and cattle.

Just like the later pastoral inhabitants of Transbaikalia and Mongolia, they rode horses, using a bridle with bronze bits to control them, as evidenced by the finds of such bits in Bronze Age graves.

The subsoil of the Transbaikal Mountains, rich in tin, copper and other non-ferrous metals, provided raw materials that served as the basis for the development of local metallurgy, which was so early and significant at that time.

The population of the Transbaikal steppes already at the end of the 2nd millennium and especially in the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. e. perfectly mastered the foundry technique. Local craftsmen cast excellent copper and bronze items in stone molds, often decorated with original and elegant designs, as well as realistic images of animals.

In the development of metallurgy, foundry, and the entire culture of the steppe tribes of Transbaikalia and Mongolia, the relationship with neighboring countries, primarily China, first of the Yin and then of the Zhou era, was of great progressive importance. ABOUT mutual relations China and its neighboring steppe tribes are clearly evidenced by the knives and daggers found during excavations in Anyang, on the site of the capital of the Yin state, the handles of which are decorated with the same heads of steppe animals as those of Transbaikal knives and daggers of the so-called “Karasuk” type. The shapes of these daggers and knives are also remarkably similar, down to the smallest details. It is possible, therefore, that the Anyang foundry workers cast their products according to the models of the steppe craftsmen.

On the other hand, the direct influence of the high agricultural culture of ancient China is revealed in the remarkable clay tripod vessels found both in settlements and in graves of the 1st millennium BC. e. in the steppe Transbaikalia from the Agin steppes in the east to the city of Ulan-Ude in the west. These vessels have a voluminous reservoir, which turns into three wide legs, hollow inside, similar to a cow's udder. In China, vessels of a similar original shape of the li type appeared already in the Neolithic and then existed throughout the Bronze Age. They are so specific and characteristic of China that they are rightfully called a symbol of ancient Chinese agricultural civilization.

While vessels of the tripod type reflect the cultural ties of Transbaikalia with China, other facts no less clearly indicate the further strengthening of such ties with the West, starting with the Minusinsk Basin, Altai, Central Asia and ending with the distant Scythian tribes of the Black Sea region. These are, first of all, weapons - bronze daggers and knives, jewelry, including bronze mirrors, parts of horse harnesses and much more, made according to the same steppe patterns throughout this vast space. The connections with Western tribes and the maturation of a basically similar way of life, the emergence of a basically identical steppe culture, can be judged from art monuments, including remarkable images of deer on the so-called “deer stones”, stylistically related to the images of these animals, common for archaic Scythian art in the south of the USSR. It does not at all follow, of course, that there was no originality in the culture of the steppe tribes of the Far East. In particular, their funeral customs, which, as is known, are often an important ethnic feature, had a sharply unique character.

While most steppe tribes buried their dead under mounds of earth or stones, the tribes of Transbaikalia built original tiled graves in the form of rectangular boxes or fences made of huge slabs, often placed on edge. Such tiled graves, sometimes grouped into entire grave fields and visible from a distance against the backdrop of the steppe expanses, constitute characteristic element landscape of Transbaikalia.

At the center of the beliefs of the Transbaikal tribes was, apparently, the most popular zoomorphic image in their art of the good, beneficent deity of the sun in the guise of a deer with golden horns or a radiant disk shining in the sky.

On the steep cliffs and vaults of caves in Transbaikalia there are also scattered several ancient drawings made in red ocher and dating back in style to the Bronze Age2. These writings tell about the cult of a sacred bird - an eagle or a falcon, about some kind of collective magical rituals aimed at ensuring the fertility of livestock, the growth of clan communities and the well-being of their members. Most often, the same plot is found on the writings: an image of a magical fence guarded by a moon wing sacred bird or anthropomorphic spirits holding hands - protectors of the clan. There are also images of animals, usually horses, drawn in a characteristic stylized pose, as if preparing to jump. Such writings are available on the banks of the river. Toly, near Ulaanbaatar, throughout the Selenga valley with the rivers flowing into it, in the Agin steppes and on the river. Ingode, near Chita.

There is no doubt that the Bronze Age tribes of Transbaikalia steadily continued to preserve the ancient communal system of their life. However, the appearance of domestic animals, the formation of herds of livestock, and the associated increase in food surpluses should have contributed to the development of exchange and an increase in its role. Despite the fact that all tiled graves, without exception, were robbed, they often still contain randomly surviving gold jewelry, precious beads made of malachite, turquoise, carnelian and other Kamiya-self-flowers, as well as those brought from the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Persian bay of cowrie shells. The importance of exchange is evidenced by signs of connections with Scythia, Central Asia and China.

As a result of the development of cattle breeding and the growth of exchange, a transition from the ancient maternal clan to the paternal clan was inevitable, a patriarchal family community was to arise and an aristocratic stratum was to grow from the heads of rich pastoral families.

In this regard, the tiled graves themselves appear in a very specific light, as witnesses of major changes that took place in the social life of Transbaikal cattle breeders. The often enormous size of these burial structures, and at the same time their relative scarcity, show that these were most likely the tombs of the heads of rich and influential families.

This is even more clearly evidenced by monumental sculptures - “deer stones” with highly stylized images of deer. The great labor that was required to break out suitable blocks of stone from granite rock, to cut them with bronze tools and give them the shape of a pillar or saber-shaped stele, and finally to patiently cover their entire surface with skillfully carved relief images clearly shows what weight and influence in society was enjoyed by those people in whose memory and honor these majestic monuments were erected over their tombs, which stood for two and a half millennia. The same is evidenced by expensive things that accompanied the dead buried in tiled graves, and drawings on deer stones. Along with the figures of mythical solar deer, the deer stones depict very accurately and in detail such real everyday things as a belt, a bow, a battle dagger similar to the Scythian akinak, sometimes a battle ax - a poleaxe, even a disk depicting a bronze mirror is immediately visible. All this was, of course, the personal equipment of the ancient warrior, probably exactly replicating what actually belonged to him during his lifetime. These warriors, over whose tombs stood monumental monuments- the steles, undoubtedly, were not simple community members, but aristocratic leaders, heads of individual families, who stood out from everyone else with their wealth and occupied a leading position within the patriarchal clan communities of their time.

While to the west of the Amur, in the steppes of Transbaikalia and Mongolia, the culture of cattle-breeding tribes of the Bronze Age developed for centuries, from which the Turkic and Mongolian peoples of the Middle Ages later emerged, other tribes lived in the Amur basin and in Primorye, the whole way of life and culture of which contrasted with the life and culture of steppe pastoralists.

The culture of the population of the coastal tribes of the Far East, who lived in the 1st millennium BC. e. along the banks Pacific Ocean, to the east and north of the borders of Korea, near Vladivostok and further to the north, is known in the archaeological literature under the name “shell midden culture”. Such shell middens, usually located in bays, on capes and isthmuses protruding into the sea, consist of layers of shells of edible marine and freshwater mollusks. Such, for example, are the numerous shell heaps near Vladivostok. These heaps usually have a height of up to 1 m with a circumference of 10-25 m. In addition to sea shells, they contain bones of fish, pigs, deer, domestic dogs, roe deer, bears, leopards, a large number of stone tools, slate products and bones: chisels, sinkers, arrowheads and spears, knives and daggers. Various points, arrowheads, and knives were made from bone.

All this, at first glance, has the usual Neolithic character, but only at first glance, since in reality the culture of the population of Primorye, who left the shell middens, was generally already much more developed in nature.

Even stone products from settlements with shell middens are very different from more ancient ones, including those from sites immediately preceding them.

Even the material from which stone tools were made changed. Slate slate occupied first place, and instead of upholstery and retouching, stone grinding was increasingly used. Everything else looked new too. Simple clay vessels of ancient times were replaced by new ones, more perfect in form. Among them, the first place belonged to previously unknown wide vessels with a more complex profile, as well as flat bowls rising on a narrow conical leg - a tray. The ornamentation and external decoration of the vessels changed dramatically. Often there are vessels with a polished surface, sometimes covered with a thin layer of crimson-red paint. When making their vessels, the ancient potters now decorated them with carved linear and especially molded flagellar patterns in the form of parallel stripes, as well as symmetrically located knobs.

But the changes in the culture of the coastal tribes that left the shell middens went even deeper.

As it turned out, the thick layers of shells and fish bones that gave their settlements such a primitive appearance are not at all explained by the fact that miserable collectors of “seafood” lived here, picking up shells or the corpses of accidentally dead sea animals thrown out by the sea waves.

Among the shells found were those that belong to mollusks that live not near the coast, but in the open sea at a depth of several tens of meters. Along with them there are bones of marine fish that also live far from the coast.

Harvesting deep-sea shellfish and fish was impossible without going to the open sea. It required appropriate technical equipment - first of all, large boats that were stable on the sea wave. Sea nets were needed, as well as special fishing rods with weights that went down to great depths, and much more, which was the basis for sea fishing among various tribes of the Pacific Ocean at the time of their initial contact with Europeans.

Particularly interesting are the flat slate points found in shell middens, often with one or two drilled holes in the middle. These are harpoon tips for hunting large fish and sea animals. The inhabitants of settlements with shell heaps already had that complex harpoon complex of hunting weapons, the appearance of which meant the largest step in the development of the culture of the Maritime countries and the most important conquest of sea fishermen and hunters from the Japanese Islands to Scandinavia.

Without such weapons, the vast expanses of the sea coasts of the Pacific and Arctic oceans could not have been truly developed by man, and a highly specialized culture of sea hunters could not have arisen.

The existence of a specialized culture of fishermen and sea hunters was the first characteristic feature of the economy and way of life of the population of Primorye in the era of “shell heaps,” and the emergence meant the most important facet in their cultural history.

Oval boat-shaped stones were found in the shell heaps. One side of such stones is convex and more or less smooth, the other is flat and completely covered with small pinpoint potholes, like a kind of notch. In their shape, size and surface finish, they exactly replicate the most ancient tools used for making flour from grains - stone grain grinders.

Along with the fragments of stone grain grinders, the shell heaps contained stone hoes and fragments of a special type of slate knives in the form of small plates with a convex one-sided blade and usually two holes drilled in their middle part. Slate knives of exactly the same shape, which served as sickles, and hoes with hangers were used by the ancient farmers of China on the Yellow River in Neolithic times.

The “shell mound people” were, therefore, not only the creators of the culture of sea fishermen and hunters, but also the first farmers of our Far East.

Over time, the coastal tribes began to receive metal things from their steppe neighbors, as evidenced by isolated finds of metal products, as well as stone daggers and tips made according to metal samples from the late 2nd and early 1st millennium BC. e. Thus, in Primorye the transition from stone to metal begins; Neolithic time in the proper sense of the word ends.

At the same time, apparently, they had domestic animals and cattle breeding began. In the economy of the coastal tribes, the pig was obviously of great importance, the bones of which are especially often found in shell heaps.

Judging by Chinese sources, the ancient inhabitants of Primorye bore the general name Ilou. The Chinese left brief but accurate information about them in their chronicles, which is quite consistent with archaeological sources and significantly supplements them.

In Sanguozhi, a review of the history of the three dynasties that simultaneously ruled in China from 220 to 264, not used by I. Bichurin, compiled by Zhen-Shou in the 5th century. n. e., it is said about the Yilou that they are located more than a thousand miles northeast of Fuyu and are settled along the shores of the Great Ocean. In the south they come into contact with the northern Woju, and “it is unknown where their lands end in the north.” In the country of Yilou there are “many impassable mountains.”

The basis of the Ilou economy was agriculture and cattle breeding; they had "five kinds of [cereals], cows and horses." It is especially emphasized that the Ilou love to raise pigs, “eat their meat, wear their skins.”

Ilou mined jasper and good sables in their country - “these are the same ones that are now called Ilou,” says the chronicle. The presence of shipping near Ilou is also noted. The Ilou dwellings were located among mountains and forests. They were buried in the ground: “They usually live in holes. Large families go nine steps deeper and the more the better.” In the summer, the Yilou walked naked, “only a 1-chi piece of cloth covers them in front and behind to hide the body.” In winter, they smeared their bodies with “several layers of pork fat to protect them from wind and frost.”

The main weapon of the Ilou was the bow: “their bows, 4 chi long, are stronger than crossbows. Arrows are made from ku wood, 1 chi long. The arrowhead is made of dark stone... They shoot skillfully from a bow. Sagittarius, when they shoot at people, always hit. Since the arrows are smeared with poison, the people who are hit all die.”

The social system of the Ilou did not go beyond the boundaries of primitive communal relations, “people are mostly brave and strong. They do not have great rulers, but each settlement has a head."

Thus, the Ilou did not have a common ruler and they lived in clan communities independent from each other. But this did not prevent them from successfully defending themselves from their neighbors who tried to enslave them.

Sanguozhi contains interesting information, characterizing the relations of the Ilou with neighboring peoples and their political history. Since the Han Dynasty, the chronicle says, the Fuyu people subjugated them and imposed heavy taxes. During the Huang-chu period (222-226) they rebelled against their enslavers. “Fuyu launched punitive campaigns against them several times. Although their people, living in impenetrable mountainous places, are small in number, the people of neighboring countries are afraid of their bows and arrows, and in the end they cannot conquer.” Moreover, the Ilou themselves, fearlessly sailing on ships on the sea, instilled fear in their neighbors: “they invade and rob, which is why neighboring countries suffer.”

In the north, other tribes came into contact with the Ilou, the life of which is illustrated by archaeological monuments found in the Amur Valley near Khabarovsk.

These monuments tell about the life of those tribes that later entered the history of the Far East under the name Mohe of the Chinese chronicles. They paint, although fragmentary, but on the whole a very definite picture of the same as in Primorye, the gradual progressive development of the culture of the local population from stone to metal, from hunting and fishing to agriculture and cattle breeding, from the maternal clan to the paternal clan, and then from the primitive clan community to the state.

At one of the settlements near Khabarovsk, in the lower cultural layer, traces of Late Neolithic culture were preserved in the form of dugouts, at the bottom of which were found rough molded vessels, covered on the outside with imprints imitating rough fabric or matting. Above are the remains of more developed ceramics, including bowls in the form of two cones connected together at the tops, and large tall vessels with a narrow bottom, an equally narrow neck and a strongly bent wide saucer-shaped rim. Vessels of similar shapes spread at the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. and in neighboring countries of the Far East, up to the Japanese Islands, where they are called vessels of the Yayon type.

At the same time, ancient stone tools began to fall out of use and, apparently, local metal processing began.

Very characteristic features of beliefs and funeral rituals are also revealed.

At the same settlement near Khabarovsk where the Yayon-type vessels were found, the remains of contemporaneous destroyed burials were also discovered, in which human bones were in large clay vessels connected to each other at the necks.

All these new features of material culture and life, connecting the Amur region with the neighboring countries of the Far East, are remarkable in that they point to other, even more important and profound changes in the life of the tribes of the Far East. It was at this time that cattle breeding and agriculture spread everywhere here, the maternal clan was replaced by the paternal clan, exchange intensified, ties with other countries strengthened, primarily with China, which contributed to the decomposition of the primitive communal way of life. The first signs of property inequality were emerging. A layer of local patriarchal-tribal aristocracy grew up. The first economic prerequisites were taking shape for the subsequent emergence of local state formations - primarily the Bohai Kingdom, and after it at the very beginning of the next millennium - the Jurchen Empire.

In Who lived in Siberia BC

The history of Siberia, in the minds of the majority, begins with the history of “Russian Siberia,” that is, from the time of the campaigns of the Cossacks and Ermak, but people lived in Siberia before our era. Scientists even consider Siberia to be one of the main centers of anthropogenesis.

Ancient world

When the conversation turns to the history of the Ancient World, people usually remember the ancient states of the Middle East. It is clear that such a vision is very limited, since people lived on the territory of Siberia long before the time of construction Egyptian pyramids. The age of the Early Paleolithic site of Karama in Altai is estimated by archaeologists at 600-800 thousand years.

Soviet academician Alexei Petrovich Okladnikov considered Siberia one of the first centers of anthropogenesis. Nakhodki last decades completely confirm the opinion of the academician. In 1993, Novosibirsk archaeologists found the burial of a woman on the Ukok plateau (Altai Mountains), dating back to the 5th-3rd centuries BC. The press called the sensational discovery “Princess of Ukok.” Six horses with saddles and harnesses, a larch block with bronze nails were found in the burial chamber. The mummy of a young girl (she was about 25 years old at the time of death) was well preserved. She wore a wig and a silk shirt, a woolen skirt, felt socks and a fur coat.

The remains of the so-called “Denisovo man” were also found in the Denisova Cave in Altai. The researchers conducted a DNA analysis and found that the bone remains date back to 40 thousand years ago. Studies have shown that " Denisovan man“turned out to be an extinct type of person, whose genome is significantly different from ours. The evolutionary divergence of such a person and Neanderthals occurred about 640 thousand years ago. Later, these people became extinct or partially mixed with Homo sapiens.

Cultures

The Bronze Age in Siberia is primarily associated with the Afanasyevskaya culture. Numerous traces of the activities of its representatives were first found in the Sayan Mountains and Altai. In the 3rd millennium BC, the bearers of the Afanasyevskaya culture were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding in their territory. Later, traces of this culture were found not only in Siberia, but also in the territory of modern Eastern Kazakhstan, Western Mongolia and Northern China.

Ethnically, the Afanasyevites were not Mongoloids. Historians believe that the Afanasyevskaya culture was created by migrants from Eastern Europe, in particular, carriers of the ancient Yamnaya culture, who assimilated the local population

To replace Afanasyevskaya archaeological culture Andronovo culture of the 17th-9th centuries BC comes. e. "Andronovo" in the south occupied the territory up to modern Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, in the east - the Southern Urals, Western Siberia.

Xiongnu

Several centuries BC, on the territory of what is now Mongolia and Southern Siberia, there was a powerful power, the Xiongnu. In Chinese historiography, the Xiongnu appear no earlier than the 5th century BC. era. The raids of the Xiongnu warriors on the settled population of Northern China prompted the Chinese to begin building separate fortifications, which were later united into the Great Wall of China.

Around 51 BC e. The Xiongnu power split into two parts: the eastern Xiongnu recognized the supremacy of the Chinese emperor, and the western Xiongnu were driven out to Central Asia.

The Hunnic power collapsed, and its scattered parts scattered across Asia and Europe. Some of the most desperate, or, in Gumilyov’s words, passionaries, moved to the West, where they passed through Kazakhstan in the 50s of the 2nd century AD and reached the banks of the Volga.

Cauldron of Nations

Siberia BC was a real “cauldron of nations.” The Yuezhi, Dinlins, and presumably the Scythians lived here. This era is characterized by waves of migration, the transition from a sedentary lifestyle to a nomadic way of life. Most geneticists have already agreed that the same Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of America, descended from the Siberians who, from 18 to 26 centuries ago, crossed the isthmus from Chukotka to Alaska. Genetic analysis of the remains of the skeleton of a teenage girl, whose age is 12-13 thousand years old, which was found on the Yucatan Peninsula in 2014, confirmed scientists’ guesses in this regard. The journal Science wrote about the research results.

The history of Siberia, in the minds of the majority, begins with the history of “Russian Siberia,” that is, from the time of the campaigns of the Cossacks and Ermak, but people lived in Siberia before our era. Scientists even consider Siberia to be one of the main centers of anthropogenesis.

Ancient world

When the conversation turns to the history of the Ancient World, people usually remember the ancient states of the Middle East. It is clear that such a vision is very limited, since people lived on the territory of Siberia long before the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. The age of the Early Paleolithic site of Karama in Altai is estimated by archaeologists at 600-800 thousand years.

Soviet academician Alexei Petrovich Okladnikov considered Siberia one of the first centers of anthropogenesis. Findings of recent decades fully confirm the academician’s opinion. In 1993, Novosibirsk archaeologists found the burial of a woman on the Ukok plateau (Altai Mountains), dating back to the 5th-3rd centuries BC. The press called the sensational discovery “Princess of Ukok.” Six horses with saddles and harnesses, a larch block with bronze nails were found in the burial chamber. The mummy of a young girl (she was about 25 years old at the time of death) was well preserved. She wore a wig and a silk shirt, a woolen skirt, felt socks and a fur coat.

The remains of the so-called “Denisovo man” were also found in the Denisova Cave in Altai. The researchers conducted a DNA analysis and found that the bone remains date back to 40 thousand years ago. Studies have shown that “Denisovan man” turned out to be an extinct type of person, whose genome is significantly different from ours. The evolutionary divergence of such a person and a Neanderthal occurred about 640 thousand years ago. Later these people became extinct or partially mixed with Homo sapiens.

Cultures

The Bronze Age in Siberia is primarily associated with the Afanasyevskaya culture. Numerous traces of the activities of its representatives were first found in the Sayan Mountains and Altai. In the 3rd millennium BC, the bearers of the Afanasyevskaya culture were engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding in their territory. Later, traces of this culture were found not only in Siberia, but also in the territory of modern Eastern Kazakhstan, Western Mongolia and Northern China.

Ethnically, the Afanasyevites were not Mongoloids. Historians believe that the Afanasyevskaya culture was created by migrants from Eastern Europe, in particular, carriers of the ancient Yamnaya culture, who assimilated the local population

The Afanasyevskaya archaeological culture is being replaced by the Andronovo culture of the 17th-9th centuries BC. e. “Andronovtsy” in the south occupied the territory up to modern Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, in the east – the Southern Urals and Western Siberia.

Xiongnu

Several centuries BC, on the territory of what is now Mongolia and Southern Siberia, there was a powerful power, the Xiongnu. In Chinese historiography, the Xiongnu appear no earlier than the 5th century BC. era. The raids of the Xiongnu warriors on the settled population of Northern China prompted the Chinese to begin building separate fortifications, which were later united into the Great Wall of China.

Around 51 BC e. The Xiongnu power split into two parts: the eastern Xiongnu recognized the supremacy of the Chinese emperor, and the western Xiongnu were driven out to Central Asia.

The Hunnic power collapsed, and its scattered parts scattered across Asia and Europe. Some of the most desperate, or, in Gumilyov’s words, passionaries, moved to the West, where they passed through Kazakhstan in the 50s of the 2nd century AD and reached the banks of the Volga.

Cauldron of Nations

Siberia BC was a real “cauldron of nations.” The Yuezhi, Dinlins, and presumably the Scythians lived here. This era is characterized by waves of migration, the transition from a sedentary lifestyle to a nomadic way of life. Most geneticists have already agreed that the same Indians, the indigenous inhabitants of America, descended from the Siberians who, from 18 to 26 centuries ago, crossed the isthmus from Chukotka to Alaska. Genetic analysis of the remains of the skeleton of a teenage girl, whose age is 12-13 thousand years old, which was found on the Yucatan Peninsula in 2014, confirmed scientists’ guesses in this regard. The journal Science wrote about the research results.