Формирование угорской проблемы в археологии Южного Урала

Abstract

The article is devoted to the 90th anniversary of two outstanding Russian archaeologists who significantly contributed to studying archaeology of medieval Southern Urals. These are G.I.Matveeva and N.A.Mazhitov. They established as archaeology researchers at Perm Archaeological School founded by extraordinary Soviet archaeologist O.N.Bader. He led the above-mentioned scientists through their archaeology major at Perm (formerly Molotov) State University. The research career for both of the scientists began with studying archaeological monuments dated back to 1st millennium AD found in Bashkiria. Early findings of N.A.Mazhitov allowed to finally determine the Bakhmutinskaya culture in the Fore-Urals defined by A.V.Schmidt back in the late 1920s. Relying on specific morphological attributes of this culture’s ceramics N.A.Mazhitov suggested interpreting these ceramics as something of the Ugrians or Ancient Ugrians. The researcher held onto this point of view approximately till the mid–1970s. Since then on and by the end of his life he was rejecting his former believes of the Ugrian ethnic origin of the Bakhmutinslaya culture carriers. Furthermore, he was objecting any presence of the Ugrians in the Southern Urals at all. G.I.Matveeva was against the idea of interpreting the Bakhmutinslaya culture as a Ugrian one in the first place. For her the Ugrians belonged to the Karayakupo culture that she had defined. To her mind that she maintained until she passed away, Karayakupo folk and similar (but not equal) people of the Kushnarenkovskaya culture comprised the majority of the population of forest-steppe of contemporary Bashkiria back in 6th – 9th centuries. Their genetic roots were found by G.I.Matveeva in the Transurals and Western Siberia cultures. Together they made Bakaly Ethnic & Cultural Community. The reason why N.A.Mazhitov revised his believes about ethnic and cultural processes in the region in the 1st millenium AD can be explained through his concept of the Bashkirs’ primary ethnic genesis stages. He was convinced that carriers of all archaeological cultures (even the Bakhmutinskaya culture) in the region in the 1st millennium AD were involved in the Bashkirs’ ethnic genesis. The reason to say so was that the ancient Bashkirs assimilated these cultures. At the turn of the 20th and the 21st centuries Mazhitov’s belief was stronger than any time before. The ancient Bashkirs for Mazhitov were Turbasly, Kushnarenkovo and Karayakupovo tribes. After G.I.Matveeva had relocated to work permanently in Kuybyshev (Samara), she abandoned the Fore-Urals ideas but never changed her opinion about ethnic and cultural processes in the Fore-Urals, as she formed this opinion back in the 1960s.