Archaeological Sites of Irmen Culture in the Tomsk Ob Region

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to characterize archaeological sites of the Irmen culture located on the territory of the Tomsk Ob region. The introduction provides a description of the territorial boundaries of the area under consideration. The article begins with aa brief historiographical excursion into the problem of insufficient knowledge of the northernmost territory inhabited by the bearers of the Irmen culture. The next part provides a description of each of the 18 sites that have the Irmen cultural layer or indicative lifting material. In addition, the article, from a historiographical point of view, touches on the problem of identifying the Tomsk local variant of the Irmen culture. The author questiones the cultural originality of the materials from the sites of the region under consideration. The extent and possible reasons for this uniqueness are also discussed, not only in comparison with materials from the Late Bronze Age of adjacent territories, but also within the Tomsk Ob region.