Bronzezeit am Jenissei: ein Beitrag zur Urgeschichte Sibiriens

Abstract

A BRIEF but very interesting account of the A Bronze Age cultures of the Minussinsk area, and a review of the literature on the subject, is given in the work under notice; the author has also some rather revolutionary ideas to put forward. The region is one of peculiar interest, lying as it does far up the Yenisei valley and forming an island of steppe country cut off on three sides from intercourse with the rest of the prehistoric world, for to the south lie mountains and to the east and west were formerly forest lands. To the north, however, lay a natural east west passage way formed by the more or less connecting river systems of the Obi, Ket and Angara leading to Lake Baikal. The author stresses the contention that the early Bronze cultures of the district owe nothing directly to the west, i.e. to the Bronze cultures of the Ural mountains, though both may originally have had a common source. He believes that it was not until very late that any western connexion was established, and that similarities in the two cultures can then be explained by a parallel reception of Scythian influences. Bronzezeit am Jenissei: ein Beitrag zur Urgeschichte Sibiriens. Von Gero v. Merhart. Pp. 190 + 12 Tafeln. (Wien: Anton Schroll und Co., 1926.) 12s.