Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and Their Relevance to Ethnic Processes in the Altai, 3rd Millennium BC

Abstract

The article describes ornaments made of animal teeth (elk, beaver, badger, fox, marmot, musk deer, and ibex or mountain sheep) and found in ground burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1, Northern Altai. Ornaments made of the teeth of the two latter animals are especially informative since these taxa are not found in the Barnaul–Biysk area of the Upper Ob basin, nor did they inhabit the area in the historical past. The musk deer is distributed in the mountain taiga areas of Gorny Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan. Ibex and mountain sheep are typical representatives of alpine fauna. In the past, the northern boundary of their distribution range coincided with the Chemal River, the southern boundary lay in the Mongolian Altai, and the western, in Rudny Altai (Eastern Kazakhstan). Ornaments made from Ibex and mountain sheep teeth indicate ties with Gorny Altai, intermediary groups being those known from Solontsy-5 burial ground and Nizhnetytkesken Cave-1 burial. The co-occurrence of these ornaments with Dentalium, Corbicula ferghanensis Kurs. et Star., and Corbicula tibetensis Prash. shells points to ties with Western Central Asia. In this case, the likely intermediaries are the people of the Ust-Narym or Botai cultures. Alternatively, groups from Western Central Asia or Eastern Kazakhstan may have migrated to the Altai.