Paleographic evidence of localization of the early Holocene cultural unity in the southwest of Western Siberia

Abstract

In the article the results of paleographic analysis of two daggers from the Chernoozerye II site (Sargatsky district, Omsk region) and the Pegan burial (Makushinsky district, Kurgan region) are presented. The Pegan design as it concerns to the shape and morphology, which is based on the “rhombus chains”, is an invariant of the Chernoozerye prototype. The revealed complexity of the analogy, which includes the symbolic syntax of the ornamental text, the shape and morphology of the key symbol, the order of its graphic construction, cannot be accidental, but, obviously, indicates the “kinship” of the two existing ornamental traditions in the final Paleolithic and Mesolithic in the territory between the Middle Irtysh and the Trans-Urals. The evidence of the cultural contacts between these areas can be supported not only by similarity of stone industries, but by the stylistics of ornamental compositions on bone items. The above arguments make it possible to put forward a hypothesis on the possibility of localizing the zone of the ornamentally stable motif. The territorial proximity of the analyzed items inspires confidence in the prospects for solving the problem, but the chronological gap in their dating requires explanations concerning principles of translation of ornamental traditions and reasons of their “conservation”. The conclusions made in the study are preliminary. To support them, further researches based on new data obtained as a result of archaeological excavations and analyses of museum collections are needed.