The ornament of Tara and Baraba Tatars: archeological and ethnographic analysis

Abstract

The article concerns the ornament of the Turkic-speaking population of Western Siberia, namely, the Baraba and Tara Tatars. They represent local groups of Siberian Tatars and live in the territory of modern Novosibirsk and Omsk Regions. The issue of the development of the ornament of the Baraba and Tara Tatars is still open, as the materials of the 17th–18th centuries have yet been little touched upon. Since the end of the 20th century, due to the excavations, such opportunity has presented itself. The objective of this study is to identify ornamental ele-ments, to form a core of the ornament for the Baraba and Tara Tatars, and to consider what became of these elements. Two types of sources were used in the study: archaeological and ethnographic. The archaeological materials are represented by the ornamented ceramics and decorations from the monuments of the Omsk Irtysh and Barabinsk forest-steppe of the 17th–18th centuries. The ethnographic materials date mainly to the end of the 19th–20th centuries and include headdresses, clothes, shoes, and jewelry. We identified elements separately for each complex of objects of the Tara and Baraba Tatars, viz., archaeological and ethnographic, and, based on this, general tables were composed. The objective of the compilation was to identify similar ornamental base, which made it possible to identify common elements inherent to the Baraba and Tara Tatars, and elements spe-cific to only one group. As a result, significant similarity in the elements, motifs, zonality, and composition were observed. This similarity appears within the archaeologically recorded time and in the 19th–20th centuries. Ethno-cultural, social, family-marital relations, political and military actions, and migration to each other's territory were determining assimilation of the cultural traits. Meanwhile, the cultures of the Baraba and Tara Tatars had diffe-rences, which were due to their ethnocultural contacts. In the case of the Tara Tatars, this is manifested in a wider use of combed stamps. Their crockery featured a variety of compositions of the elements. Ceramics of the Baraba Tatars, on the contrary, was decorated with impressions and figured stamps. In the 19th–20th centuries, the orna-ment of the Baraba Tatars is distinguished by the use of wavy lines and corniform elements. Their ornamentation is characterized by geometrization (simple figures and complex elements). The ornament of the Tara Tatars is characterized by the use of floral motifs.