Transbaikalian Archaeozoology of the Russian Period: Materials from the Udinskiy Fort

Abstract

Large-scale archaeological study of objects associated with the Russian conquest of Siberia is a relatively recent phenomenon compared to the archaeology of the Stone Age, the paleometal period, and the Middle Ages. A new field of study in Russian archaeology, it has not yet acquired its own terminological name, being called in the scientific publications by a variety of terms, such as “archaeology of the Russian period,” “late historical period archaeology,” “Modern Time archaeology,” “historical archaeology,” “post-medieval archaeology,” and the “archaeology of the Muscovite state and the Russian Empire.” As a result of the 2016 archaeological studies in the territory of the Udinskiy Fort located at the historical center of Ulan-Ude, an impressive archaeozoological collection was obtained in addition to the excavated archaeological, anthropological, and dendrological materials. Evaluation of the materials from this collection showed a presence of various categories of bone remains. Carcass-dressing waste, food waste, and ivory work, including items made from mammoth tusk, were identified. The archival materials allow dating the occupation layer by the time the fortification actually existed (i.e., the late seventeenth-early nineteenth centuries). The archaeological materials testify to the accuracy of this dating. Cattle bones are the dominant remains. All other domestic species are insignificant, while commercial species are sporadic in the collection. The cattle sizes are small and they fall into the range of qualitative variability of the aboriginal species. The food spectrum indicates a flesh diet of the inhabitants of the Udinskiy Fort. They mostly consumed beef, while other meats were insignificant. The bone remains allowed exposing certain taphonomic factors of the material preservation in a dry ground.