Nomadic Research Articles

Siberian Animal Style: Stylistic Features as Generic Indication

This paper is devoted to the problems of differentiation of stylistic variants in the common phenomenon of the so-called Scythian and Siberian animal styles, which is one of the main distinctive features of Eurasian nomadic art. The animal style is a concept of more scale than an artistic style proper which distinguishes with some formal characteristics and depends directly on generic traditions and ethnic and cultural roots of art. Together with the technical-technological methods these formal features could be evidential indications of the origin of works of art. The Siberian collection of Peter the Great includes some different groups of golden ornaments decorated in animal styles of different origins. The paper focuses on a compact group of items originating from various mostly unknown sites from different territories in Asia including the Oxus treasure, several items from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great from Southern Siberia, a few jewelry pieces from other collections of the world museums as well as items made of leather and felt coming from the First and the Second Pazyryk kurgans. A distinctive feature of this group of zoomorphic images are colored inlays that accentuate a hind-leg or a shoulder of the animal; such inlays have the form of an intricate figure made up of a circle and a curvilinear triangle abutting to it or elongated round brackets. Genetically, such an ornamental motif, which is not generally typical for Persian art, may be linked to a periphery area of the Iranian world and nomadic culture, while the group of sites can be dated back to the 4th–3rd centuries BC. The paper considers a bracelet from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great which is the only item in this category of jewelry type of bracelets. It represents a rare type of ornament with a multi-component structure. It consists of three open-work strips with zoomorphic compositions in an animal style similar to the above-mentioned stylistic group. All three parts of the bracelet are created in a unified style, but obviously in different individual manners. There is no doubt, that the zoomorphic images show three different authors’ hands, and were made by different artisans. So, there is evidence of collective work on the object when each artisan makes his own operation to create a unique jewel at a workshop. Some parts of the composition on the bracelet are similar in style to zoomorphic images from kurgan Issyk in Kazakhstan which perhaps were made in the same workshop. This fact confirms the assumption of the origin of some of Siberian jewelry.

Ancient genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate

Ancient genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate

Ruminations on the meaning and nature of ritual in the historical context of China–A theoretical attempt to understand the tribute system as a ritual in East Asia

AbstractThe mainstream studies of the East Asian tributary system have been exhibiting a stance that tends to stress the importance of Confucianism in forming and sustaining the tributary system throughout its long history. However, there are still several questions (especially those of a theoretical nature) that historians have yet to answer: How could Confucianism have contributed to the formation and sustenance of this tributary system? Why could this Confucian-based tributary system be recognized and employed in relations with non-Confucian frontier tribes? Why could this system have worked with both the nomadic tribes on the northern frontier and the South-East Asian countries that were neither Confucian nor nomadic? Drawing on the results of ritual studies in anthropology, Chinese historiography and Chinese philosophy, this author seeks a broader methodology that can be used to conceptualize the tributary ritual and its constitutive power structure, which forms the foundation of the central part of the East Asian world order. This paper is a theoretical attempt to find a non-Sinocentric way to interpret the formally Sinocentric tribute system in premodern East Asia.

Fair Trade in a Nomadic Society (in Kalmyk Steppe in Second Half of 19th — Early 20th Centuries)

The issues of organization and functioning of fair trade in a nomadic society are studied on the example of the Kalmyk steppe in the second half of the 19th — early 20th centuries. The source base was documentary materials from the funds of the State Archives of the Astrakhan Region and the National Archives of the Republic of Kalmykia, revealing the record keeping practice of the Kalmyk People’s Administration and ulus departments on the organization of fair events in the steppe. The author, based on the historical and geographical approach, focuses on the vastness of the land and the dominant nomadic type of management in the Kalmyk society. It has been established that fairs not only played an important role in satisfying the commodity needs of nomads, which was important in the absence of goods for manufacturing and industrial production and agriculture, but also were a way for nomads to communicate with each other and with representatives of the foreign administration. Despite the importance of fair trade among the nomadic people, the process of establishing and functioning of fairs was associated not only with natural and climatic conditions, but also with the unwillingness of the authorities of neighboring provinces to create competitors.

Nomadic Place Names

This paper considers some toponyms of the Republic of Kazakhstan as the cultural, historical, and linguistic heritage of nomads and labels them the nomadic toponymic sphere. An in-depth study of nomadic toponyms assisted in finding new nomadic types of comonyms like “qystaus” and “zhailaus”, which were characterized here as unique time- and space-bound nomadic types of comonyms by means of explanatory research. It also revealed that existing definitions of “qystaus” and “zhailaus” do not correspond to the nature of these nomadic comonyms, which differentiate the toponymic sphere of nomadic culture from that of sedentary culture. A detailed etymological analysis of nomadic place names revealed that they primarily served descriptive and informative purposes. In addition, etymological analysis showed some main mechanisms of naming the geographical objects used by nomads who once lived in Central Asia. Further, these mechanisms served as the base that was used to classify nomadic place names into the five groups.
 
 Received: 20 September 2022 / Accepted: 27 December 2022 / Published: 5 January 2023

ПЕРЕИЗОБРЕТЕНИЕ ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЙ СУБЪЕКТНОСТИ КАЗАХОВ В ТВОРЧЕСТВЕ ОЛЖАСА СУЛЕЙМЕНОВА 1960-х гг.

The article is devoted to the reflection in the historiosophical works of the Kazakh poet of the sixties Olzhas Suleimenov the key plots for the formation of historical memory in the Kazakh society in the 20th century: the loss of the nomadic way of life, the museumified play of symbols of nomadic existence from the point of its no return (urban chronotope of sedentarized nomadic culture), perception the historical memory of the Kazakh society of cultural heritage of the urban culture of Central Asia, dialogized with world culture within the framework of the autochthonism concept. The studied literary and historiosophical material makes it possible to comprehend the problem of the correlation of the nomadic and the settled in the historical memory of Kazakhstan society and the presence of the cultural trauma of “being ahistorical”, overcame in the second half of the 20th century. The factors that shaped this cultural trauma include: 1) interruption of nomadic culture as a result of forced collectivization and the transfer of nomads to settled life in the 1920s–1930s; 2) historiographic tradition of describing nomadic culture as regressive and its perception by the Kazakh national intelligentsia in the 1960s–1970s through the dominant historical narrative. The way to overcome this trauma was dialogic assimilation of the cultural heritage of the medieval urban culture of Central Asia, the active archaeological research of which begins in these years in the Kazakh SSR, and inscription of the reformatted historical subjectivity in the history of civilization.

ՀԱՅԵՐԻ ԷԹՆԻԿ ԶՏՈՒՄՆԵՐԻ ԵՎ ՑԵՂԱՍՊԱՆԱԿԱՆ ՔԱՂԱՔԱԿԱՆՈՒԹՅԱՆ ԻՐԱԳՈՐԾՄԱՆ ՓՈՒԼԵՐՆ ԱՐԵՎԵԼՅԱՆ ԱՅՍՐԿՈՎԿԱՍՈՒՄ (XI-XX ԴԴ․) (Դ ՄԱՍ)

The aim of the article is to present the motives and implementation stages of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy perpetrated towards the indigenous Armenian population during the 11th-20th centuries in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, on the basis of various primary sources (archival documents, statistical materials, periodical press, theme related literature). The work is written by a combined examination of facts, applying the principles of historical investigation and historical-comparative analysis. The level of reliability and validity of the sources through their comprehensive study has been verified. Through the combination of facts the following phases of the history of the main issue are presented: the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus were still implemented in the 11th-18th centuries when the region regularly appeared under the invasions and dominion of various conquering nomadic tribes (Turk-Seljuks, Mongol-Tatars, Tamerlane, nomadic Turkmen tribes of Kara-Koyunlu and Ak-Koyunlu, Kizilbash invasions followed by the Turkish-Persian wars, Sunni Lezgins, invasions of Nader Shah and Agha Mohammad Khan). As a result, some part of the Armenian population was deported and left native lands or forcedly accepted the Muslim religion of the conquerers. The next phase of ethnic cleansing and atrocities was the period of the Armenian-Tatar clashes (1905-1906). Later, the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide was implemented at state level already during the Musavat regime of the artificial “Azerbaijan” formation (1918-1920), and finally during the Soviet regime (1920-1990). The article substantiates the fact that the indigenous Armenian population of the region was subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide in its cradle, just as the Young Turks carried out the extermination of the Western Armenians in 1915-1916 in Western Armenia. Therefore, that policy should be qualified as the continuation and a constituent part of the Armenian Genocide, because the Armenian Genocide with its geographical coverage (from Western Armenia and other Armenian-inhabited territories of the Ottoman Empire to Baku) was a consequence of the implementation of the complete program of Pan-Turkism. There are numerous references to the issue in the historical literature, though the comprehensive study of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, has not been the subject of a separate study.

Tabula Banasitana Tekst – tłumaczenie – komentarz

The Roman Empire entered a period of rapid romanization of the Roman provinces in the 2nd century AD. This also took place, with varying intensity, in African provinces. An expression of this was the granting of Roman citizenship to the leaders of indigenous tribes. The document called Tabula Banasitana, an epigraphic find discovered in the 20th century at the site of the ancient civitas Banasa, documents the process of granting Roman law to the leaders of the Zegrenses tribe and their families. The Roman ius civile was granted to them with the preservation of the rights of their people and without exemptions from public burdens. The author analyzes three documents engraved as an inscription known as Tabula Banasitana, concerning the romanization of the province Mauretania Tingitana. The article describes the process of the gradual incorporation of the North-West African tribal leaders into the structures of the Roman province of Mauretania. Sometimes members of the local elites were granted the status of Roman citizen by the Roman authorities, even though they retained all privileges derived from native law. Through this balanced social policy, Rome was able to keep the peace in frontier areas of the Empire, which were threatened by conflicts with neighbors or, as in this case, nomadic tribes. This form of Roman citizenship was limited – the nature and extent of the restrictions depended on the relationship between the person receiving citizenship and the local community or the Empire’s fiscal interests (for example new citizens were not relieved of obligations like tributum or vectigal). Citizenship was usually granted viritim, but sometimes – as Tabula Bansitana shows – members of the newly minted citizen’s family (wife and children) also received the privilege.

A testmozgás gyógyító ereje

Nomadic people having walked barefoot on uneven ground, had a perfect posture because they used their spines and bodies functionally every day. Today's man is hunching to a display while using smart devices, is struggling overweight, and has a sedentary lifestyle, making thus sick his body and soul alike. By exploding technology, the physical activity level of today's man has dropped dramatically. During the latest history of human evolution, we have left behind a very important thing: the motivation for moving. People are no longer as motivated to exercise for their stamina as they were used to in the past. The purpose of this study is to provide everyone with an interesting and detailed overview of the history and importance of therapeutic exercise, starting from its ancient origins, through the European and American gymnastics and physical education systems, to the development and spreading of yoga and therapeutic gymnastics today.

Еуразия кеңістігінің петроглифтері және таңбалары түркі мәдениеті мен жазуының архетиптері ретінде

The paper is devoted to the problems of the origin and connection of the Turkic culture and script with the most ancient petroglyphs, tamgas, and logograms. Researchers believe that since the Paleolithic era, petroglyphs, tamgas, signs have been widely spread on a vast territory of Eurasian area. In this context, the authors studied and systematized plot drawings, and signs-symbols of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia (Tyva, Khakassia, Gorny Altai, Transbaikalia). The article hypothesizes that the oldest signs could be the basis for the formation of the Turkic script, and revealing their historical, cultural and semantic connection, classify archetypes into cruciform ( signs and their letter designations by consonants «d» and «z»), religious-cult, temporal-cosmological, anthropomorphic, and the signs prototypes of the Turkic nomadic culture (arba, weapons, wildlife).Semantic analysis of archetypes is important for the identification of ancient man’s perceptions about the world around him. The archetypes of nomadic culture reveal the way of life and the worldview of ancient people. The paper asserts that the process of historical development of Turkic culture and script for thousands of years, starting from its origins, can be considered as an autochthonous phenomenon of the Turkic civilization.

Қазақ дүниетанымындағы кеңістік пен уақыт түсініктерінің қалыптасуы

The problem of space and time in philosophy was considered as one of the commonly important problems, regardless of what historical period, no matter what civilizational structures they entered. Space and time are base of our understanding of the world. The article identifies the problems of space and time that take a special historical and philosophical place in the content structure of the Kazakh worldview and the understanding is presented regarding the typical features through the analysis of the these categories. It also addresses the directions of the forms of space and time in the nomadic civilization and traditional Kazakh culture. The concepts of space and time in the worldview of the Kazakh people are clearly explained by various examples and the everyday use of the categories of space and time in the national vision of Kazakh people is provided. The presented article is intended to reveal the main dynamics of time and space in the worldview of the Kazakh people (time, past, world, nomadic tradition, life, etc.). The existence of special views of Kazakh thinkers, characteristic of space and time, is the essence of the research problem. Specific examples show that the Kazakh people had their own temporal and spatial dimensions and they were given a philosophical analysis. The article analyzes the features of comparison and identification in the use of the categories of space and time. The place of the categories of space and time as the basis of the nomadic life of the Kazakh people is determined. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that the use and specificity of the categories of space and time in the Kazakh worldview are explained by various examples, and the role and significance in the development of mankind are revealed from a philosophical point of view.

РЕНТГЕНОФЛЮОРЕСЦЕНТНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ МЕТАЛЛИЧЕСКИХ ИЗДЕЛИЙ ДЛЯ КОНСКОГО СНАРЯЖЕНИЯ ИЗ ПАМЯТНИКОВ БИЙКЕНСКОЙ КУЛЬТУРЫ (ФОНДЫ НАЦИОНАЛЬНОГО МУЗЕЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ АЛТАЙ ИМ. А.В. АНОХИНА)

The exposition of the A.V. Anokhin National Museum of the Altai Republic (Gorno-Altaisk, Russia) demonstrates elements of horse equipment from two archaeological complexes of the Altai, which belong to the Biyke culture of the Arzhan-Mayemir time. The first set comes from the burial mound No. 2 of the Boytygem-II site, and the second comes from the burial mound No. 1 of the Aira-Tash-1 necropolis. These ancient objects are important for the cultural and chronological identification of the studied objects, as well as for the study of the material culture of the early nomads of Inner Asia. A portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was used to determine the chemical composition of the alloys of the metal objects. The article presents the results obtained, which reflect the general and special characteristics of the implemented technologies. These data complement the previously published information on the testing of similar parts ofhorse equipment from the sites of the Altai of the Early Scythian period.

Մ. Դ. ԻՍԱԵՎԻ «ԳՈՐԳԵՐԻ ԱՐՏԱԴՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ ԱՅՍՐԿՈՎԿԱՍՈՒՄ» ԳԻՐՔԸ ԵՎ ԽՈՐՀՐԴԱՅԻՆ ԳՈՐԳԱՐՏԱԴՐՈՒԹՅԱՆ ԶԱՐԳԱՑՄԱՆ ՍԿԻԶԲԸ ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆՈՒՄ / THE BOOK OF M. D. ISAEV "THE CARPET PRODUCTION OF THE TRANSCAUCASUS " AND THE BEGINNING OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOVIET CARPET PRODUCTION IN ARMENIA

The book of M. Isaev ″The carpet production of the Transcaucasus″ (Исаев М., Ковровое производство Закавказья, Тифлис, 1932) reflects all the issues and tasks related to the development of the carpet production in the region. M. Isaev’s work can be attributed to the manuals concerning the development of that branch in the industry. The book is an important source of information for the study of the formation of the Soviet carpet industry. The work of M. Isaev was based on economic, ethnographic, cultural studies of various peoples of the Caucasus - Caspian region. M. Isaev's book contains interesting and important information about the economic, cultural and domestic conditions of various peoples and ethnic groups of the Caucasian - Caspian region. The data on economic, cultural - domestic differences between the indigenous population of the Transcaucasus (Armenians, Lezgins, Dargins, Avars, etc.) and the nomadic Turkic tribes of the Caucasian - Caspian region are important. Assessing the work of workers in the carpet industry, the author highly appreciates the contribution of Armenian specialists in the development of this industry. According to M. Isaev, Armenian workers were in the leading positions.

Challenges of occupational shift before de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes in India

Challenges of occupational shift before de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes in India

Turkic elite of the Golden Horde

The article analyzes the formation of the Turkic political elite, their features and position in the complex and large-scale management system of the Golden Horde.The administrative structure of the Golden Horde had its own characteristics in comparison with all the states that emerged after the collapse of the Mongol Empire. Including the active role of nomadic Turkic-Mongolian aristocrats in the structure of the administration of the Golden Horde and its social and political life, was reflected in the ranks of the military aristocracy (noyons, beks, emirs). In the article, the main attention in the analysis of the activities of the Turkic political elite was paid to the information of geneology, heroic epics and legends, as well as medieval written sources. Information from written sources was compared with samples of historical epics and Kazakh genealogies. The article analyzes several ways and factors that contributed to the transformation of natives of nomadic Turkic-Mongolian tribes into the political elite of the Golden Horde. The Beks, who came from local tribes, went down in history as influential figures who played a special role in the history of the Golden Horde.As a result of Kypchakization, the ideology of Genghis Khan underwent changes. However, it formed its worldview in the post-Golden Horde, including in the late period of the Kazakh Khanate, and remained in the history of our people to this day in the form of legends, epics, architectural monuments.

K. K. Yudakhin Photographic Collections of Traditional Kyrghyz Culture in St. Petersburg Kunstkamera

The article is devoted to the history of the MAE RAS collection on traditional Kyrghyz culture. Many generations of Russian researchers collected objects of traditional culture, annotated them, and compiled scientific museum inventories. Besides, they collected photographic material. The focus of this paper is on two photographic collections, donated to the museum by the famous Turkologist, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrghyz SSR, Konstantin Kuzmich Yudakhin (1890—1975). The first collection is devoted to the life of the Kyrghyz people of the Issyk‑Kul region, the second — to the inhabitants of the southern regions of Kyrghyzstan and Kazakhstan. The photographs were taken in the late 1920‑s. They depict the life of average Kyrghyz people engaged in household crafts, children playing traditional games, the life of the ancient city of Osh, the sacred Suleyman Mountain (Takht‑i Suleyman). These photographic materials are a wonderful source on the history and ethnography of Kyrghyzstan during the period when the traditional culture of nomads was being transformed under the influence of modernization processes of the 20th century.

The Great Medicine Road: Narratives of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, Part 4: 1856–1869

The Great Medicine Road: Narratives of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, Part 4: 1856–1869

Дербент в истории зороастризма на Кавказе

Introduction. For many centuries, the Caucasus has acted as a bridge, through which there was an intensive exchange not only of economic achievements, but also of the ideology of the highly developed regions of the Mediterranean, Minor and Central Asia. Materials and Methods. The research was conducted on the basis of interdisciplinary approaches and generally accepted historical methods. For the first time in Russian and foreign historiography, a study was conducted based on the analysis of ancient and medieval Greco-Roman, Armenian, Albanian, Georgian and Derbent authors, materials of Persian epigraphy and data from archaeological excavations conducted by the author in Derbent in 1970–1995. Analysis. In the III–V centuries AD, the Caucasus became the scene of a fierce confrontation between Rome and Sasanian Iran for the possession of this very important geopolitical region, in the history of which the Caucasian passages played a special role, and the most important of them was Derbent. By the 5th century A. D., the local elite and the population of Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and Georgia were already largely Christianized and oriented towards Christian Byzantium. The attempts of the Sassanids to plant Zoroastrianism here, which was the state religion of Iran, led to a number of major anti-Iranian uprisings of the peoples of the Caucasus against the «teachings of magicians», the success of which largely depended on the orientation of the Derbent rulers who controlled the Derbent Passage – the main «Gate» of the Caucasus. The Christian rulers of Armenia, Caucasian Albania, and Georgia, who led anti-Iranian uprisings in the Caucasus in the second half of the fifth century A. D., managed to extend their power to Derbent and attracted nomadic tribes of Southeastern Europe and North Caucasian highlanders to fight the Persians. The anti-Sasanian demonstrations in the Caucasus, under the banner of the struggle against Zoroastrianism, were most closely connected with Derbent. Results. Derbent in the VI century turned not only into a powerful fortification complex, but also into a developed early medieval city with a multi-ethnic population, mainly professing Christianity, while representatives of the Persian nobility, garrison and administration were Zoroastrians.

Sedentarization of the Nomadic People and Its Citizens' Perceptions

Sedentarization of the Nomadic People and Its Citizens' Perceptions

Эволюция взглядов В.В. Седова на происхождение и раннюю историю антов

Introduction. The objectives of this work were to highlight the evolutionary stages of the formation of the research views of Valentin Vasilyevich Sedov, a well-known scientist, historian and archaeologist who devoted himself to the study of the origin and formation of the ants.Materials and methods. The relevance of the appeal to the topic is due to the special place occupied among the world civilizations, culture and traditions of the West and East.Results. An interesting interweaving of the destinies of ethnic groups in the future that served as the basis for the formation of Russian civilization is presented in the works of V. V.Sedov. Argumentation of the results of his research activity allows him to trace not only the change of historical stages of its development, but also the transformation of scientific views on the process under study by the author himself. According to the data reflected in the scientist's recent works, rewritten and concretized several times, the traditions and culture of the nomadic peoples of Asia had a huge impact on the unique historical fate and development of the culture of the Russian people. Very complex interactions between ethnic groups have affected the versatility and interdisciplinarity of approaches to the study of the origin of the ancient Slavs. Historians, archaeologists, ethnographers, etc. have been studying this issue.Conclusion. The greatest discussions are caused by the definition of the ancestral homeland of the Slavs, the Slavic community, archaeological cultural ties with Slavic tribes.V. V. Sedov made a significant contribution to the study of the beginning of Russia. Issues related to the history of ethnic culture, the archaeology of the Slavs occupied a central place in the scientific work of V. V. Sedov. In this article we will consider the evolution of V. Sedov's views on the origin and early history of the Ants, known in the sources as the union of Slavic tribes.