Tagar Culture Research Articles

History of the Study of Images on Stones from the Tagar Culture Mounds

The author identified the stages of studying the images on the plates form the Tagar burial mounds in the Minusinsk basin. 1. 18th – mid 19th century: accumulation of the first knowledge about petroglyphs during academic expeditions (D. G. Messerschmidt, G. F. Miller, etc.). 2. 1860s–1950s: study of the Tagar mounds and documentation of images on their constructions (D. A. Klements, I. R. Aspelin, A. V. Adrianov, S. V. Kiselev, etc.). 3. 1960s–1980s: episodic mentions during rescue archaeological excavations (M. P. Gryaznov, M. N. Pshenitsyna, N. A. Bokovenko) and purposeful research (T. V. Nikolayeva, D. G. Savinov). 4. 1990s–2020s: complex analysis of petroglyphs on the stones from the Tagar mounds (E. A. Miklashevich, A. N. Mukhareva, O. S. Sovetova, etc.). Currently, a set of approaches to identifying and documenting petroglyphs on the stones from the Tagar mounds has been developed.

Manipulations with the Head of those Buried in the Bystrovka Necropolis (the Early Iron Age of the Upper Ob Region)

The article deals with analysis of the material from the Bystrovka necropolis (Bystrovka-1,2,3) of the Early Iron Age in the Upper Ob region. All these precedents were integrated into the context of various types of burial rites: inhumation, secondary burials, and ritual partial burials. On the surface of individual heads there are various traces of violent and industrial influences – stabbing, punching and cutting tools. In accordance with the shape of the holes from the piercing tools on the surface of some of the skulls from Bystrovka-2, kurgan-9, it can be determined that they were made with a chekhan with a subrectangular section. This type of impact weapon of the Early Iron Age is not widely represented in the north of the Upper Ob region. At the same time, most of the iron chasings of the Early Iron Age of the Upper Ob had a predominantly rounded cross-section of their striker. It should also be noted that the holes from the blows of the chekhan on the skull in Altai had a predominantly rounded section. Whereas, on the territory of the Middle Yenisei (Tagar culture), the holes from the chekhan of the coinage also had a predominantly sub-square section. Such a similarity of the entrance holes from the coinage on the Middle Yenisei and the Upper Ob (Bystrovka-2) indirectly indicates that the coinage with which the blows were struck could be of “Tagar” origin. Along with these features, it should be noted that, judging by the tracing features of striking with a coin on one of the skulls from Bystrovka-2 kurgan-9, it was struck on the head when the person was kneeling in front of the attacker. It is this pose that is shown on one of the petroglyphs on Mount Kunya in the Middle Yenisei. The presence of an extensive report of radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating for the Bystrovka necropolis makes it possible, along with various objects of the object complex (arrowheads, ceramic vessels, etc.), to date manipulations with the heads of those buried in the middle – the last third of the 1st millennium BC. In general, all these facts fit into the format of the “archeology of violence” and illustrate not only various variants of injuries from violent actions, but also complex and multi-stage rituals reflected in the funeral rites.

Finding of an Early Scythian weapon set in a burial of the Tagar culture (Askiz steppe)

The article is devoted to the analysis of a weapon set discovered during the excavations of the Tagar kurgan in the Askiz steppe in 2020. This complex consisted of two adjacent fences and a children's burial in a stone box between them. According to the characteristic features of the burial rite, the mound can be dated within the VIII – VII centuries BC. In the grave pit of fence No. 1, a bronze dagger with a knife in a well-preserved leather case with embroidery was found near the man's right hand. Typological features allow us to attribute these items to the Early Scythian stratum. A dagger with a slightly beveled roller-shaped pommel, a flat plate handle, a straight crosshair in the form of two spikes, a four-sided blade with a double-sided sharpening has a genetic connection with the Karasuk samples. The entire gun set has extensive analogies both among random finds in the Askiz steppe and in closed complexes on the territory of the Minusinsk basin. The ornament of four «mushroom-shaped» figures embroidered with tendon threads is unique for the Khakasko-Minusinsk steppes. Such finds expand our understanding of Early Bulgarian art, which appears to be very traditional at the initial stages. The "freedom" in the ornamentation of the leather cover analyzed in the article is determined by the «game» moments reflecting the individual consciousness of the ancient master, being a specific indicator of value cultural and mythological orientations. In this case, it was possible to fix a completely new plot within a rather closed visual system.

The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin

Based on the most recent excavation fi ndings, this article discusses a disputable group of burials, previously believed to represent the Bainov stage of the Tagar culture (900–700 BC) in the Minusinsk Basin. Analysis of these burials unambiguously supports I.P. Lazaretov’s idea that they fall into two independent and unrelated groups. One of them continues Late Bronze Age traditions, whereas the other demonstrates new features exclusively associated with the Tagar culture. Most complexes of the Bainov type represent the fi nal stage in the evolution of Late Bronze Age traditions. This is evidenced by various categories of grave goods, features of burial structures, and the funerary rite. These burials can be attributed to stage IV of the Late Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin. The second, smaller group reveals entirely new features, typical of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. These include novel structural features in kurgan architecture, different female funerary attire, and the custom of placing weapons in graves. This attests to the arrival of a new population group with its own traditions, resulting in the emergence of a Scythian type culture on the Middle Yenisey. These burials should be attributed to the beginning of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. Hopefully, future studies will help to separate out a special late group of Bainov burials, contemporaneous with the early Podgornoye kurgans. Currently, it is possible to discern certain features suggesting that this population took part in the origin of the Tagar culture.

КОСТЯНЫЕ НАКОНЕЧНИКИ СТРЕЛ ИЗ РАННЕТАГАРСКИХ (БИДЖИНСКИХ) КОМПЛЕКСОВ КУРГАННОГО МОГИЛЬНИКА САГАЙСКАЯ ПРОТОКА-4

The article deals with the results of an instrumental and contextual study of the bone arrowheads found during urgent excavations on the Sagayskaya Protoka-4 kurgan cemetery (Khakassia, the Askiz district). The morphological characteristics of the artifacts and the results of their traceology study are presented as well as the circumstances in which the arrow points were found in burial assemblages. The material for studied in the present article artifacts were long bone walls of big animals. The study of changes on the points’ surface allowed us to determine the main peculiarities of their production technology. All studied artifacts were shaped with a metallic knife. In one case, polishing was used. The obtained data allow us to continue the database of technologies of production not only of bone arrow points but also Tagar bone objects in general. The materials of an assemblage (tomb 2 in kurgan 3) with a dead body with tools in situ pushed us to turn to the bone arrowheads in Tagar burials. It is noted, that the consistent presence of this category of tools in burial practice is connected to the Bidzha group of the Early Tagar burial assemblages (the 8th –6th centuries BC). Based on analogies, it was stated that the arrow points sets were always put on the left of the body. Compact arrangement and the same orientation of the points indicate that they were in a quiver (wrappage). The found regularities are specific to Bidzhin assemblages of the whole Tagar culture area.

Материалы по бронзолитейному производству эпохи палеометалла в долине реки Кия и новые данные элементного состава бронз из могильника Шестаково I

In the Mariinsk forest-steppe and on its western periphery in the valley of the Kiya River archaeological communities of the Upper Ob, Middle Yenisei, northern taiga and southern steppe interacted in ancient times. This historical and cultural region is commonly referred to as “contact”, “transit” or “marginal”. To study the influence of such specifics on bronze foundry, the author reviewed materials on bronze foundry production in the valley of the Kiya River and also studied bronzes from the Shestakovo I burial ground, the most western burial ground of the Tagar culture, to reveal whether the regional specificity affected the development of the Tagar metallurgy. The analysis of the sources on bronze foundry showed that bronze objects on the Bronze Age sites are rare - a fragment of a knife, a celt from the settlement Archekas III, copper splash and slag from the settlement Ustye-Kozhukha I, objects of an unclear fate from the settlements Novoaleksandrovka and Archekas II. To the east of the valley of the Kiya River, up to the Uryup River, the complex of relevant materials is wider and is represented by traces of metal production from the settlements Dvornikovo and Tambar III. The picture of the “metal content” of the sites of the Kiya River valley in the Early Iron Age is different. More than 600 bronze objects from the burials of the Tagar and Tashtyk cultures are dated to this time. Single traces of bronze casting are known from the settlements -slag, stone tools, a clay core for casting socketed products from the fortified settlement Shestakovo I and the settlement Shestakovo II. To the east of the valley of the Kiya River, things (thousands of objects) from burial grounds also predominate. Bronze objects from settlements come, for example, from Tretyakovo I, Utinka I. Thus, in the structure of data on bronze foundry in the northeast of Kemerovo Oblast, the sources are distributed unevenly both chronologically and geographically. This is the reason for the reconstruction of local non-ferrous metallurgy based on data on bronze objects and on the elemental composition of their alloys. Metal from the burials of the Tagar culture of the Kiya valley, the Shestakovo I burial ground, was studied for the first time (excavations by A.I. Martynov, 1968). The elemental composition of 39 shafthole pickaxes, adzes and knives from Kurgan 4 was studied. The chemical-metallurgical groups of “pure” copper, arsenic, tin and tin-lead bronzes were distinguished. Copper items and arsenic-bronze shafthole pickaxe come only from Grave 1. This is explained by its later relative dating. The alloying of copper with tin, fixed in the metal of Graves 2, 3 and 4, is traditional for the Saragashen Stage of the Tagar culture (5th-4th centuries BC). The metal of Grave 1 makes it possible to “catch” the emergence of a trend towards the manufacture of implements from arsenic bronze and copper, characteristic of the Lepeshkino Stage (3th-2th centuries BC) and later of the Tesinsky burial complexes (end of the 2nd century BC - 2nd century AD). Thus, this section of the Kiya River's basin saw the same process as the rest of the steppe and forest-steppe areas of the Tagar tribes, namely, a decrease in the proportion of bronzes alloyed with tin in the 3rd-2nd centuries BC.

НАУЧНАЯ АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ ШКОЛА А. И. МАРТЫНОВА: НАЧАЛО ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ

The study of the formation of scientific schools in Russian science is one of the topical issues. It should be noted that a scientific school may be established under certain conditions, while in other situations, even sometimes more favorable, it does not take shape. The article aims is to reveal the conditions and circumstances under which the scientific archaeological school began to form in Kemerovo. Besides, the authors intend to determine the period and criteria for its formation. Based on archival research, some unknown facts of the school formation have been revealed, a number of archival documents are introduced here for the first time. It has been found that thanks to the leadership qualities of A.I. Martynov an archaeological school was created in Kemerovo Pedagogical Institute during the period of 1956–1975. The research program of the school was based on a comprehensive study of the Tagar culture sites in the northeast of Kemerovo Region. The archaeological laboratory, established with the efforts of A.I. Martynov at Kemerovo Pedagogical Institute in 1963, became the consolidating link in which Institute students, schoolchildren, technical staff and researchers worked on a voluntary basis. Attracting young people to archaeological research in the field and in the laboratory contributed to their education and the creation of a scientific school. In the period under study, disciples of A.I. Martynov developed from undergraduate and post-graduate students to candidates of sciences and became his support in further scientific research.

To the question about the opportunity of militant use of the checans of the saragashen stage of the Tagar culture

The present work is devoted to the identification of militant properties of the checans of the saragashen stage of the tagar culture. Throughout its length the checans were one of the type of melee weapon. They were intended for infliction of the stab wounds. On the territory of the Khakass-Minusinsk basin the checans are known as early as the late Bronze Age, but they were widely used among the population of the tagar culture. They are an exclusively male subject. In the archaeological literature there was an opinion about non-militant purpose of the checans at the saragashen stage and they are interpreted as «votive» (exclusively intended for ritual use as an accompanying inventory of the deceased). The tagar petroglyphs demonstrate two types of the checans: big and small. Products’ analysis and their images allows to talk about the militant use of both reduced and full sized checans. One can assume that the decrease of sizes is related to a change in combat tactics.

Elemental Composition of Tagar Copper-Bronze Sickle-Shaped Tools

The article features the elemental composition of copper and bronze sickle-shaped tools of the Tagar culture. The structure and composition of metal sickles have been the focus of chemical and spectral quantitative analyses since the 1950s. The paper introduces new data obtained by X-ray fluorescence, energy dispersive, and atomic emission spectral methods. The chemical and chemical-metallurgical features of the alloys add to the external descriptions of the Tagar metal tools. The research objective was to identify the features of Tagar copper-bronze sickles based on the chemical-metallurgical profile of the alloys. The authors also analyzed the effect of the alloy formulations on the morphological and metric characteristics of the tools, compared the bronze formulations with surface patterns, and established the copper ore sources. The study revealed no relationships between the bronze formulations and the morphological and metric indicators. An attempt to search for correlations showed two types of sickle-shaped tools. By measuring the length of the base and the height of the blade, the authors restored the actual sickles and reaping knives. The second type tools came from the Mariinsk-Achinsk foreststeppe. An analysis of the geochemical impurities in high-concentration copper indicated that the ore used in the Tagar tools was similar to that mined in the Glafirinsk and Kharadzhul-Butrakhty mines in the eastern foothills of the Kuznetsk Alatau. The sickle-shaped tools might also have been used to harvest fodder for livestock.

Medieval Quarry Near the Koksa Bay (Krasnoyarsk Reservoir) as the Evidence of Possible Migration of the Yenisei Kyrgyz from the Sayan Mountains to the Middle Yenisei

Purpose. The results of archaeological survey in 2021 along the western shore of the Krasnoyarsk reservoir in the Koksa Bay area are presented in the process of field research. Previously unknown cultural and historical objects were revealed – a quarry on Mount Bol’shoi Togurtag, presumably of medieval times, and mounds in the form of rounded stone objects at the foot of the mountain 1 250 m from the Koksa bay.Results. The material extracted from the quarry was used in the construction of these mounds, located at the foot of the mountain. This assumption is evidenced by a similar type of rock in the quarry and on the mounds (they are of magmatic origin). Previously, similar objects for this territory were not mentioned in the scientific literature. Is the technological originality in stone processing techniques evidence of the migration to this territory of any mobile group of the population from the outside, where such technology was traditional? For example, medieval Kyrgyz kurgans in the Usinsk valley of the Western Sayan, where there are many rocks of igneous origin, are similar to them in their appearance and composition of the building material. Therefore, it is logical to assume that here, on the Middle Yenisei, some group of “Usintsy” migrated, which was quite likely as part of the process of returning to their homeland of the Yenisei Kyrgyz after the Great Power era. An exhaustive answer to this question can be given in the future only after an archaeological study of the rounded stone structures located here, similar to medieval “сhaatas” and “suukter” mounds, but composed, as indicated, of material of magmatic origin, unusual for this territory, in the form of large and medium-sized blocks of “torn” forms.Conclusion. The quarry on Bol’shoi Togurtag Mount demonstrates more labor-intensive process of obtaining stone material in comparison even with the extraction of “slabs” from layers of Devonian sandstone for the construction of mounds of the Tagar culture. All of the above and determines the originality of this object among those known in Khakassia. In this regard, their further study seems to be very relevant and expedient for the formation of a complete picture of the origin of medieval archaeological sites on the left bank of the Yenisei.

The cemetery of Sektakh and the problem of the animal style in the Tagar culture

The cemetery of Sektakh and the problem of the animal style in the Tagar culture

The peculiarities of the formation and evolution of the animal style in the Tagar culture

The peculiarities of the formation and evolution of the animal style in the Tagar culture

Comments to the article by I. P. Lazaretov “Cemetery of Sektakh and the problem of the animal style in the Tagar culture”

В кратком комментарии атор обсуждает некоторые положения И. П. Лазаретова, высказанные им в статье «Могильник Сектах и проблема звериного стиля тагарской культуры» (с. 312-327) и выдвигает свои контраргументы.

Личины Моховского Лога и памятники окуневской культуры в горах Оглахты

The paper considers rock art sites, statuary and funerary sites of the Okunev culture (the Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin) which are known within the territory of the Oglakhty mountainous massif, one of the largest archaeological complexes in the Republic of Khakassia. Among the vast number of rock art images in Oglakhty, only a few are so far attributed to the Okunev culture, which is distinguished by its art. The author introduces into scholarly curculation and describes in detail the effigies on the rocks at Mokhovsky Log, a recently discovered rock art site; and considers the problems of their cultural and chronological attribution, as well as of some other relevant rock art images in the Oglakhty mountains. Statuary sites, which the Okunev culture is especially known for, are also not numerous in Oglakhty: one statue with a face-mask is now lost, and two others that have been recently discovered, were reused as tomb stones in the kurgan constructions of the later Tagar culture. Materials from the excavations of the Okunev burials in the Krasny Yar cemetery are also presented. Excavated by E.B. Vadeckaya in 1972 in the southern foothills of the Oglakhty mountains, the cemetery containedburials of the Okunev culture, both embedded in some barrows of the preceding Afanasievo culture (Krasny Yar I), and forming independent barrows (Krasny Yar II). They belong to different stages of the Okunev culture. Interesting and rare materials have been found in these graves; moreover, for the first time it was stratigraphically traced that at least 100 years passed between Afanasievo and embedded Okunev burials (so, the cultures did not coexist, as was previously thought). The materials obtained from the cemetery require further research by modern methods, as well as their complete publication. The author concludes that in the mountains and foothills of the Oglakhty there are evidences of the existence of Okunev culture at different stages of its development; their small (compare to the sites of other cultures) number is due to the insufficient investigation of the territory; and the prospects for new discoveries and replenishment the body of sources for the Okunev culture are associated with the application of modern methods of revealing and documenting archaeological heritage

Бронзы из курганного могильника Арчекас на реке Кия (по материалам раскопок 1971 года на северо-востоке Кузбасса)

To solve the problem of cultural and chronological affiliation of the Archekas burial mound, located on the right bank of the Kiya River (left tributary of the Chulym River), in the Middle Kiya archaeological microdistrict in the north-east of Kuzbass, the author analyzed the elemental composition of the metal of the accompanying inventory from two collective and one single burials of the burial ground, which consisted of two burial mounds. The materials of the archaeological site have a chronologically and territorially wide range of analogies; therefore, since the first comprehension of the results of excavations in 1971 (the works of A.M. Kulemzin), they entail conflicting dating and understanding of the cultural attribution of this object. The data published in the article about the composition of copper-bronze alloys of seven objects (two mirrors, a celt, two buckles, a knife and a badge-wheel) were obtained as a result of application of two methods - non-destructive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the surface and atomic emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma, when a metal sample in the form of swarf is analyzed. The publication of the results of the analysis of metal products is accompanied by their description and illustrations. Statistical and archaeometallurgical interpretation of the data obtained showed that by the ratio of chemical and metallurgical groups of copper-based alloys (43% of tin bronzes, 14% of arsenous-tin bronzes, 29% of “pure” copper, 14% of arsenic copper) the studied collection of bronzes is close to the materials of the sites of the Upper Ob region (Kulay culture, Kamenny Cape burial ground), Kiya-Chulym interfluve (Lepeshkinsky stage of the Tagar culture, Serebryakovo I burial ground) and Tuva (Uyuk-Saglyn culture, Suglug-Khem burial ground) dated III-II centuries BCE. Like the Archekas collection, the sets of non-ferrous metal of this time are distinguished by the absence of pieces with a pronounced predominance of tin or arsenic alloys. This shows the transitional nature of the metallurgical strategy, which fits in terms of relative chronology between the tradition of tin alloys of the middle of the 1st millennium BCE and copper-arsenic alloys at the turn of the era. In combination with the analysis of the range of late analogies of the objects of the Archekas burial ground, covering the period from the II century BCE until the VI century BCE, the data on the elemental composition of the bronzes allow concluding that the metallurgical tradition is archaic, which is recorded on the basis of the materials of the only burial site investigated in the Archekas archaeological complex. The analogies given for the Archekas inventory from the monuments of the Bolsherechensk culture of the Upper Ob region, mainly of its Berezovsky stage (II-I centuries BCE), are supported by the hypothesis earlier expressed by V.V. Bobrov about the nearby Kuznetsk Basin as a seasonal pasture of the population of the Bolsherechensk culture.

Cranial materials from the Oglakhty burial ground

In this article means of cranial measurements and indexes of the Tashtyk sample from the Oglakhty burial ground obtained as a result of analysis and integration of the measurements of G. Debets, V. Alexeev and I. Gokhman are presented. Also we updated the means of the pooled Tashtyk sample. It was demonstrated that the Oglakhty cranial sample cover the whole spectrum of variability of the Tashtyk population. The data on 37 male and 35 female Early Iron Age series of the Tashtyk culture, Early Tes tombs, Tes flat-grave burial grounds, Podgornovo, Bidzha, and Saragashen stages of the Tagar culture, were subjected to canonical variate analysis. The results of the analysis reveals that Tashtyk male and female series are very similar to the Early Tes samples mainly due to higher cranial index in both male and female samples and smaller nose protrusion angle in male sample. Describing the variety of options for postmortem trepanations of the Tashtyk skulls, we argue that the trepanation process was not a ritual in itself, but was a routine procedure aimed at extracting the brain.

Features of aeolian relief formation of the sandy massif Suvinskii Kuitun in the Barguzin Depression

The principal objective of the article is the determination of the main features of the aeolian relief formation of the Suvinskii Kuitun sand massif, one of the regions of active modern aeolian morphogenesis in the Barguzinskaya Depression. A brief description of the morphology of the aeolian relief, characterized by the predominance of deflationary forms over accumulative ones, is given. Among the forms of active deflation, deflation basins dominate here, separated by elongated deflation inselbergs, composed of sands of lacustrine, alluvial, deluvial-proluvial, and aeolian genesis. The mineralogical and granulometric composition of sandy deposits in the southern part of the Suvinskii Kuitun, characterized by poor roundness of sandy grains, has been analysed. A distinct northeastward eolomotion was revealed towards the foothills of the Ikat Range and its accumulation there. The age of the aeolian sands, mainly related to the formation of the Tagar culture (the end of the Bronze Age) was determined. The phytomelioration carried out in the second half of the 20th century led only to a partial fixation of sands, without affecting their overall deflation in most areas of the Suvinskii Kuitun.

Lepeshkinsky Complex of Bronzes from Tagar Burial Site Serebryakovo I in the Mariinsk Forest-Steppe: the elemental composition of the metal

The present article introduces an elemental composition analysis of copper and bronze alloys from the burials of the Lepeshkinsky Stage of the Tagar culture, burial site Serebryakovo I in the Kiya-Chulym interfluve. The research featured mounds 2, 12, and 16, which date back to 3–1 centuries B.C. The metal composition of 72 items was investigated by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP AES). The obtained data were subjected to statistical processing, which revealed seven chemical-metallurgical and metallurgical groups of copper-based alloys. The bronze alloys did not depend on the typology of the tools, i.e. knives, engravings, mirrors, deer plaques, etc. The results confirmed the dating of the Lepeshkinsky site between the Saragashensky and the Tesinsky Stages of the Tagar culture. The items revealed a tendency towards a decrease in the proportion of tin bronzes and average concentrations of tin ligatures. The study proved that archaeometallurgical data can help to determine the relative-chronological position of the Tagar culture burial complexes.

Погребения тагарской и тесинской культур в кургане 1 курганного могильника Скальная-4

The preliminary results of rescue excavations of the kurgan 1 at the Skalnaya-4 kurgan burial ground in the Khakass-Minusinsk basin (Askizskiy district, Republic of Khakassia) is published. The kurgan is located on the western slope of the Uytag Mountain and is a part of a larger kurgan field of the Tagar culture. The kurgan and the surrounding area as expressed in relief are described in our archaeological excavation report. Data on the design of the burial construction as well as on the number and composition of the graves are presented. The kurgan belongs to the Podgornovo stage of the Tagar culture. Inside the “four-stone” fence, two graves were built, one in the center and more recent one to the north. Each grave with one disturbed skeleton inside had a stone cover. The graves also contained ceramic vessels and funeral food. During the Tesinskaya stage two intrusive burials were made in the kurgan area. One of them, with two graves, both in stone vaults with a sandstone slab ceilings, were constructed near the south-eastern corner stele. The burial goods include ceramic vessels, an iron knife, stone and paste beads and a sharpening stone in a case with a bronze pommel. The second grave (about 1 m deep narrow pit) was dug near the eastern wall of the fence. Scattered bones of an incomplete human skeleton were interred in it and a skull without a lower jaw was placed in a separate niche. In addition to the burial structures, several pits and stones dating back to the period of the kurgan construction were discovered in the surrounding territory. The obtained materials noticeably compliment already abundant sources to study the agenda of the South Minusinsk Basin history in the 7th Century BC - 3rd Century AD.

Одонтоскопическая характеристика серии тагарской культуры из курганного могильника Станция Казановская-1

The article considers odontologic research of the series materials from the burial mound Stantsiya Kazanovskaya-1. This burial mound is dated back to 8-6th centuries BC (Podgornovo stage of the Tagar culture) (Bogdanov et al., 2020). The series includes permanent teeth of 23 individuals (7 male, 11 females, 4 infants, and 1 individual whose sexual identity could not be determined). The examination was carried out according to the standard odontoscopy program (Zubov, 1968; 2006) with archaic markers recording (Zubova, 2013). As a result, it was concluded that the anthropological composition of the studied group is close to the characteristics of the eastern dental type (mongoloid). An increase in some mongoloid features and a decrease in molar gracilization frequencies (reduction of the hypocone of the upper second molars, four-cusp lower first and second molars) significantly distinguish the Tagar series from Stantsiya Kazanovskaya-1 from other Tagar groups that had been studied earlier (Postnikova, 1974; Rykushina, 1977; Gulevskaya, unpublished data). Moreover, an intergroup comparison was carried out using the method of principal component analysis. The comparative analysis included odontologic series of the Early Iron Age from the Southern and Western Siberia, Western and Central Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea region, and the Southern Urals. As a result, the group from the Stantsiya Kazanovskaya-1 burial mound demonstrated the closest similarity to the Bolsherechye population of the Novosibirsk Ob region, as well as some similarity was recorded to the populations of Sargat and Kamensk cultures, and, more distantly, with the Ural group of early Sarmatians from the Pokrovka X burial ground and the Ural savromats from the Kazy-Baba burial ground. Therefore, the conclusion was made on possible formation of the anthropological composition of the studied Tagar group on a local basis and on the priority direction of interaction with the synchronous West Siberian forest-steppe populations.