The Problem of the Attribution of Burials of Medieval Nomads in the Territory of the Ukrainian Steppe on the Example of Three Burials from the Novosilsky Kurgan Complex
The Problem of the Attribution of Burials of Medieval Nomads in the Territory of the Ukrainian Steppe on the Example of Three Burials from the Novosilsky Kurgan Complex

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the problem of attributing monuments of medieval nomads from the Ukrainian steppein the period of X-XIV centuries on the example of three burials from the Novosilsky Kurgan group located inthe North-Western Black Sea coast. The attribution of such burials is problematic for the archaeology of Ukraine.The number of modern studies on this topic is rather small, which is determined by the somewhat biased attitudeof scientists towards the monuments of medieval nomads of the 10th-14th centuries as those left by a certainhomogeneous community, as evidenced by the still used term «late nomads». However, such a strong generalizationdoes not reflect reality. During the Middle Ages, the steppe of Ukraine was replaced one after another by waves ofmulti-ethnic nomads who migrated here from Central Asia. The ethnic diversity of the Pechenegs, Torks, Cumans,and the Central Asian peoples who came with the Mongols, but also their similarities, including the significantsimilarity of funeral rites, made it difficult to attribute and identify features for certain ethnocultural groups andchronological periods. The purpose of this paper is to trace possible solutions to this problem. Modern technologiescan also help with this - namely, 3-D modelling of artefacts from burials, which allows us to learn the detailedparameters of each object and visualize it in high resolution. For this work, three 3-D models were created - oneobject from each burial site, which will be characterized in the paper. The models also perform an important taskof preserving cultural heritage, because unfortunately, since 2014, because of the armed aggression of the RussianFederation, nomadic monuments from the medieval steppe of Ukraine have been destroyed.

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