Об умеренно плодородном полумесяце умеренного пояса. (Степной пояс Восточной Европы в раннем и среднем голоцене)

Author(s): Shahmardan N. Amirov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

Climatic fluctuations of the Holocene determined synchronous adaptation strategies of the populations living in the same landscape conditions of Subtropical and Temperate climates of Western Eurasia. Parallel consideration of the cultural process in the zone of the Fertile Crescent of Northern Mesopotamia and the steppe belt of Eastern Europe makes it possible to synchronize cultural process of these directly unrelated regions. The first trade contacts between Northern Mesopotamia and Eastern Transcaucasia are known from the Late Ceramic Neolithic period. This makes it possible to link the archaeological sequence of Transcaucasia with the periodization of the Mesopotamian region, which dates back to the multimeter deposits of sedentary agricultural sites from the Early Holocene. Indirectly, it also becomes possible to synchronize the archaeological cultures of the steppe belt of Eastern Europe and Northern Mesopotamia. Since the beginning of the Late Chalcolithic, migration movements and numerous contacts have made parallel dating even more reliable. This is due to the fact that the bearers of the Leylatepe culture of the Eastern Transcaucasia had numerous intensive contacts with populations living in the steppe landscape of the Cisсaucasia region. Finally, the climatic collapse of the end of the IV millennium BC, which led to extinction of the Leylatepe populations and the first movement of the Maikop kurgan culture bearers to Transcaucasia and further to the Middle East, also ensured the first direct contact between the East European steppe belt populations and the Near East.

Памятники позднего энеолита Южного Приднестровья и Буджакской степи

Author(s): Vladislav G. Petrenko / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The article discusses the peculiarities of the cultural and historical situation in the Northwestern Black Sea region in the 4th millennium BC. Several relatively independent lines of development are distinguished which are characterized by various features of the burial rite and material culture and to a greater or lesser extent influence the formation of the Usatovo culture. One of the main components of the Usatovo culture is the burial sites of the Khadzhider type, in which the deceased were laid in crouched position on their sides and were accompanied by imported pottery of the Cucuteni B culture or vessels close to the pottery of the Cernavodă I culture. Another line of development is represented by burials of the Katarzhino type with skeletons in a crouched position on their backs. Apparently, the burials conventionally referred to the archaic stage of the Usatovo culture are a reflection of an independent line of development. The culture of Cernavodă I and the culture of Cucuteni B, which is probably associated with some short-term encampments in the steppe zone, are also important factors of development. Interaction of various cultural traditions led to the emergence of the Usatovo culture.

Комментарии к статье В. Г. Петренко «Памятники позднего энеолита Южного Приднестровья и Буджакской степи»

Author(s): Igor V. Manzura / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

Керамическая посуда раннего неолита на Кольском Севере: типология и новые данные по хронологии

Author(s): Alevtina M. Kiseleva / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The article presents the results of the study of the Early Neolithic pottery from the territory of the modern Murmansk region. The literature on this pottery usually refers to the Säräisniemi 1 type. This paper is the first attempt to develop a detailed typology of this pottery taking into account all the accumulated materials. Materials from 41 sites were studied, 503 vessels were identified on the basis of the unique elements of their ornamentation. Studying coincidence of different features on the vessels helped identify two groups of pottery. Their differences are traced in morphology, ornamentation and partly in manufacturing technology. It is proposed to consider these groups as two variants of Sär 1 Ware and to designate them by the names of eponymic sites: Chavanga (flat-bottomed ware) and Varzina (round-bottomed ware). Also, several vessels of the Pit-Comb Ware and a category of small “cups” were identified.In order to define the timespan of this ware, the author undertakes the first attempt for the Kola North materials to date some soot samples by the AMS method. The earliest dates refer to the second half of the 6th millennium BC, which points to the simultaneous appearance of pottery in the Kola North and the neighboring regions of Fennoscandia. A small number of dates does not allow us to make any chronological distinction between the identified variants of pottery. But it can be noted that the oldest dates are obtained for the Varzina vessels, while the Chavanga vessels are dated slightly later.

Каймачинский клад эпохи бронзы из Северо-Западного Крыма: РФлА состава сплава

Author(s): Tatiana Nikolaevna Smekalova,Andrei N. Gavrilyuk / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The article studies the alloy and production technology of Bronze Age jewelry and tools from the Kaimachinsky hoard of 2020, discovered in gulches of the catchment area of Lake Donuzlav in Northwestern Crimea. All items from the hoard find analogies in the Loboykovsky hoard (Left Bank of the Dnieper). At the location of the hoard, a settlement of the Late Bronze Age was discovered with the help of magnetic surveys, and two more settlements of the Middle and Late Bronze Age were discovered on the neighboring capes of the Kaymachinskaya Balka. An X-ray fluorescence analysis of items from the hoard was carried out. Outstanding finds are bimetallic pendants with punched ornaments, which have the only complete analogy among the items of the Loboykovsky hoard. The base of three pendants is made of “pure” copper, the fourth is made of tin bronze (Sn 4.26 %). A sheet of gold-silver-copper alloy is forged on top of the base. The similarity of the pendants with gold decorations from the horizon of the Ópályi and Forró hoards suggests that they came from the Carpathian region. Probably, a razor with a figured blade and another razor with a rounded end made of high-tin bronze also came from there. A dagger and a round plaque made of tin bronze, are possibly of Central European origin as well. The most “archaic” alloys are typical for one of the sickles and a razor knife made of arsenic bronze, which brings them closer to the Kuban metallurgical group. The remaining tools are cast from alloys of the Left Bank (Lb according to E. N. Chernykh) metallurgical group.

Топор в ритуальной практике раннего энеолита Восточной Европы: истоки традиции

Author(s): Igor V. Manzura / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The article discusses the problem of changes in ritual practice in the steppe zone of Eastern Europe in the 5th millennium BC. One of the reflections of these transformations is flint and stone axes with an arch-shaped butt, which are often found in the ritual sphere in the form of hoards and funerary offerings. In terms of their morphological features, size and thoroughness of workmanship these items correspond to jadeite axes of the Varna type, which were widespread in the territory of South-Eastern Europe in the Eneolithic and were part of the most prestigious items of funerary inventory. Jadeite axes of this type could be considered as a prototype for the original flint axes of the steppe Eneolithic. Their appearance in the steppe territories should be regarded as part of the significant influence of the early farming cultures of the Carpathian-Balkan circle on the steppe groups in the technological and ideological spheres.

Типология орнаментов на изделиях из кости и рога поселения Маяк 2 (Мурманская область, Россия)

Author(s): Anton I. Murashkin / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement of Mayak 2 on the northern coast of the Barents Sea was excavated by N. N. Gurina in 1979—1984 on an area of more than 1000 square metres. The unique collection of artefacts made of animal bones, antlers and teeth was obtained. 61 of them were decorated with carved ornaments (73 decorated surfaces in total). The collection of decorated objects consists of tools, personal ornaments, everyday objects, preforms, fragments of artefacts and unworked fragments of bones and antlers. “Simple” ornamental motifs include rows of notches/incisions, groups of parallel lines, rows of diamonds, “fishing net”, and chevron-like patterns. Two groups of “complex” compositions belonging to different traditions have been distinguished. The first one is characterised by the ornamental field that is filled entirely. It includes motifs of nested chevrons, inscribed polygons, “arched” (“honeycomb”), “parquet” (“patchwork quilt”). Objects decorated in this tradition were found in semi-closed complexes same as Gressbakken houses and middens that spread along the coast of northern Norway and the Murmansk region during the Late Neolithic (2600—1600 calBC). The second tradition includes a single onlay decorated with a multi-linear stepped motif, which is represented on objects from the burials of the Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground. A characteristic feature of such decoration is the formation of longitudinal or transverse friezes on the decorated object. According to the dates of the burial ground (1500—1100 calBC), the second ornamental tradition belongs to the Bronze Age.

Возникновение гаплогруппы Е-М81: рубеж эр или неолит?

Author(s): Aleksey A. Romanchuk / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

Haplogroup E-M81 is now proposed to be dated around 2000 BP. However, an analysis of the historical context strongly argues against such a late dating. Apparently, this haplogroup, which shows a pronounced connection with the speakers of the Berber-Libyan languages, arose at the dawn of their formation, but after the separation of the Berber-Libyan languages from the Chadic (in whose speakers E-M81 is completely absent). Taking into account the calculations of the linguists on the dating of these linguistic processes, the emergence of E-M81 should be attributed to the time shortly after 8,000 BP. Apparently, we are talking about the Neolithic (Late Neolithic, or even earlier). Thus, haplogroups E-M81 demonstrates a very expressive case of discrepancy between the dating proposed by the geneticists and the historical and archeological data.

«Забытое дитя» или передовой отряд? О связи населения фатьяновской и средневолжской абашевской культур в свете данных секвенирования древней ДНК

Author(s): Asya V. Engovatova,Kharis Kharrasovich Mustafin,Irina Eduardovna Alborova,Alexander A. Kanapin,Anastasia A. Samsonova,Maria B. Mednikova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

High-throughput sequencing of ancient DNA from Fatyanovo and Abashevo cultures (7 and 3 men, respectively) has led to new hypotheses about their origin and contacts. According to published archaeological evidence, i. e., due to striking similarities between the grave goods discovered in the Middle Volga Abashevo burial complexes and those found in the bell-shaped beaker culture, it is believed that the Fatyanovo people may have descended from the Corded Ware Culture.The present study demonstrates, for the first time, the remarkable similarity between the Fatyanovo people, as represented by the Volosovo-Danilovsky and Nikultsino burial grounds in the Yaroslavl region, and three distinct cultural groups: a) the Corded Culture People, primarily from Bohemia and Germany, b) the Bell-Beaker cultures, found in the same region as well as in France and the Netherlands, and c) the bearers of the Unetice culture. Furthermore, the Abashevite from the Pepkino mound (burial id 18) is genetically similar to several Fatyanovo individuals from the Volosovo-Danilovsky and Nikultsino burial grounds. Finally, the new set of AMS-radiocarbon dates has helped to narrow down the chronological gap between the Fatyanovo and Abashevo people’s expansion towards the Upper and Middle Volga regions, thereby indicating a direct contact between these two groups. Therefore, we can hypothesize that the highly mobile and dispersed lifestyle intrinsic to cattle-breeders may have led to the reclamation of vast territories in the east while still maintaining close ties with their ancestral lands.In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the Fatyanovo and Abashevo people likely originate from the same genetic background and are integral parts of the Corded Culture world, rather than “lost children” as previously assumed.

О трепанации черепа в эпоху ранней бронзы на территории Южного Кавказа и Ближнего Востока

Author(s): Dmitriy A. Kirichenko / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The paper generalizes finds of trepanned skulls from the area of South Caucasus and Near East as well as characterizes types of craniotomy of the population of the studied region and Eurasia. The finds of skulls with traces of trepanation of the Early Bronze Age are not so numerous. Among archaeological sites, the following ones were identified as having skulls with the traces of craniotomy: Menteshtepe (Azerbaijan); Kiketi (Georgia); Baklatepe, Karatash, Kuchukhoyuk, Ikiztepe, Pagnik Oreni, (Turkey); Shahri Sohta (Iran); Tel-Arad (Israel); Tarkhan, Wadi Hebran (Egypt); Jebel Hafit (UAE). Prevailing among them are the trepanations performed for medical purposes during the studied time (Kiketi, Pagnik Oreni, Karatash, Ikiztepe, Shahri Sohta, Tel-Arad, Tarkhan, Wadi Hebran, Jebel Hafit). However, there were also cases of a ritual-symbolic character (Baklatepe, Kuchukhoyuk). In addition, there were also craniotomies, where it was not possible to establish exactly the origin of the manipulation, whether they were only of medical or ritual-symbolic purposes (Menteshtepe, Ikiztepe and Jebel Hafit). Most of the interventions ended successfully, which indicates the high professionalism of neurosurgeons of that time. In terms of gender, skulls with trepanations in males significantly outnumbered those in females. The indications for surgery were primarily head injuries. The largest number of cases of craniotomy was recorded in Anatolia. The dominant method of manipulation was by cutting; in addition, scraping method was also common.

Посмертная трепанация из погребения эпохи средней бронзы на Верхнем Дону

Author(s): Evgeny Yu. Girya,Andrey S. Zheludkov,Sergey V. Vasilyev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The paper publishes the results of a study by the method of tracology of postmortem trepanation found on the skull of a man from the burial of the Middle Don catacomb culture of the Bronze Age. The burial itself is an atypical reburial of bone remains, which is part of a large ancestral funeral and ritual complex built by the bearers of the tradition of roller ornamentation of ceramics and can be tentatively dated to the XXIII—XXII centuries BC. It was found that the holes were made in the occipital part with a tool with a grooved working blade, presumably to extract the brain. After that, the skull was probably dried, while retaining the shape of the head.

Шайтанское городище конца эпохи бронзы в бассейне реки Кеть (Западная Сибирь): новая интерпретация

Author(s): Victor A. Borzunov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

In 1967—1968, M.F. Kosarev excavated a fortified settlement of the Molchanovo culture 9th—8th/7th centuries BC in the Shaitanka River basin, and identified it as a “ring fort” surrounded by a moat, rampart and palisade. Subsequently, the researcher attributed it to the large wood-earthen “fortified dwellings” identified by the author. The northernmost distribution area of these fortifications was in the western regions of the taiga Ob’River Region. Buildings of this type began to form here in the Neolithic - Eneolithic (6th — 3rd millennium BC) and became widespread in the Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium — 8th century BC). In the Narym Ob’ River Region and the Ket’ River Basin, fortified dwellings appeared as a result of the migration of fishermen-hunters from the Lower and Surgut Ob’ River Region, caused by a sharp cooling and humidification of the climate at the turn of the 2nd — 1st millennium BC.

Памятники на р. Коротаихе (бассейн Баренцева моря): места обитания, могильники или святилища эпохи бронзы?

Author(s): Victor N. Karmanov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The author offers a new interpretation of the Korotaikha 1979/3, —1979/4 sites investigated in 1979—1981 in the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra (Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russian Federation). The sites are represented by an extended series of homogeneous stone points, scrapers and axes, pots. The characteristics of the artefacts, the landscape and topographic situation and the contexts of their deposition are not typical by the standards of the Bronze Age hunter-gatherer cultures of the extreme northeastern Europe. This made the author search for an explanation of the abnormalities in the studied complexes.To substantiate the types of artefacts, their morphology is analyzed and their classical morphometry and morphography are presented. For comparison, data from Bronze Age assemblages of extreme northeastern Europe and western Siberia, Early Iron Age sacred places, and ethnographic evidence is included.The author offers two most plausible interpretations for the Korotaikha 1979/3, —1979/4 sites by their activity type in the Bronze Age: cemeteries with above-ground burials and sanctuaries. That some traces and remains of different types of irrational practices may eventually be combined on the same site cannot be excluded. In any case, the extended series of the same types of artefacts are significant. Taking into account further research, they may become reference types for the Bronze Age of northeastern Europe.

Погребения эпохи поздней бронзы из курганов группы «Клин» у с. Глиное на левобережье Нижнего Днестра

Author(s): Sergey D. Lysenko,Sergey N. Razumov,Vitalii S. Sinika,Nicolai P. Telnov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 2/2024

The paper publishes and analyzes for the first time the burials of the Late Bronze Age discovered in the barrows of the “Klin” group near the Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The studied graves can be attributed to the Dnieper-Prut Babino and Sabatinvka cultures. These materials continue the series of publications addressing funerary sites of the Late Bronze Age from the vicinity of the Glinoe village, and let us talk about the continuity of funeral traditions in the region throughout the Middle and Late Bronze Age. All graves were radiocarbon dated. Two post-Catacomb burials are of particular interest. One of them (Glinoe/Klin 1/6) was accompanied by a Babino-type vessel with pictograms supposedly reproducing the “basic Indo-European myth.” The second grave (Glinoe/Klin 1/2), with the skeleton lying extended on the back and accompanied by a turnip-shaped vessel, should probably be attributed to the “Eupatoria group” of the Babino cultural circle.

Раннобронзова керамична паница от колекцията на музея при Археологическия резерват „Тракийски и античен град Кабиле“

Author(s): Petar Minkov,Borislava Pavlova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

This publication is focused on the study of a single, but very interesting object – a ceramic bowl unearthed during the excavations at the “Thracian and Ancient City of Kabile” Archaeological Reserve. The characteristics of the vessel clearly distinguish it from the ceramic assemblage made by hand, and refer it to the time of the Hellenistic era of the 4th–3rdcenturies BC. The aim of the study is to clarify the chronology of the vessel, as well as to point out its parallels. The vessel presented in the study illustrates a detail of the interregional contacts between the Upper Thracе and Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age. In the last two decades, this tendency has been substantiated empirically through the recognition and inclusion in scientific circulation of imported objects or those that represent local imitations of objects of Anatolian and/or Aegean origin. Specifically for the Yambol/Kabile area, this is one of the few – and still isolated – artefacts with a marked Anatolian origin. It may fit in with observations of a two-way corridor transfer of objects, goods and populations (?) through some of the modern Aytos and Karnobat passes across the eastern divisions of the Balkan Mountains. Examples of this comprise both individual objects, and also burial structures situated along the presumed route connecting the territories located on both sides of the Balkan Mountains.

Spasavanje savskih žrtava od zaborava i negiranja: Istorija i sećanje na poslednje ustaške zločine u Sisku

Author(s): Jovan Byford / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2023

The article explores the history and memory of the last Ustasha crime in Sisak; the massacre perpetrated on the banks of the river Sava on 4 May 1945, on the eve of the Ustasha withdrawal from the city. Although the victims of this massacre – known locally as “Sava victims” – became a visible object of public remembrance in Sisak after the war, no scholarly works have ever been published on the event, and memorialisation was accompanied by a striking lack of interest in the identities of the victims, or the facts of what happened to them. This article is an attempt to explain and counter this longstanding tradition of neglect and answer, for the first time, key questions about who the victims were, how many were killed and why. Examining the story of the Sisak massacre is important because, since the 1970s, there has been speculation that bodies discovered on the banks of the Sava were victims not of an Ustasha massacre, but of Partisan revenge killings perpetrated after the liberation of Sisak. This revisionist interpretation has gained traction in Croatia since the 1990s, and even some mainstream Croatian historians have suggested that, due to the paucity of historical evidence about the crime, the revisionists' views cannot be dismissed outright. The paper critically examines this argument, and by illuminating the facts of the case, hopes to provide some much-needed clarity. Also, in mapping the events in Sisak in the final weeks of the war, the article demonstrates that the massacre on the banks of the Sava in Sisak was not an isolated event. There were other crimes committed in and around Sisak in the final weeks of the war, crimes which are very much part of the story of the “Sava victims”, yet which were until now completely unknown. Among them are one of the last massacres of Serbs by the Ustasha, and what is probably the final act of the Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia. The article brings to light these previously unknown crimes and reveals the identities of the victims.

Animal Mummies in the Collections of the National Museum in Krakow and the Princes Czartoryski Museum

Author(s): Dorota Gorzelany-Nowak,Jarosław Wilczyński / Language(s): English Issue: 27/2023

The collections of the National Museum in Krakow and the Princes Czartoryski Museum include four Egyptian animal mummies, whose radiological and tomographic examinations were carried out twice, in 1999 and 2021, in the Department of Radiology of the Jagiellonian University Medical College. The paper will present two aspects of the examinations, crucial for the knowledge of the artifacts. On the one hand, these are provenience research that allow to determine the history of the acquisition for the collection of both museums. On the other hand, medical examinations provided the answer to the question about the authenticity and value of the objects. Images of the inside of the mummies allowed to correlate the shape of the mummies with the animal species – in our case, a cat, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel – and to clarify the biological data on birds. X-rays also revealed the imitation of the ichneumon mummy, which, considering the species of the animal and the history of its acquisition for the Princes Czartoryski Museum, had always been a unique specimen among Egyptian artifacts.

Dating of Three Sasanian Bowls from the National Museum of Iran: An X-Ray Fluorescence and Spectroscopic Analysis

Author(s): Daryoosh Akbarzadeh,Shiba Khadir / Language(s): English Issue: 27/2023

Three Sasanian Silver Bowls at the National Museum of Iran, known collectively as the “dancer-musician scenes,” have been considered as one of the museum’s most iconic works for the past 70 years. Only bowl No. 1 has been examined by numerous Western and Iranian scholars. Based on the catalog of the exhibition “7000 Years of Iranian Art Exhibition” in Vienna (2001-2002), these dishes have been tentatively dated to 8-9th centuries CE. All subsequent exhibitions have followed the same pattern. In addition, the dark heart-shaped decorations on two dishes have been called minā (enameling) in most of the previous publications. The importance of these three bowls (and also the famous Sasanian silver cup) has been the main reason for their selection for technical analysis, X-Ray fluorescence (XRF), and spectroscopy. However, a well-known Sasanian cup (called also “a silver musician-dancer” piece) was only subjected to a semi-quantitative investigation using XRF analysis. The XRF has been extremely helpful in determining a more exact dating for the three bowls indicated above, but it has also raised serious concerns about the dark heartshaped embellishments. Moreover, the dating of the artifacts has been called into doubt by an XRF study of Arabo-Sasanian coins (early Islamic periods) and a comparison of the metal compounds of these objects with those of the three dishes. Additionally, the authors of the present article have proposed niello for the dark ornamentation on the bowls based on these two technical evaluations. Indeed, spectroscopy was not able to answer the main question about the heart-shaped decorations on bowls No. 1 & No. 2, but it has opened a new venue to challenge the term minā, which was widely used in printed works. However, these two chemical analyses expose the possibility that the items may have been created in a workshop of the same artist (or a group of artists).

Погребения начала раннего железного века в курганах юга Восточной Европы (метаструктура памятников)

Author(s): Sergey B. Valchak / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2024

The article explores the secondary burials of Bronze Age mounds in the steppe zone of southern Eastern Europe, dating back to the pre-Scythian period. It is established, based on summaries of funerary sites published by various researchers and collected by the author, that entrance burials of the pre-Scythian period are found discreetly in various burial mounds and also form small groups in some of them. The known burials are systematized by localization and number of burials in the burial mound group, as well as their topography in a single burial mound (group). This systematization revealed that burials of the pre-Scythian period can form stable groups of several burials connected by both vertical (tiers) and horizontal stratigraphy in a single mound. The analysis suggests a hypothesis about the non-random nature of these findings, the territorial localization of certain groups of the pre-Scythian population of the steppe, and the connection of this phenomenon with periods of relative stability in the life of nomadic communities during the pre-Scythian period of the early Iron Age.

Погребения предскифского времени кургана Волхонские Выселки на Верхнем Дону

Author(s): Andrey S. Zheludkov,Tatyana A. Puzanova,Alexey A. Kulichkov,Sergey V. Vasilyev,Svetlana B. Borutskaya / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2024

The paper presents and analyzes materials obtained from the study of three burials dating back to the pre-Scythian era in the Volkhonskiye Vyselki barrow, located in the north of the Don forest-steppe. Burials from the very beginning of the Early Iron Age are uncommon in this region, making each site more scientifically valuable. All three graves are let into the southern semicircle of the barrow, which was constructed during the Bronze Age. One of these may have been a paired burial (of two women), while the other two (male) were single. Two burials were placed in pits covered with wood, while the structure for the third burial is unknown. Surviving grave goods include four stucco vessels, two grain graters, and fourteen birch bark beads. The authors present results of the technical and technological analysis of ceramics and data from the anthropological study. Based on radiocarbon dating, the burials are estimated to have taken place during the second half of the 8th — the first half of the 7th centuries BC.