Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 39 (2) 2011

Annotation:  Three Scenarios of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition. Scenario 3: The Middle to Upper Paleo Use of Ulan-Khada Bay at Lake Baikal in the Holocene (Based on Fauna Remains) Mollusk Shells from Burials of Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 as Indicators of Ethno-Cultural Processes in Sout Silver Horse Harness Adornments from Suzukteh Burial Mound 20 (Noin Ula, Mongolia) Bystry Kulyogan-38 – Bronze Age Fortifi ed Dwelling in the Surgut Ob Area The Early Neolithic Pottery of the Volga-Ural Region (Based on the Materials of the Elshanka Culture The Technology of the Yamnaya (Pit Grave) Ceramic Production and its Relevance to the Population His Bakal Culture Dwelling at Settlement Ust-Tersyuk-1 Middle East Architectural Traditions in Golden Horde Mansion Construction ETHNOLOGY Brightness and Asceticism in the Clothing of the Uimon Kerzhak Women (20th and Early 21st Century) Who Are the Yakut Khorolors? (A Contribution to the Issue of Ethnic Identifi cation) Ethnic Demography of Western Siberia at the End of the 20th Century   

Mollusk Shells from Burials of Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 as Indicators of Ethno-Cultural Processes in Southern Siberia and Western Central Asia in the 3rd Millennium BC

Yu.F. Kiryushin, K.Yu. Kiryushin, A.V. Schmidt, D.V. Kuzmenkin, and M.T. Abdulganeyev .

This article focuses on adornments made of mollusk shells from graves of the Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 burial ground in the Altai Territory. The collection includes bivalve shells: Corbicula ferghanensis Kurs. et Star. currently inhabiting the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins; Corbicula tibetensis Prash. inhabiting the mountain regions of Central Asia, Eastern Kazakhstan, and the Amu Darya and Syr Darya basins; fossil Corbicula similar to Corbicula fl uminalis Mull; swan mussel of the genus Colletopterum inhabiting the Ob basin; and one specimen of Cardiidae sp. of the marine, probably, paleospecies. The most interesting are ancient marine tooth shells related to the genus Dentalium (class Scaphopoda, family Dentaliidae). In the Altai Territory, there are no such deposits that could have contained such shells. These shells were possibly brought by people from other regions. The closest occurrences of Dentaliidae are known in the Aral Sea region. The presence of beads of a truncated cone shape made of Dentalium shells as well as pendants made of Corbicula valves suggest connections between the Altai population and people inhabiting Western Central Asia. These connections might have existed in the form of direct contacts with bearers of the Ust-Narym and Botai cultures or else might have been the result of migration of people from Western Central Asia and Eastern Kazakhstan to the Altai.

Keywords: Burial, shells, bivalves, tooth shells, Corbicula, Colletopterum, Dentalium, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Bronze Age