Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (2) 2009

Annotation:  Evolution of the Quaternary Environment in the Northwestern Altai Kostenki-4: The Position of Artifacts in Space and Time (the Analysis of the Cultural Layer) Stratigraphic Data on Middle Paleolithic Sites in the Upper Desna Basin Human-made Bedrock Holes (Mortars and Cupmarks) as a Late Natufi an Social Phenomenon Tsaram: A Burial Ground of the Hsiung-nu Elite in Transbaikalia Species Attribution of Hair of the Pazyryk Fur Coat from the Olon-Kurin-Gol-10 Burial Ground, Mongo Shaitanskoye Ozero II: New Aspects of the Uralian Bronze Age Yankovsky Economics: Animal Bones from 1st Millennium BC Settlements in Primorye, Russian Far East “Technical Decoration” of the Tripolye Ceramics On the Interpretation of Central Asian and South Siberian Rock Art Forms of Nomadism and Livestock Management of the Eastern Sayan Buryats in the Late 19th and Early Harvesting of Siberian Pine Nuts in Mountain Shoria: Traditions and Nowadays The Ethnic History of Medieval Novgorod (Based on Craniometric Data) Seliungur Teeth Revisited L.K. Gudkova.   

Shaitanskoye Ozero II: New Aspects of the Uralian Bronze Age

Y.B. Serikov, O.N. Korochkova, S.V. Kuzminykh, and V.I. Stefanov.

The present article describes materials from the ritual site of Shaitanskoye Ozero II, Sverdlovsk Oblast. Two excavations carried out at the site measuring less than 100 sq. m in size, yielded more than 130 bronze artifacts: utensils, weapons, rolled copper ornaments, and abundant smelting and casting waste. Apart from Seima-Turbino (celts and laminar knives) and Eurasian types (daggers with cast hilts, truncated knives with guards, fl uted bracelets and rings), several metal artifacts were revealed manufactured in the style of the Samus-Kizhirovo tradition. Bronze artifacts, stone knives and scrapers, and numerous arrowheads are accompanied by ceramics of the Koptyaki type. The bronze is mostly stannic. This assemblage is shown to be relevant to the local tradition of metalworking, which, in this particular region, was comparatively ancient having been left uninterrupted by the rapid migrations of the Seima-Turbino people. In addition, the assemblage indicates the sources from which post-Seima artifacts reached the Alakul people. These artifacts may also have been linked with a large metalworking center located in the Middle Urals.

Keywords: Bronze Age, Urals, Seima-Turbino, Samus-Kizhirovo, metalworking, Koptyaki culture, ritual sites.