Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 42 (2) 2014

Annotation:  Pleistocene Environments of the Northwestern Altai: Vegetation and Climate Early Upper Paleolithic Assemblages from the Japanese Islands: A Case Study from the Musashino Uplan Studying the Forms of Ancient Ware: Theoretical and Practical Aspects A Morphological Analysis of Vessels from Middle Bronze Age (Early 2nd Millennium BC) Burials at Veng Dendrochronological Dating of Buildings in the Central Part of the Residential Area at the Staroturu Bronze Age Animal Figurines from the Taiga Zone of the Ob Region Kurgans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz at the Chineta II Burial Ground in the Altai The Origin of A-frame Carts in the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia The Dolgaya-1 Site and the Novoromanovo Rock Art Gallery: A Tentative Interpretation with Regard to Cultivated Plants of the Bohai Population of Primorye According to Archaeobotanical Data Wood Painting Tradition of the Upper Vychegda Komi in the Late 19th – First Quarter of the 20th Cent Wedding Food of Germans Living in Siberia: Symbols and Signs Buccal Dental Microwear and Diet of the Sunghir Upper Paleolithic Modern Humans Dental Palaeopathological Analysis of the Eneolithic-Early Iron Age Populations from the Minusinsk B   

Kurgans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz at the Chineta II Burial Ground in the Altai

P.K. Dashkovskiy.

This study focuses on the results of excavations of the Kyrgyz burial mounds at Chineta II, northwestern Altai. Local burials in this region are cremations accompanied by weapons, belt sets, and horse harness. They represent two stages of the local variant of the Kyrgyz culture – Yakonur (late 9th – early 10th centuries) and Ak-Tash (late 10th – 11th centuries). The fi ndings demonstrate contact between the Kyrgyz immigrants and the Altai natives. At the Yakonur stage, they appeared to have coexisted peacefully, given that in the 9th–10th centuries Turks were allies of the Kyrgyz in their wars against the Uighurs. At the late stage, the nature of relationships changed, as evidenced by an intrusive Kyrgyz burial in a Srostki kurgan. This may be due to either hostility or to loss of knowledge about the ethnic attribution of the mound. If the latter is true, the Kyrgyz settlement of the Altai in the 11th century was not permanent.

Keywords: Kyrgyz, Siberia, Central Asia, Middle Ages, ethnopolitical processes, burial rite, cremation, weapon, horse harness.