Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 45 (2) 2017   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.2.078-086

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Newly Discovered Bronze Artifacts of the Scythian Period
from Archekas Mountain, Kuznetsk Alatau

V.V. Bobrov^1–3 and L.Y. Bobrova¹

¹Kemerovo State University, Krasnaya 6, Kemerovo, 650043, Russia

²Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

³Institute of Human Ecology, Federal Research Center of Coal and Coal Chemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sovetsky pr. 18, Kemerovo, 650000, Russia

The borderland between the West Siberian Plain and the Kuznetsk-Salair mountain region is a narrow strip of the Mariinsk forest-steppe, which was a transit and contact area between two ancient cultural centers: that of the Upper Ob and the Middle Yenisei. Archaeological finds from this area are especially interesting. One of the important geographic features of the Mariinsk forest-steppe is Archekas Mountain. About a dozen archaeological sites on this mountain date to the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. In October 2015, several bronze items were found there: a cauldron, four arrowheads, a “mirror”, a deer figurine, and a dagger, whose handle is decorated in the Scytho-Siberian style. All items are cast of tin bronze; a small amount of arsenic is also present in certain cases. This article describes the context and the location of the finds, the items, and their cultural affinities. Despite the generally Scythian appearance of all the artifacts and the wide distribution area of their parallels, it is shown that the assemblage belongs to the Tagar culture and, by Tagar standards, should date to 600–400 BC. However, the artifacts resemble those manufactured in the forest-steppe periphery and were probably custom-made for the Kulai people of the taiga zone. If so, they must belong to a later period, and fall within the 400–200 BC interval. The analysis of assemblages with cauldrons has allowed us to assume that the Archekas assemblage was ritual, associated with a sanctuary.

Keywords: Siberia, Early Iron Age, daggers, cauldrons, arrowheads, Tagar culture, Kulai culture, Scytho-Siberian animal style.