Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (1) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.1.073-082

Annotation:  The Loess-Paleosol Sequence at the Krasnogorskoye Section, the Low-Hill Zone of the Northeastern Alt The Early Neolithic Complex on the Tartas-1 Site: Results of the AMS Radiocarbon Dating Water and Cosmology in the Stone Age of Northeastern Europe Turning Points in Horse Breeding in the Eurasian Steppes and the Near East The Study of Middle Bronze Age Interments at Khanghah Gilavan: Tentative Results The Petrovka Bronze Age Sites: Issues in Taxonomy and Chronology A Comparative Study of the Layout of Bronze Age Fortifi ed Settlements in the Southern Urals (3rd to Early Iron Age Pyramidal Kurgans in Western Siberia The Xiongnu Gold from Noin-Ula (Mongolia) Geophysical Studies at the Horogoru Fortifi ed Settlement in South Korea Medieval Sites of Tara Region, the Irtysh Basin: Origin, Chronology, Cultural and Ethnic Attribution A Central Asian Helmet from the Northern Kazakhstan Regional Museum The 18th-Century Udmurt Women’s Outfi ts Depicted in J.P. Falk’s Book: Interpretation and Attributio Wearing Folk Costumes as a Mimetic Practice in Russian Ethnographic Field Studies Types of Winter Clothing Worn by Descendants of the Russian Pioneers in Siberia (Late 19th to Early Long-Bone Growth in the Bronze Age Skeletal Population of Gonur-Depe, Turkmenistan   

Early Iron Age Pyramidal Kurgans in Western Siberia

N.P. Matveeva

Tyumen State University, Volodarskogo 6, Tyumen, 625003, Russia

Ditches encircling the Early Iron Age Sargatka kurgans in the Western Siberian forest-steppe are described. Most of these are nonagonal, decagonal, or dodecagonal; but hexagonal, heptagonal, octagonal, and those with 14 angles occur as well. The kurgans'shapes are not correlated with size, platform diameter, or number of graves. The analysis of data regarding the microrelief of kurgans' surfaces, as well as of sources relevant to early nomadic religion, enables us to interpret various types of ditches. The hexa- or heptagonal type encircled a wooden and earthen pyramid, presumably symbolizing the World Mountain. Those with 9, 12, and 14 angles result from a proportionally larger size of elite kurgan. Indeed, inside such kurgans, hexa- or heptagonal wooden platforms are found. Unclosed ditches likely indicate unfinished kurgans, and 11-angled and 13-angled fences are interpreted as distortions of the initial layout by secondary burials. Ditches are associated only with male burials, and were apparently meant to protect against evil forces and against the possible intrusion of potentially hostile ancestors, whose cult was reconstructed on the basis of the offerings in elite burials. The architecture of the Sargatka kurgans evidences remnants of Indo-European myths transformed by inter-ethnic contacts and cultural innovations on the periphery of the Scytho-Siberian world.

Keywords: Early Iron Age, Sargatka culture, Scytho-Siberian nomads, kurgan architecture, polygonal ditches, semantics