Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (2) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.2.069-076

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An Assemblage from a Medieval Burial
at Lake Parisento, Gydan Peninsula, the Arctic Zone
of Western Siberia

A.V. Gusev¹, A.V. Plekhanov¹, and Y.A. Podosenova²

¹Arctic Research Center, Respubliki 73, Salekhard, 629008, Russia

²Perm Federal Research Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Lenina 13?, Perm, 614990, Russia

This article introduces an assemblage from a child burial discovered in 2016 in the central Gydan Peninsula, Tazovsky District, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Little is known about the archaeological past of Arctic Western Siberia, and these finds are relevant to the study of the medieval period of that area. Medieval burials were studied only in the adjacent peninsula of Yamal. The discovery of the burial is described in detail. It was exposed by soil eolation. Artifacts were redeposited, and virtually the entire skeleton was missing. In a lump of soil stuck to the metal bowl, a few bone fragments and hair were found. Their analysis suggests that the individual was an infant aged 1-3. The assemblage includes an imported bronze bowl, the bronze haft of a knife, a scabbard, and a silver earring. The bowl, made of tin bronze, was apparently manufactured in eastern Iran or Central Asia in the 10th or 11th century. The haft and the scabbard, judging by the type and technology, belonged to a category of artifacts that were common in the Lower Ob basin, the southern Yamal, and the Urals in the late first and early second millennia. On the basis of the results of X-ray fluorescence analysis, we assess the chemical composition of the metal of which all those artifacts are made. The decorated fragment of a clay vessel is attributed to the Tiutey-Sale variant (800-1300 AD) of the Lower Ob culture. The totality of indicators suggests a date for the burial of between 900 and 1100 AD. We conclude that the tundra areas of the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas were simultaneously colonized by migrants from the forest-tundra and the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia.

Keywords: Gydan Peninsula, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Middle Ages, metal bowl, bronze knife haft, scabbard, X-ray fluorescence analysis