Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (3) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.3.055-067

Annotation:  New Dental Finds Associated with the Paleolithic Selenga Culture, Western Trans-Baikal Region The “Kalgutinsky” Style in the Rock Art of Central Asia Technical and Social Innovations: A New Field of Research The Ishkinino Bronze Age Mining Complex in the Southern Urals: Radiocarbon Dating An Early Iron Age Foundry at Kargat-4, Southwestern Siberia Sibirskoye I: A Late Irmen Site on the Irtysh Steppe Cultural Interaction Patterns in the Bronze Age: Ritual Bronze Artifacts from Korea and Japan An Early Iron Age Camp of Reindeer Hunters in the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra, Nenets Autonomous Okrug The Bear Cult and Kurgans of the Scythian Elite An Early Jurchen Text Among Rock Representations Near the Arkhara River in the Amur Basin (History, Evidence Relating to the Christian Missions in the Trans-Urals and Northwestern Siberia (8th to 16th Ivan Lepyokhin’s Expedition to the Middle Volga Mordvins in Western Siberia in the Late 19th to Early 20th Century: Certain Issues in the Migration The Buryats: Ethno-Social Development and Post-Soviet Transformations (Based on the 2017 Opinion Pol A Multidisciplinary Study of Egyptian Mummies from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Methodical Secular Dynamics of Body Height and Weight in Russian Children Aged 0–17   

Sibirskoye I: A Late Irmen Site on the Irtysh Steppe

A.Y. Trufanov¹ and L.N. Mylnikova²

¹Research and Analytical Center of Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Problems (“AV KOM – Heritage”), Tokarey 24A, off. 9–22, Yekaterinburg, 620028, Russia

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

This article describes the findings at Sibirskoye I, a Late Bronze to Early Iron Age site in the steppe part of the Irtysh basin. The history of its excavations is outlined. A detailed description of its ceramics, including sherd accumulations and fragments of 44 vessels, is provided. We analyze paste composition, provenance of clay, and temper. The principal raw material was high-quality western Siberian montmorillonite and hydromicaceous clay. The temper, preventing cracks and waste, consisted of grog, sand, and organic matter. Shaping techniques are described. On the basis of their proportions, groups of vessels are established, and their decoration is analyzed. Decorative motifs combine those typical of the Late Irmen pottery, and those denoting the Irmen and Krasnoozerska cultures. The Sibirskoye I ceramics are paralleled by those from Om-1 and Chicha-1. Certain categories of ware are imported. The planigraphy and the distribution of ceramics suggest that this was a ritual site. The ceramics and the site as a whole were attributed to the Late Irmen culture, dating to the transitional stage from the Late Bronze to the Early Iron Age. Sibirskoye I is the westernmost Irmen site—the first one discovered on the Irtysh. Judging from parallels with sites having a reliable chronology, we date it to 900-700/600 BC.

Keywords: Ritual site, Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, ceramics, Irtysh steppe