Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (1) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.108-118

Annotation:  Findings from the Paleolithic Studies in Siberia The Earliest Paleolithic Assemblages from Denisova Cave in the Altai Upper Paleolithic of the Yenisey: New Discoveries, Old Debates Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis The Most Important Archaeological Discoveries Relating to the Neolithic to Early Iron Age Cultures o Possibilities of Direct Dating of Rock Art in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin On the Chronological Position of Siba Culture Metal Artifacts, Northwest China The Current Model of Historical and Cultural Processes in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the Ob-Irtysh The Pazyryk Dwelling D.G. Messerschmidt’s Collection of Siberian Antiquities in Drawings at the St. Petersburg Archive of The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin A Study of Silk Fabric from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Origin and Evolution of the Earliest Iron-Smelting Technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin “D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups” Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–   

The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin

I.P. Lazaretov¹, A.V. Poliakov¹, V.M. Lurye¹,and P.B. Amzarakov²

¹Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18A, St. Petersburg, 191186, Russia

²ANO “Archaeology of Khakassia”, Prigorsk 6B, office 15, Chernogorsk, 655156, Russia

Based on the most recent excavation findings, this article discusses a disputable group of burials, previously believed to represent the Bainov stage of the Tagar culture (900-700 BC) in the Minusinsk Basin. Analysis of these burials unambiguously supports I.P. Lazaretov’s idea that they fall into two independent and unrelated groups. One of them continues Late Bronze Age traditions, whereas the other demonstrates new features exclusively associated with the Tagar culture. Most complexes of the Bainov type represent the final stage in the evolution of Late Bronze Age traditions. This is evidenced by various categories of grave goods, features of burial structures, and the funerary rite. These burials can be attributed to stage IV of the Late Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin. The second, smaller group reveals entirely new features, typical of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. These include novel structural features in kurgan architecture, different female funerary attire, and the custom of placing weapons in graves. This attests to the arrival of a new population group with its own traditions, resulting in the emergence of a Scythian type culture on the Middle Yenisey. These burials should be attributed to the beginning of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. Hopefully, future studies will help to separate out a special late group of Bainov burials, contemporaneous with the early Podgornoye kurgans. Currently, it is possible to discern certain features suggesting that this population took part in the origin of the Tagar culture.

Keywords: Minusinsk Basin, Middle Yenisey, Late Bronze Age, Tagar culture, Bainov stage, Podgornoye stage