Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (4) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.4.114-118

Annotation:  Early Upper Paleolithic Tubular Beads from the Main Chamber of Denisova Cave Stoilo—A Paleolithic Site in the Southern Angara Region, Siberia Stone Age Ivory Points from the Arctic Zone of Northeast Asia An Early Neolithic Bone and Antler Industry of Rakushechny Yar on the Lower Don: Technological Strat Rock Art of the Ana Zaga Cave Shelter in the Archaeological Landscape of Gobustan, Azerbaijan The Russian Archaeological Project in South America: Principal Findings and Prospects Chronology of Rock Art of the Russian and Mongolian Altai: From the Paleolithic to the Late Middle A Lobed Ware in the Far East from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages Wooden Paddles from the Nizhny Tagil Museum-Reserve of Mining and Metallurgy in the Urals Spatial Distribution of Finds on the Eastern Outskirts of Poltse I, the Amur Region Contents of an Early Byzantine Amphora from Kruglaya Bay, the Black Sea Shift of the Yenisei and Abakan Beds as Reasons for Constructing the Second Abakan Fort in 1707 Corvids in the Buryat Traditional Worldview The Old Believers’ Churchyard: Semiotics of Cultural Space (The Case of the Ust-Tsilma Old Believers A Case of Surgical Treatment of Lower Molars in a Mesolithic Sample from a Cemetery on the Yuzhny Ol Origin of the Andronovans: A Statistical Approach   

Shift of the Yenisei and Abakan Beds
as Reasons for Constructing the Second Abakan Fort in 1707

S.G. Skobelev

Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

The study explores the reasons behind the relocation of the construction site for Fort Abakan from the mouth of the Abakan River, as initially planned, to the right bank of the Yenisei River, between two mountains, Unyuk and Turan. The shift of sand ridges, damming these rivers and changing their beds, is examined, and the locations of the projected forts are described. Written sources suggest that the Abakan and Yenisei beds as related systems changed their positions simultaneously, likely between 1691 and 1697 and definitely no earlier than 700-400 BC. Modern hydrological data suggest that processes that occurred in the region in the Early Modern Age were essentially like those that occurred in the Early Iron Age. The earlier date of the Abakan bed’s change is evidenced by the destruction of the 1st millennium BC Tagar sites near Sartykov village on the Abakan. At present, the Yenisei makes an abrupt eastward turn in that place, following the general direction of rivers in the region. D.A. Klements’s idea that after leaving the Western Sayan canyon, the Yenisei had flowed westwards is rejected. The change of location for the prospective fort was caused by the evolution of riverine systems of Western Siberia, specifically by the shift in the Abakan bed.

Keywords: Yenisei Region, 18th century, second Abakan and Sayan forts, construction locations, unsuitability of projected locations, relocation of construction sites, hydrological factors