Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (1) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.1.044-052

Annotation:  The Peopling of Uzbekistan by Homo sapiens denisovan Microblade Production in the Sukhotino-4 Industry, Eastern Transbaikalia Masks and Sculptured Human Heads in Early Neolithic Complexes of Northern Mesopotamia Shell of Tritia nitida Sea Snail from a Neolithic Burial at the Ust-Aleyka-5 Flat Burial Ground, Bar A Neolithic Burial in the Northern Upper Ob Basin A Study of Seima-Turbino Bronze Artifacts Discovered in China Metal Production of Andronovo Communities and Farmers of Central Asia and Iran: Stages of Developme Antimony Ornaments, Votive and Ritual Items of the Koban Culture in the Caucasus as a Historical So Burial of a Warrior in the Pazyryk Mound at Khankharinsky Dol, Altai A Tes Stage Mound-Vault at Skalnaya-5, Khakassia “Angular” and “Trestle” Forts in 17th to Early 18th Century Russia Ritual Structures in the Volga and Ural Regions, Based on Findings of the Peter Simon Pallas Expedit A Relative in Bearskin: The Bear in Lower Amur Folk Beliefs Reminiscences of Traditional Prayer Rituals in Modern Udmurt Culture Digital Forensic Analysis of Tooth Wear in Prehistoric and Modern Humans   

Shell of Tritia nitida Sea Snail from a Neolithic Burial at the Ust-Aleyka-5 Flat Burial Ground, Barnaul Stretch of the Ob

V.B. Borodaev¹, K.Y. Kiryushin², D.V. Kuzmenkin³, I.V. Tolpeko⁴, R.V. Davydov⁵, and A.Y. Fedorchenko⁵

¹Altai State Pedagogical University, Molodezhnaya 55, Barnaul, 656031, Russia

²Altai State University, Pr. Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

³Tigirek State Natural Reserve, Nikitina 111, Barnaul, 656043, Russia

⁴Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Pr. Mira 55a, Omsk, 644077, Russia

⁵Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We present the findings of a multidisciplinary study of burial 2 at Ust-Aleyka-5 on the Upper Ob. In 1982, an upright burial of a child with abundant funerary offerings (lithic artifacts, ornaments made of bones and teeth of mammals, shells of Unio bivalves) was unearthed. We focus on a find unique in the region—the shell of a sea snail Tritia nitida, a gastropod, which, at present, lives in the Mediterranean, Black, and Azov seas. The Raman spectroscopy analysis of a mineral pigment detected on the shell allowed us to identify it as red ocher. Similar traces were found on dropshaped pendants made of bone, antler or deer teeth, and on fossil shells of Unio aff. tumidus. On the basis of AMS analysis, burial 2 dates to the mid- or late 4th millennium BC. The T. nitida shell indicates ties (likely indirect ones) of the Barnaul stretch of the Ob to the Black Sea region.

Keywords: Neolithic, child burial, marine mollusk, Tritia nitida shell, Barnaul stretch of the Ob, Raman spectroscopy