Available Volumes	Price
Vol. 1, 1998	$28
Vol. 1, 1999	$28
Vol. 2, 1999	$28
Vols. 3-4, 1999	$28
Vol. 1, 2000	$28
Vol. 2, 2000	$28
Vols. 3-4, 2000	$28
Vols. 1-2, 2001	$28

 

 

Table of Contents

Editorial note 4

Tribes and Peoples 6

Gurkin S.V. On the Kypchaks' and Kimaks' Ancestors 6

Articles, Publications, Notes 24

Vinogradova Ye.A. Upper Palaeolithic Settlements Planning: the Ancient Relief and the Household Structure of the Site 24

Gulyayev V.I.  . Where Amazons Lived 38

Goncharova L. Yn Iconographic Aspects of the Beast Style of the Forest-Steppe Don Land between the 5th — Early 3rd centuries B.C. 51

Potapov V.V.  River Smela Sites Referred to the End of the Late Bronze Age 62

Kravchenko E.Ye., Shamrai A.V.  Khazar Time Burial Sites with Flasks from the Donetsk Region 70

Vysotskaya T.N. Rare Amphorae Types from Burial Ground Sovkhoz No. 10 (Sevastopol'sky) 83

Irmler B. Tanais: Aspects of Topographical Development of the Settlement 93

Balabanova M.A.  Craniological Characteristics of the Golden Horde Azak Population 99

From the History of Don-land Archaeology 110

Grinanko L.O. Count A.A.Bobrinsky's Letter about the

North Caucasian Antiquities 110

Archaeological Masterpieces 114

Kravets V.V., Berezutsky V.D., Boikov A.A Burials of the Golden Horde Nomadic Nobility of the Vysokaya Gora Barrow Group of the Voronezh Region South 114

Pyankov ?.V.  The Bronze Rider of Stanitsa Atamanskaya, Krasnodar Territory 128

Ilyukov L.S.  Two Silver Phalerae of Novocherkassk Don-Land Cossacks History Museum 133

Archaeological Mysteries 136

Zdorov A.A. Where from Have Giants Come? 136

Tsimidanov V.V. The Srubny Cups Mystery 142

Anniversaries 149

Critical Essays and Bibliography 151

Current News 160

In Memory of the Scientist 163

Abbreviations 171

Contents 175

Summary

S.V.GURKIN
On the Kypchaks’ and Kimaks’ Ancestors
   This article analyses the early ethnopolitical history (middle of the V – middle of the IX centuries) of the Kypchaks and Kimaks, the people known in the history of Europe under the name of Polovitsians or Kumans. Kypchaks were one of the well-known medieval nomadic tribes, who spoke a Turkic language and inhabited, before the Mongol-Tartar invasion, vast steppe lands from the Irtysh river in the east to the Danube in the west, these tribes named Desht-i-Kypchak. They had left a notable trace not only in the history of Eurasian steppes, they also produced a great influence upon the development of many early feudal old-world nations.
    In recent decades scientists have proved that the ethnicon kypchak, first mentioned in the text carved on the ‘Selenginsky stone’ (760), corresponds to the ethnicon sir of the Old Turkic runic inscriptions. The tribal union of sirs is known in the early medieval Chinese chronicles under the name seyan’to.
    The Tele tribal union seyan’to (sirs) leading a nomads’ life in two large subdivisions (in Dzungaria and in Khangai), was first a part of the Zhuzhan, and then the I Turkic kaganates. In 630, after the Turkic power had perished, they created their own kaganate, which was crushed in 646 by Tan China and the Uigurs. Trying to elude the pursuit of their winners, seyanto changed their tribal name sirs to kypchaks (‘ill-fated’) and generally migrated to the upper Irtysh and East Kazakhstan steppes.
    The early ethnopolitical history of the Kypchaks is closely connected with the tribal union of the Kimaks. Traditional in Russian and foreign historiography became an opinion that the Kimaks and Kypchaks were one and the same people, the Kypchaks forming the western branch of the Kimaks. However the analysis of the written sources shows that this hypothesis is wrong.
    The tribal union known in the Arabic and Persian sources as the Kimaks, corresponds to the Chinese name kumosi (kumokhi, si, khi). They belonged to the syan’bi branch of the Mongol-speaking tribes of the dunkhu group and lead nomadic life in the Big Khimgan Area and Northeast Mongolia. They first made a part of Zhuanzhuan, then the I and II Turkic and Uigur kaganates.
    As a result of several migratory waves, by the middle of the IX century A.D. most Kypchaks and Kimaks had settled at the Irtysh lands and East Kazakhstan steppes.
 
Ye.A.VINOGRADOVA
Upper Palaeolithic Settlements Planning: the Ancient Relief and the Household Structure of the Site
   The peculiarities of the inhabited area relief were often used by the ancient encampment inhabitants to carry out definite household activities. Examples of how natural cavities were employed, have been revealed at the Upper paleolithic site named Kamennaya Balka II (Rostov Region).
    A bed of a small ancient gully in the western part and a natural cavity in the eastern part of the site were found there. These cavities are not traced in today’s relief of the cape.
    The cavity and the bed of the ancient gully contained isolated objects, which included hearths, humified patches and ash patches, small pits with buried bones and significant accumulations of flint finds. The fact of availability of the existing analogues permit to surmise that some accumulations are living objects with the remains of light surface dwellings or wind shelters.
    Besides, the ancient buried gully was an isolated place for carrying out some household activities associated with bone working.
 
V.I.GULYAYEV
Where Amazons Lived
   In 1989 the newly formed Potudan’ complex archaeological expedition (PAE) of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Science started its research at the middle Don reaches. Originally, in accordance with the previous plan, it mainly paid attention to exploring – the search of the new and the examination of the already known antiquities. In 1992, between the villages of Ternovoye (Ostrogozhsky District) and Kolbino (Repyevsky District) of the Voronezh Region (fig.1), on a high plateau between the main bank of the Potudan’ river and an ancient deep ravine (gully Ternovaya), the expedition discovered a large barrow of more than 40 surface-visible mounds. By its location and number of mounds this barrow was most probably Scythian, which fact was confirmed by the excavations of 1993.
    Since 1993 and during 8 field seasons the expedition had been undertaking intensive research on this barrow territory. The works were of a complex character. Apart from archaeologists, they were also carried out by anthropologists, paleozoologists, paleobotanists, paleogeographers. The article tells of several most interesting and bright PAE’s discoveries.
 
L.Yu.GONCHAROVA
Iconographic Aspects of the Beast Style of the Forest-Steppe Don Land between the V – Early III centuries B.C.
   This article is an attempt to analyse a definite example of artistic and stylistic embodiment of the most general features in the beast style art of the forest-steppe Middle Don land in the 5th – early 3rd centuries B.C. and trace the process of their development. Shown are also some hypotheses on the beginnings and origin of a number of iconographic elements in the Middle Don-land zoomorphic art and its place within the system of other local variants of the beast style referred to the Scythian epoch

V.V.POTAPOV
River Smela Sites Reffered to the End of the Late Bronze Age
   This work is a publication of the sites referred to the late Bronze Age and discovered in 1989 and 1990 in the Bagayevsky District, at the right bank of the Smela river (the Manych tributary). The burial mound revealed three inlet burials of the above time containing writhed and sidelong lying skeletons. The funeral implements were a bone ornamented spindle, a goblet, a saucer. The barrow also had on its territory a settlement synchronous to these mound. Finally investigated was a small destroyed site section of about 20 sq. m. The pottery complex mainly contained pots ornamented on their shoulders and on the neck base with stuck-on cylinders, sometimes not closed.
    The burial places and settlements of the Smela river, which date from the 12th – 10th centuries B.C., add to the small number of burial and household sites of the above period found in the Lower Don basin. This group can be linked with the eastern culture block of cylinder earthenware. Besides that, confirmed is the wide dissemination of the burial southern orientation in this epoch, which possibly reflects the general religious-ideological innovations among the steppe population of Eastern Europe in the late Bronze Age.
 
E.Ye.KRAVCHENKO, A.V.SHAMRAI
 Khazar Time Burial Sites with Flasks from the Donetsk Region
   Burials with square pits are single on the territory of the Donetsk District (Ukraine). The two destroyed complexes belong to their number. One of them has been discovered near the city of Chistyakovo (now Torez), while the other one near the city of Slavyansk. Besides all, the said complexes have one fact in common, which is the availability, among other articles, of little flasks. This pottery form produced in the Crimea is rather rare for Black Sea steppe zones.
    Of special interest is the Chistyakovo complex. Here, along with harness details (a stirrup, a bit), munitions (a bludgeon), belt set details, a Black Sea amphora, a flask and other articles, met was one half of a solid (Emperor Constantine the 5th). This find is indicative of a very late age of the above burial among the “square-pit” burials.
    The analysis of the above complexes inventory composition and its comparison to the inventory of the Saltovo-Mayatskaya culture burials containing little flasks, speaks on favour of synchronism of all these burials. Their dating is determined within the framework of the second half of the VIII – early IX centuries A.D.
 
T.N.VYSOTSKAYA
Rare Amphorae Types from Burial Ground Sovkhoz N 10 (Sevastopol’sky)
   The article is a scrutiny of single amphorae from the Sovkhoz No.10 necropolis employed as mortuary urns. All of them (34 copies are under discussion) are rare items imported to the North Back Sea areas, Khersones included. The urns are dated from the first centuries A.D. It is rather difficult to specify the production of their majority more accurately. Most amphorae-urns belong to the 3rd century A.D., the time when the cremation rite reached its pea
 
B.IRMLER
Tanais: Aspects of Topographical development of the Settlement
   The article presents some results of work of the Russian-German expedition, which has been investigating the site of ancient settlement Tanais since the season of 1993. Among other objectives of the expedition is reconstruction of the settlement topography at various stages of Tanais development, as well as determination of the settlement plan as compared to other antique centres. 1:200 scale measurements of all the found wall fragments have been made, as well as a new topographical survey of the settlement undertaken. Based on these measurements and with a support of the dating of various settlement constructions proposed by archaeologists, shown are preliminary settlement plans, which correspond to several stages of its development.
 

M.A.BALABANOVA
Craniological Characteristics of the Golden Horde Azak Population
   The averaged morphological type of the Golden Horde population of Azak is defined as a massive Europeoid type. Quite distinct seem the following types: a dolichomesocranious type having Mongoloid features of face skeleton; dolicho- and mesobrachicranious Europeoid types and an equatorial craniological type.
    As compared to the synchronous urban population of the Lower Volga reaches, those people living in Azak were extremely heterogeneous and had a significant Mongoloid admixture in them. On the background of the synchronous population, the Azakians, namely the males, show resemblance to the Vodyanskoye settlement series found during the excavations of the Russian quarter, while the females show resemblance to the Bulgarian series.
 
L.O.GRINANKO
Count A.A.Bobrinsky’s Letter about the North Caucasian Antiquities
   The article is a publication of a previously unknown letter written by the Emperor Archaeological Committee Chairman, Count A.A.Bobrinsky on the prospects of archaeological investigation of the North Caucasian Territory. The letter was posted in August 1917 from Kislovodsk to Yevpatoria, to the Archaeological Committee member L.A.Moiseyev, and is kept now in the archive of the national park named Khersones Tavrichesky (the city of Sevastopol). Besides that, the article makes an attempt to reconstruct the circumstances under which the letter was written; with this aim the author quotes other archive documents referred to 1917 – 1919, which are also considered to be valuable historical evidence.

V.V.KRAVETS, V.D.BEREZUTSKY, A.A.BOIKOV
Burials of the Golden Horde Nomadic Nobility of the Vysokaya Gora Barrow Group of the Voronezh Region South
   Two burials, one male and another female, belonging to the late XIII – XIV centuries, have been discovered in the South of the Voronezh Region, at the Vysokaya Gora burial mound. The burials are distinct for the complexity of the mound constructions, spacious pits partitioned into two parts by wood, rich and various funeral inventory. Among munitions (a chain armour, a helmet, a quiver and arrows, a spear) and a horse harness, the male burial revealed a composed belt with original metal plates. The female burial revealed gold ornaments, a silver mirror.
    The two buried people had a high social status in their lifetime (probably being a chief and his wife). The ethnocultural roots of the sites belong to the Altai ethnoses, the descendants of the Kurai culture tribes. Evidently, these north-oriented burials in spacious pits may be associated with the eastern ethnoses, who arrived in the South Russian steppes together with Mongols.
 
A.V.PYANKOV
The Bronze Rider of Stanitsa Atamanskaya, Krasnodar Territory
   This article is a publication of the bronze rider statue kept in the funds of Krasnodar State Historical and Archaeological Park Museum. In its composition the three-dimensional sculpture depicts a man with a Turkic face (or rather a mask) bestriding a horse. Judging by the Mongoloid mask, hard saddle and ornamented belt with sword-knots, the statue was made in medieval times. No analogues to it could be found. It seems possible that an episode of the Turkic saga can perfectly explain the scene illustrated by the Kuban sculpture. The dating and the purpose of the rider are still left open as they require a special investigation.
 
L.S.ILYUKOV
Two Silver Phalerae of Novocherkassk Don-Land Cossacks History Museum
   There are two silver phalerae kept in the collection of Novocherkassk Don-Land Cossacks History Museum. Both were in the collection taken abroad during the Civil War and then brought back from Prague to Novocherkask after the Second World War. The place of origin of these phalerae could not be ascertained.
    The phalerae once served as shoulder ornaments of a horse harness. Each is decorated with a gilded raised picture of a dragon. Three lamellar hinges were fixed with rivets to the edges of a disc from its backside. The phalerae diameter is making 24 cm. The described finds belong to the Greek-Bactrian scope and are dated from the 2nd century B.C.
 
A.A.ZDOROV
Where from Have Giants Come?
   The Old Slavonic term ispolin/spolin (‘giant’ in English) originates from the ethnicon spals mentioned in the first centuries A.D. The article analyses the existing hypotheses of these people’s origin and the written sources on them. The author shows the groundlessness of the version of the spals’ Slavonic origin. Most probably the spaleis were a Tokhar originating tribe, which for some period of time were heading one of the unions of Sarmatian-Alan tribes of the Don and Azov Sea territories. The Goths’ advance to the Azov Sea territories caused disintegration of this union in the middle of the III century A.D.
 
V.V.TSIMIDANOV
The Srubny Cups Mystery
   Srubnaya culture burials sometimes reveal wooden vessels, generally with metal cover plates. These articles are traditionally named cups. The idea of these cups of the burials marking ministers of religion is now supported by most experts. These artifacts are never met in the settlements, including cult complexes. So far such cups have been met in burial mounds only. The origins of this cult should be traced in the pre-Srubnaya time sites since wooden vessels are present in the early and middle Bronze Age cultures.
    The origins of the Srubnaya cups should be probably traced in the Pokrovsky type sites of the Lower Volga reaches. They have been met here in the burial series, sometimes together with munitions. This fact might reflect the tendency of the highest military ranks to control ritual life as well. The greater part of the Pokrovsky burials containing the cups are concentrated on the left bank of the Volga river, yet in the post-Pokrovsky time such burials location is significantly shifted in the south-western direction. They are almost completely absent in the Srubnaya sites of the Volga region, but on the other hand are represented in plenty in the burials located in Ukraine, specifically in the Dnepropetrovsk-Molochan country between two rivers. This latter observation may fix the direction in which the cup cult bearers once moved.