Nomadic Burial Mednyi Borok (a Preliminary Report)

About the authors:

Natalia P. Matveeva, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Department of Archeology, History of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages, Head of Research Laboratory of Archeology and Ethnography, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tyumen; nataliamatveeva1703@yandex.ru

Alexander S. Zelenkov, Junior Researcher, Laboratory for Archaeology and Ethnography, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tyumen; qvimen@hotmail.com

Evgeniy A. Tretyakov, 2^nd Category Engineer, Laboratory for Archaeology and Ethnography, Institute of History and Political Sciences, Tyumen State University; gor-tom@mail.ru

Abstract:

The cultural genesis of the West-Siberian population was influenced by Turkic Khaganates during the I millennium AD. Yet, concrete themes of migration processes and social-economic factors have not been studied. The description of the new materials of the medieval ground burial Mednyi Borok, that was found in the excavation process at a multi-layer settlement Staro-Lybaevo-1b, is published in this article. This burial complex is located near Staro-Lybaevo village in the Zavodoukovsk district of the Tyumen Region on the left bank of the Tobol River. 21 graves were investigated during the last two years. However, their wholeness was destroyed by robbers and erosion of sandy soils. It was possible to reconstruct some burial practices of the medieval West-Siberian population by the places of undisturbed bones of people, remains of horses’ skeletons, goods and pots. Separate children’s and single and paired adults’ graves were identified. The corpses were in poses elongated on the back, oriented to the North-West or the South-West. There were some secondary burials as well. 10 graves contained remains of horses’ heads, skin and legs, and 1 grave had a carcass of a bridled horse put in the grave. Artifacts are presented by earrings, bells, elements of horse trappings, arrow’s tips, knives, glass beads and bronze figural pendants. The pottery, discovered in the graves, belongs to Bakalsk, Yudino and Ust’-Ishim archaeological cultures. We find analogies to the graves with a horse and funeral equipment in Kimek culture. They are presumably identified as IX-XII AD necropolis. New materials from the site expand the corpus on the issues of Turkic nomads’ interaction with forest-steppe population of West-Siberia.

References:

1. Arheologicheskoe nasledie Tyumenskoi oblasti. Pamyatniki lesostepi i podtaejnoi polosi [The Archaeological Heritage of the Tyumen Region. Monuments of the Forest-Steppe and Subtaiga Areas]. 1995. Novosibirsk. Nauka.
2. Botalov S. G. 2009. Gunni i Tyurki [Huns and Turks]. Chelyabinsk. 
3. Goldina E. V. 2011. “Busi Bartimskogo-1 selischa i Bartimskogo-1 mogilnika” [Beads of Bartym 1 Settlement and Bartym 1 Burial]. In: Goldina R. D., Pastushenko I. Yu., Chernihk E. M. 2011. Bartimskii kompleks pamyatnikov epohi srednevekovya v Silvenskom poreche materiali i issledovaniya Kamsko-Vyatskoi arheologicheskoi ekspeditsii [Bartym Complex Era Monuments of the Middle Ages in Sylvensk River Area: Materials and Study by the Kama-Vyatka Archaeological Expedition], vol. 13, pp. 307-322. Izhevsk-Perm.
4. Goldina R. D. 2004. Drevnyaya i srednevekovaya istoriya udmurtskogo naroda [Ancient and Medieval History of the Udmurt People]. Izhevsk: Udmurt University publishing house.
5. Khudyakov Yu. S. 1986. Vooruzhenie srednevekovikh kochevnikov Yuzhnoi Sibiri i Tsentralnoi Azii [The Armament of Medieval Nomads of Southern Siberia and Central Asia]. Novosibirsk.
6. Konikov B. A. 2007. Omskoe Priirtishe v rannem i razvitom srednevekovje [Omsk Irtysh Area in Early and Developed Middle Ages]. Omsk: Nauka.
7. Matveev A. V. 1996. Izuchenie arheologicheskogo mikroraiona Ingalskaya dolina v 1995 g. [The Study of the Archaeological District of the Ingalskaya Valley in 1995]. Tyumen. Arhiv NILAiE IIiPN TyumGU. F. 1 d. no 133-100 l.
8. Matveeva N. P., Zelenkov A. S. 2016. “Selische Staro-Libaevskoe-1b” [Old Lybaevskoe-1b Settlement]. In: Ab origine: arheologo-etnograficheskii sbornik [Ab origine: Archaeological and Ethnographic Collection of Works], pp. 66-86. Tyumen. 
9. Mogilnikov V. A. 1987. “Ugri i samodiici Urala i Zapadnoi Sibiri” [Ugra and Samoyeds of the Urals and Western Siberia]. In: Arheologiya SSSR. Finno-ugri i balti v epohu srednevekovya [Archaeology of the USSR. Finno-Ugric and Baltic Peoples in the Middle Ages], pp. 163-235. Moscow: Nauka.
10. Ovchinnikova B. B. 1988. “Staro-Libaevskoe poselenie” [Old-Lybaevskoe Settlement]. In: Materialnaya kultura drevnego naseleniya Urala i Zapadnoi Sibiri [The Material Culture of the Ancient Population of the Urals and Western Siberia], pp. 141-152. Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg): UrGU.
11. Turova N. S. 2016. “Kollektsiya naremennoi garnituri rubeja I-II tis. n. e. iz nekropolya yudinskoi kulturi” [Collection of a Belt Set Items at the Turn of the I-II Thousand A. D. from the Necropolis of Yudinskaya Culture]. Vestnik arheologii, antropologii i etnografii, no 2(33), pp. 63-76.
12. Viktorova V. D. 1973. “Likinskii mogilnik X-XIII vv. n. e.” [Likinsky Burial of the X-XIII Centuries A. D.]. Voprosi arkheologii Urala, no 12, pp. 133-168.