Археологические вести. Спб, 1992. Вып. 1. Аннотации.
ОТ РЕДАКЦИИ
В.М. Массон. Движение информации в археологии
V. M. MASSON. The "Flow" of information in archaeology
Archeology is one of the humanities which rapidly extend the amount of their information. According to some estimates, this amount doubles every 7 - 10 years. The inclusion of new information into the system of scientific information exchange is the main condition of its conversion into scientific information. The Institute of the History of Material Culture, the Academy of Sciences of Russia, is the initiator of the new journal entitled "Archaeological News". Its main aim is to favour the operative use of new information in archaeological research. It is obvious that such a publication can deal with preliminary information only, but we shall try to consider as much information as possible.
One more aspect of the problem should be pointed out. The Berlin Wall, dividing the natural capital of Germany for many years, was the peculiar symbol of a particular era. This "wall" tore, to some extent, the "flows" of information between the East and the West. Political, linguistic and psychological factors greatly promoted this sad phenomenon. As a result, there was either no new and moreover, especially important archaeological information in general works of West European and American archaeologists, or it was represented by occasional examples. One of the tasks of the new journal is the attempt to overcome this barrier. Western scientists were virtually ignorant of the great amount of new archaeological information from the former U.S.S.R. Also, archaeologists in the former U.S.S.R.: were informed about western publications rather perfunctorily and usually with great delay. As a rule, it took a book published in the West at least two years to year to get the libraries in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Scientists working at research institutes and museums received the information even later. We hope that the blitz review of foreign literature in this journal will help to improve the exchange of information in this sphere as well. "Archaeological News" will do everything possible to take different "flows" of information into account - in the fields of new excavations, published matters, the organization of science and new ideas. For the latter. a special section, "The Actual Problems of Archaeology", has been introduced. We hope that our authors and readers united by common interests in world archaeology, will promote the development of this journal and support it - one more communicative link in the system of archaeology.
НОВЫЕ ОТКРЫТИЯ И ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ
В.Е. Щелинский. Орудия труда архантропов из пещеры Азых (Азербайджан)
V.E. SHCHELINSKY. Tools of the archanthrops from Azykh cave (Azerbaijan)
Use-wear analysis, widely developed in archaeology, is the most reliable and effective method for distinguishing primitive tools. However, it has been applied mainly to the tools of the Mesolithic, Eneolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age. The functional study of Palaeolithic tools is rarely carried out. Very limited and scanty information is available on the functions of Acheulian and Oldowai tools of the Lower Palaeolithic.
The article considered the results of the functional-traceological study of the whole complex of Acheulian tools, connected with Azykh cave in Transcaucasia - one of the most ancient sites of the Lower Palaeolithic situated outside Africa. A collection of tools (280 items) from the Vth Middle-Acheulian layer formed in Mindel-Riss - at the beginning of Riss was studied. Bone remains of the Archanthrop were excavated in the layer. As a result of this analysis 128 stone tools with informative use-wear traces have been found in the layer with the help of microscopes with strong (up to 350 times) magnification. Most of them are tools formed by secondary treatment. The rest of the tools could lie treated as blankspolls, waste material, without their use-wear study. The tools excavated are characterized by an exceptionally wide range of functions. There is a great variety of mono-functional tools, used to perform one labour operation. However, these tools are finished to quite a different degree.
Choppers. These tools were mainly used for the processing of wood and bone (horn). They are treated as chopping and chopping-splitting tools. Chopping tools. They were not specialized and were often altered.
Handaxes: the tools were used as meat knives Backed bifaces: differed slightly from handaxes as regards their function.
Crapers dejts: had various functions, mainly for the processing of skin butchering. Longitudinal scrapers single: mainly knives to cut various materials. Transversal scrapers: were used in different ways. Denticulated tools: used for the processing of skin and butchering. Retouched Hakes and blades: these were different tools. It can be definitely stated that numerous tools, in the form of flakes and blades without secondary treatment were polyfunclional. However, the facts indicate that Acheulian tools were by no means primitive and exclusively polyfunclional as they are often treated. 'The study of the tools' functions throws light on the economy of the Acheulian people in the cave (a general trend towards the regulation of human activity). Of particular interest is an unexpectedly great share of activity on multi-purpose treatment of wood-bone (horn). The fact that stone was processed right in the cave is indicated by the discovery of hammerstones. Finally, the tools visually demonstrate how-butchering was done. People brought parts of animal carcasses into the cave and cut them up there. 'The new data on the functions and the composition of tools and the structure and peculiarities of the economy, allows us to conclude that the Vth layer in the Azykh cave represents a base camp of Acheulian mountain hunters, engaged in a wide range of activities, including all stages of tool production. This was a habitation of a comparatively small group of hunters who may have left the cave periodically in the warm season of the year.
Н.Д. Праслов. О керамике эпохи верхнего палеолита в Северной Евразии
N.D. PRASLOV. Ceramic production in the Palaeolithic Age
The finds of fired clay statuettes from Palaeolithic sites in Czechoslovakia are well known. We have some reason to say that this phenomenon was spread even wider. Fragments of fired clay lamps were found at Kostenki-I settlement not far from Voronezh (about 23000 B.P.). These finds show that Palaeolithic- hunters used well piddled and filed day. Over 400 pieces of fired clay of different sizes have been collected at Kostenki so far. The majority of these pieces must have been parts of a clay coating on the ground surface of the hearths. A section entirely covered by fired clay and occupying 3-4 square metres was examined at the site. These are likely to be the fragments of a ruined kiln similar to that found at one of the sites in Czecho-Slovakia (Dolni Vestonice). There are imprints of wooden twigs on the sides of many fragments of fired clay pieces. These twigs must have been parts of a frame-work of some construction coated with clay.
The analysis of the samples made in several laboratories has shown that the temperature of baking varied from 500 to 600-700°C for different samples. Large granular quartz sand was used as admixture.
A fragment of a ceramic animal figure was also excavated. These finds are one more illustration of the development of ceramic production in the Paleolithic.
В.В. Питулько. Открытие мезолита в Приполярной зоне Арктики
V.V. PITULKO. The discovery of a Mesolithic site in the Polar region of the Arctic
It is established that the settling of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions by man was by no means a synchronous process and depended mainly on natural factors. The exploration of a number of the territories, such as for instance, Northern and North-Eastern Europe and the American and Canadian Arctic could begin only after the degradation of massive ice sheets covering this territory in the Late Pleistocene epoch. This is the reason why the most ancient sites discovered on the Arctic coast of Canada are Pie-Dorset, while in Greenland - Independance and Sargaq (5000-4000 B. P.). The palaeogeographical situation in the Eastern Arctic was quite different. Here, due to the regression of the polar basin there formed the Arctic land which ceased to exist only in the Middle Holocene. Its relics are the islands in the High Eastern Arctic where the signs of not only Mesolithic but also Late Palaeolithic habitation can be found.
The fact that man inhabited these territories at least in the Mesolithic period is confirmed by the discovery of a Mesolithic site on Zhokhov Island (De Long Archipelago), investigated in 1989-90. This site dates back to the Early Holocene and represents the most ancient example of migration to the High Arctic known at present. (It is necessary to emphasize the fact that it is the High Arctic island that we discuss here, as both Early Holocene and Late Pleistocene sites are known in some Mainland territories of the Asiatic and American Arctic and Subarctic). The age of the site is determined by a series of radiocarbon data obtained from different samples in three laboratories (7870±60, Lu 2432±; 7860±40, Lu 2433; 8020±50 Lu 2499; 8200±40, GIN 6400; 7930±40, GIN 6400; 8563±180, Le 3527; 7940±170 Le 4533b). Of most importance is the sample Lu 2502 obtained on detritus from a buried deposit and dated 8790±90 (Lu 2502). About 1100 items was collected during the excavations. They include numerous articles made of Hint, bone, wood, various inset tools among them (mainly hunting implements), a bilaterally multibarbed "harpoon" head (fish-spear head), fragments of arrowshafts, household utensils and a fragment of a sledge runner. The latter find, together with the discovery of the bones of a dog and some other finds, may indicate that the ancient aboriginals of the island, used dog-traction, which is unexpectedly ancient for the Arctic. A characteristic feature of the Zhokhov complex is the combination of a perfect microprismatic blade industry of Hint napping and an axe polishing industry which is usually discovered in later sites of Eastern Siberia. Specialization in hunting was also unique, as the population economic basis was hunting these polar bear and reindeer. These were bagged in approximately equal numbers.
Zhokhov occupies a special place among the Mesolithic sites of Eastern Siberia due, to the discovery of various organic objects which are usually lost. In this sense Zhokhov is a source of unique information not only for the Eastern Siberia Mesolithic period.
In spite of having only some general features in common with finds of the Sumnagin Mesolithic culture, Zhokov island might be considered as the arctic version of the Sumnagin culture in Eastern Siberia; spread over vast territories with a great variety of natural conditions, ranging from mountains and taiga to arctic tundra. We think that the problem of the Eastern Siberia Mesolithic unity should be studied from this point of view. It is probable that scientists will soon manage to determine the archaeological indicators showing the variety of adaptation within the limit of the Sumnagin culture, the adaptability of ancient populations to specific ecosystems.
И.Б. Васильев, Н.Ф. Кузнецов, А.П. Семенова. Погребения знати эпохи бронзы в Среднем Поволжье
I.B. VASILYEV, P.F. KUZNETSOV, A.P. SEMYONOV. A Burials of nobility in the Volga region during the Bronze Age
In the 1985-1991, three burial mounds - Potapovskij, Lopatinskij II, and Utevskij VI - were excavated on the banks of the Sok and Samara rivers, in the forest-steppe Volga region. Beneath each wide, low mound, a central interment was surrounded by a number of other graves. Small, narrow, circular ditches were found around the graves. The remains of sacrificed animals (horses, bulls, small cattle, dogs) were discovered near the graves. The graves contained contracted skeletons lying mainly on the left side. The central grave pits were oriented to the south. Some graves contained double and multiple interments. Among the grave goods were ornamented pots, copper, knives, chisels, adzes, awls, needles, hooks, bracelets, pendants, flint arrows, copper, faience, stone beads. As a rule, bone cheek-pieces are found in the central graves where adults were buried. The burial mounds considered form a special group of monuments under the common name - "Potapovskij cultural type".
The burial customs and grave goods of the Potapovskij culture have some similarities with those of the Poltavkinskaja and the Urals Abashevskaja cultures. But the Poltavkinskaja and Abashevskaja traditions were transformed in the Poltavkinskaja culture new cultural standards. The Potapovskij burial tradition has no parallels in the cultures of the forest-steppe Volga region during the Middle and Late bronze Age. People belonging to a special social status must have been buried in these graves.
The further fortune of the population who created the burial places of the Potapovskij cultural type is connected with the development of the Timbergrave and Alakulskaja cultures.
А.И. Исаков. Богатое женское погребение из Саразма (Таджикистан)
A.I. ISAKOV. A rich burial of a woman from Sarazm (Tadjikistan)
A cemetery of the Eneolithic period was first discovered during the excavations at Sarazm, an early farming settlement in Southern Tajikistan, in 1984-1985. The funerary complex consisted of a round stone fence, within which five grave pits were excavated. The first pit contained the contracted skeleton of a 6-7 years old child, with a necklace made of 200 lapis lazuli beads and 22 silver beads. The second burial contained a dismembered skeleton, unaccompanied by grave goods. The third grave represents a double interment of two people buried at different times, the earliest skeleton being damaged by the second burial. The fragments of stone bowl were found around the former. The second skeleton (a women of 36-37 years of age) was discovered together with a pin-head and spindle whorl. Another double burial, this time where the burials were contemporary with each-other, was found in the fourth grave pit. A hand-made kitchen-pot and a tiny silver vessel were found above the skeletons. The fifth grave contained the skeletons of woman (19-20 years old), a man (20-21 years old) and a teenager (13-14 years old). The skeletons in four and five graves were contracted on their left sides. All the grave goods in pit five indicate the burial of a woman: a bronze minor, a bone awl, a stone pin-head, a statuette of a woman made of unbaked clay and a statuette-amulet, 3 stone mace-heads, a great number of cornelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise and silver beads, and massive bracelets made of shells.
The beads must have been sewn on a shawe or coat. The burial of the woman also contained 49 golden beads. This rich burial we will call conditionally "The burial of a goddess from Sarazm". All the three corpses in grave five were covered with a large coverlet embroidered with beads.
А.А. Нехаев. Домайкопская культура Северною Кавказа
A.A. NEHAEV. The premaikop culture of the Northern Caucasus
In 1982, excavations took place at Svobodnoje, a settlement which lies between the town of Ust-Labinsk and the settlement of Krasnogvardeiskoje, in the Krasnodar Territory of Russia. The site dates to the Premaikop epoch and is contemporary with the All stage of the Tripolje culture. In its earliest phase, the settlement occupied 1 hectare and was surrounded by a horseshoeshaped ditch, 4 metres deep. The earth from the ditch was used to construct a rampart which was strengthened on top by a wooden palisade. Later, the the ditch was filled in and the settlement area expanded. This enlarged settlement was surrounded only by a wooden palisade.
There were found the remains of rectangular dwellings (14-20 square metres) with thick wattle and daub floors, frame work walls, roofs coated with clay and a reed roof. Inside the dwellings there were hearths and, probably, altars on which cult antropomorphic and zoomorphic statuettes usually stood. Altogether there were up to 30-35 dwellings in the settlement at the same time.
Flint work is poorly represented. Some microliths were found. Tools used in cattle-breeding predominate. Farming tools (sickle inserts) make up 5,5% at the early stage and 7% at the late stage.
Stone wedge-shaped axes, chisels and adzes were found, as well as bone awls, polishers, hooks harpoons, hoes; earthenware and one bone spoon. Massive bracelets made of serpentine and schist (8 types) are of great interest. The most numerous types of personal jewellery are clay beads, ring-shaped beads made of serpentine, bone and mother-of-pearl, pendants made of deer teeth and shells, a copper bead.
18 anthropomorphic and 30 zoomorphic (bulls) pottery statuettes were found in Svobodnoje settlement. The modelling of these anthropomorphic statuettes has some parallels in Tripolje.
The pottery assemblage consists mainly of modelled polished pots and bowls of grey, brown and orange colour. There is some temper of crushed shell in the paste. The vessels are decorated mainly with a relief ornament in the form of pearls. The pots have sharp bottoms, the bowls-flat ones. No parallels to this pottery have been known so far.
With the large amount of wild animal bone recovered, the settlement can be seen as practising a mixed economy, with stock-breeding, hunting and farming.
The jewellery (stone bracelets, a copper bead), the ditch, rampart and palisade, the cult lame make it possible to date the settlement to the first half of the IVth millenium В.C.
Г.Н. Курочкин. Открытие богатой жреческой гробницы сибирских скифов
G.N. KUROCHKIN. The discovery of a rich priest's tomb of the Siberian Scythians
The 1988 expedition to the Middle Yenisei region investigated a rich Scythian tumulus in South Siberia - the Large Poltacovsky tumulus, whose main funeral chambers had escaped being plundered. This tumulus contained four graves under a mound 3 metres high. A unique ritual idol with a painted face was discovered in the earliest grave, which contained a single burial. Funeral chambers, with multiple family interments, were located around the grave of their ancestor. Altogether, 60 people were buried in these three funeral chambers. The grave of 2 people had been better preserved that the rest. There were two timber frames in it -northern and southern. In the northern frame the skeletons of 2 men were excavated. One man wore a tell with golden plates decorated with the head of a bird of prey. The same plates were found in Sauromates cemeteries of the South Urals (the end of the Vl-Vth centuries В.C). The other man wore a bell decorated with relief golden figures of Felidae predators. The same funeral chamber contained a golden ear-ring and a necklace made of golden and glass beads. The walls of the northern frame were decorated with golden mounts in the form of a claw. Golden figures of Felidae predators lay along the walls of the southern frame. Originally, the walls here must have been upholstered with a fabric where these animals were depicted. Besides numerous golden articles in animalistic style (the images of deer, wild boars, panthers, sheep, etc. ) and delicate ornaments, there were discovered many other unique objects in grave 2: exact ceramic copies of large bronze cauldrons; a wooden bowl, 40 cms in diameter, decorated with the images of horse heads along the brim; wooden fortune telling sticks on the belt of one of the buried, etc. Weapons in the tumulus are represented only by a ceremonial or ritual pickaxe made of bronze, with the figures of rams in heraldic pose on the back. The complex of finds allows us to assume that senior priests and members of their families were buried in the Large Poltacovsky tumulus. The tumulus dates from the Vl-Vth centuries В. C. according to the parallels. Weapons were also not found in other rich monumental Tagar tumuli. The South Siberian Scythians must have been ailed not by military leaders, like in Europe, but by priests.
С.С. Миняев. Изучение погребений сюнну в Забайкалье
S.S. MINYAEV. The investigation of burials of the Hunnu in the Baikal region
Direstuj cemetery is situated in Buriatia, on the left bank of the Djida near Direstuj settlement.
The cemetery consists of tumuli with stone mounds and graves adjoining the tumuli hut having no indications on the surface of the ground.
Group 1 in the western part of the cemetery is completely excavated. It includes two tumuli (№ 31 and N 32) and grave № 33 in the northern part of the group (all these were excavated by P. В Konovalov in 1968). Further excavations have shown that there are additional burials (№ 44, 44a, 44b, 44c) in the southern part of the group and graves № 53-57 in its south-western part. Thus, Group 1 number twelve burials.
The centre of each burial complex is a tumulus, with masonry over the grave. There were additional Initials around the tumulus. The central burial was usually in a wooden coffin placed in a stone cist. Some implements were found in the central burials, while there were practically none in the accompanying. In the central burials men and women were buried, in the accompanying ones - infants and teenagers, sometimes with the signs of violent death. This fact proves that the Hunnu practiced human sacrifice.
В.А. Семенов. Воинские погребения ранних кочевников Тувы
V.A. SEMYONOV. Military burials of early nomads in Tuva
In 1988-1991 some Scythian burials were excavated in Tuva. Some of these burials can be considered as military. The most interesting burials were from the Saryd-Bulun mound, on the right bank of the Ulug-Hem, not far from Bayn-Kol settlement. This mound belongs to Aldy-bel culture and dates back to the Vl-Vth centuries В.C. The burial contained the body of a youth in a wooden box the naturally mummified. The burial also contained his clothes – leather trousers, shirt, and weapons - a bronze axe on a wooden handle of 70 cm, a birch bow glued over with fish-scales and tendons, as well as a leather quiver with ten arrows: seven arrows with bronze heads, one - with a bone head and two arrows are wholly wooden (so-called tomara). The second military burial uncovered in Saryg-Bulun contained the same collection of arms, but the dead was buried in a stone tomb. Only isolated military burials belonging to Aldy-bel culture have been known so far. This may be explained by the fact that there was a stable situation in this region of Asia during the "Arzan tribal union" including, in particular, the representatives of Aldy-bel culture. Later, when Uyk-Sagly mounds were started to be built (VI-II centuries В.C), the number of military burials increased. Wooden hut graves became wide-spread in Tuva at that period. The remains of people with arms are often excavated among those buried. The set of arms is usually the following: a bronze or iron dagger, an axe, a quiver with arrows. The burials of Suglug-Hem 1 mound are of particular interest. Sixteen hut graves were uncovered in this mound where about 100 people were buried. Some hut graves contained military burials. Hut graves 26, 28 and 29 had not been ransacked in ancient times, and there remained many gold articles as well as weapons – iron akinaks (daggers) and axes. Due to these finds it has become possible to reconstruct a burial suit of a Suglug-Hem nobleman. It included a band made of fabric (diadem) decorated with 23 golden images of an eagle, an iron neck-ring covered with gold foil, 16 panthers sewn on caftans, the waistband consisted of large golden mounth and 20 Cypres moneta, the foot-gear was decorated with golden applique. The Suglug-Hem mound dates from the IInd century В.C. Painted ceramics, medal-looking mirrors, iron pins, bronze and golden wire ear-rings from this mound have parallels among the antiquities of the Usuny of Semirechje. Some Tuva nomads might have taken part in the Saka-Uetchzhi-Usuny expansion in Central Asia, where there were excavated rich cemeteries, such as Tilla-tepe which have features in common with those of the nomads of the Altai-Sayan Upland.
В.М. Горюнова. Новый клад антского времени из Среднего Поднепровья
V.M. GORUNOVA. A new hoard of Ants from the territory of the Middle Dnieper
A hoard belonging to a jeweller - foundry worker was excavated for the first time in an early Slavonic settlement of the Kolochinskaya culture of the Vl-VIIth centuries (the settlement Veli Budki, the Sumi region, the North-Eastern Ukraine). The objects in the hand belongs to the so-called antski antiquities, which were spread over the region of Middle Podnieprovie and the left forest-steppe bank of the Dnieper up to the Oskol river - head in the VIIth century.
The objects in the hoard can be divided into three groups: fragments, raw materials (Fig. 1, 3), finished articles (Fig. 2).
The first group (fragments) includes the following objects. A lower plate of a large lineheaded brooch (Fig. 1-1). It has no exact parallels, but the manufacturing technique indicates a likely Danubian origin (the end of the Vlth - the beginning of the VIIth centuries, the technique was used up to the end of the VIIth century). A fragment of the upper plate of a silver anthropozoomorphic brooch (Fig. 1-15) with highly skilled puncheon treatment of the surface (the first half of the VIIth century). The closest parallel is a pair of brooches of the same type from the hoard excavated in Martinovka. Besides a considerable number of accidental finds (45 finds alone from at Patierski) such brooches have been found in the Kozivka hoard and burials of the second half of the VIIth century in the Crimea. The end of a silver neckring with a winding and a hook in the form of a snake head (Fig. 1-2), resembles a neckring accidentally found in Middle Podnieprovie not far from Kiev, but made using another technique. The form and the mechanism of the neckring fastening from Taurapilis (Lithuania, the V-VIth centuries) resemble those of our sample. Many details of the neckring from Chadiyavitze, Salesiye, Zemianski, Vrobovku (the VIIth century) are the same as are of the type the sample considered. Two fragments of silver bracelets with thickened ends (Fig. 1-8, 9) which was wide-spread in Podanubje, Podnieprovie and on the northern shore of the Black Sea in the Vl-VIIth centuries. Half of a bronze bracelet. with a greatly thickened cut end (Fig. 1-7), is a typical Pribaltic decoration which is sometimes found in the hoards of Middle Podnieprovie (Martinivka, Kozievka). Such bracelets were also made at the Zimmo site in the VIIth century. The bronze catchplate from a belt-buckle (Fig. 1-5) has parallels in Western Europe (the Vlth-VIIIth centuries). A large lamellar pendant decorated with engraving (Fig. 3) is unique. The same engraving technique was used for trapeziform pendants and other lamellar decorations from hoards of the VIIth century (Kozivka, Smorodino, Koloskovka). This group also includes a lamellar binding (Fig. 1-20) and scraps of silver rolled into a ball (Fig. 1-10).
The second group (raw materials) includes: pieces of a cloven silver bar (Fig. 1-3, 4), an oval pewter bar with a hole in the middle and narrow plates rolled into a spiral (Fig. 1-6, 16), as well as wastes of pewter casting (Fig. 1-7, 11, 14, 21).
The third group (finished articles) includes the following objects: two small double lineheaded brooches of Masuro-German type (the VIIth century) and over 1200 small sewn plates of different shapes cast of pewter in stone forms (Fig. 2). The closest parallels for the small brooches were found in North-Western Romania (Sacueni) and Mazoviya (Vaplieve). Masuro-German brooches have not been excavated in Antski hoards. They have been known as accidental finds in Middle Podnieprovie (41 samples, including 18 at Pastierski site). Three samoles have been found in the Crimea burials. They are common for the Early Slavonic settlements (the VIIth century) of the Dniester basin. Sewn pewter plates have been found in the hoards of the VIIth century (New Odessa, Kozivka, Khaski). The settlements of the Penkov culture on the bank of the South Bug (Semenki, Skibintsi), in Romania, as well as in the Kolochinsko-Tushemlinski region (Shugailovo, Lukoml) contain casting forms of small pendants and plates of nearly the same shape. This type of decoration is an example of ancient traditions which were spread in the forest zone of Eastern Europe from the early centuries A.D. from Pribaltic (Gotland island - the 1st century A.D., the Niemen region and Western Lithuania - the IIIrd-IVth centuries A.D. ) to the Volga region (Diakovskaya and Azelenskaya cultures) and were made until the XI-XIIth centuries (the finds in the krivichinski mounds) and even as late as the XlXth century in Pribaltic and Sweden. The similar shape all over Eastern Europe points to a common underlaying influence on the forest zone which must have occurred among the late Sarmatian tribes before the III-IVth centuries. Small sewn plates became particularly important to decorate female clothes of these tribes in the Ist-IInd centuries.
Thus, the Veli Budki hoard contained objects of Middle Danubski (the large lineheaded brooch, perhaps, the neckring), Middle Podnieprovski (the anthropozoomorphic brooch, the large lamellar pendant) and Norlh-Weslern Pribaltic (the bronze bracelet and the catch with a panel) origin. Complex composition of the hoard has been confirmed by quantitative spectral analysis conducted in the laboratory of the Institute of the History of Material Culture by V. A. Galibin. The articles made in different places have different types of alloy. The investigation of the hoard in Veli Budki allows us to raise the problem of the sources of development of the Kolochinski jewelry complex, the relationship with Southern workshops (Podanubie); it also helps to reveal the process of the adoption of some borrowed features by Early Slavonic tribes and the development of old traditional forms, as well as to solve the problem of the relationship between the Pastierski centre, the northern forest regions of Eastern Europe and the South-Eastern Pribaltic.
А.Н. Кирпичников, В.А. Назаренко. Археологические открытия в Старой Ладоге. Черты сходства средневековых городов региона Балтики
A.N. KIRPICHNIKOV, V.A. NAZARENKO. Archaeological discoveries in Staraja Ladoga. Similar features of Medieval towns in the Baltic region
Staraja Ladoga Earthern (hill-fort) is situated on the right hank of the Ladozhka, not far from where it falls into, the river Volkhov. Sondage 1, begun in 1984 and completed in 1991, is located in the north-western part of the settlement, (fig. 3). The layers of the IX-Xth centuries contained wooden remains of dwellings and storage buildings and other const ructions. In addition, many objects were found during the excavations (Fig. 1). The present article deals with the lowest cultural layers of the IXth century deposited on the slope of the right bank of the Ladozhka (Fig. 2-6). They were investigated in 1988-1991.
In the south-western part of the sondage a pit was discovered (2.5x3.5 metres long; 0.8-1.0 metres deep) dug into the slope of the river bank and containing the remains of burnt wood from a shed or some other structure. A kiln, with a nozzle directed into the pit, was excavated at the western brink of the pit. Some iron slags and a piece of bloom were found near the kiln and in the pit, One more pit (1.8x2.5 metres; 0.5 metres deep) adjoined the pit described above on the north. It contained the remains of two poles which must have supported a gable shelter-shaped roof. Pieces of bloom and fragments of ceramics were found in the filling and at the bottom of the pit.
These features apparently form a single complex connected with the melting and treatment of finery iron (Fig, 4-I).
Remains of a burnt two-chamber structure, with a hearth in the central part of one of the chambers, were discovered in the eastern part of the sondage. The hearth (1x1.5 metres) was surrounded by vertically installed slabs. A heated room of the building (4x4.5 metres) had galleries (0.5 metre wide) on both sides. Adjoining to the living room on the north was a cold inner porch. The structure had an earthen floor in which rows of small postholes and stake holes were revealed. When removing out the floor fragments of moulded vessels and pieces of the fired clay coaling of the building's log walls were found (Fig. 4-II).
Finally, parts of 3 ditches dividing the whole area into two equal sections, 6 metres wide each, were uncovered. One section was occupied by the dwelling described above, the other, by the production complex with the kiln. The ditches, about 1. 5 metres wide and 0. 5 metre deep, were directed to the river Ladozhka and have been examined for a distance 5.5-6.0 metres within the limits of the sondage (Fig. 4-III). They stretch outside the sondage to the north. These ditches must have fulfilled drainage functions.
The division of the part of the site which adjoins the river into several equal plots has a striking similarity to the planning of an early medieval site in the town Ribe in Denmark (Fig. 5). There are also. similar features between Ladoga and Ribe in the trade character of these sites, in their material culture and even in some principles of building constructions. At the same time there arc a number of important differences. First of all, there are no long-term dwellings at the Danish site. This fact allowed the researchers to conclude that there was a seasonal character to the original Ribe. The ceramic assemblages of these sites differ greatly as well which must be connected with the differences of the indigenous population (Fig. 6).
On the whole, the division of the town into sections, specially directed to the river, street or fortress wall is characteristic of the planning of a number of medieval towns. This fact indicates the existence of an established order of land tenure at the sites and a town administration.
Е.А. Рябинин. Северный трансевропейский путь Х века и меря (по материалам резной кости Костромского Заволжья)
E.A. RYABININ. Northern transeuropean route of the 10 th century and the Merya (decorated bone objects from the region near Kostroma)
In the Early Middle Ages the territory to the north of the town of Kostroma on the Volga was inhabited by groups of Einno-Ugrians closely related to the Merya tribe. The greatest number of sites dating from the second half of the first millennium A.D. was discovered on the shore of Lake Galich and in the upper reaches of the lake source of the Vyoksa (Fig. 1). The 1988-1991 excavations of the tribal and trade centre of this group - the Unorozh settlements - gave important new information on the culture of the country's inhabitants in the "Pre-russian" period.
Bone and horn artefacts, made in the Xth century, is of particular interest. The majority of the finds are of Finno-Ugrian origin. These are one-sided combs with animal heads which had not only everyday, but cull purposes (Fig. 2-1, 2, 4, 5). Local manufacture of combs is confirmed by the discovery of their half-finished samples (Fig. 2-3). The following finds are connected with Finno-Ugrian cultural traditions: the three-dimensional zoomorphic amulet pendant (Fig. 26), the bone spatula (Fig. 2-9), the figured awl handle (Fig. 4-4), fragments of knife-handles and the comb handles (Fig. 2-11; 3-1, 2, 3), as well as horn sockets and their half-finished samples (Fig. 3-6; 3-8, 10, 11). Some other objects of everyday use are represented in the Unorozh collection: the spindle-wheel (Fig. 3-5), the implement for making wicker-work (Fig. 3-12), bone pins (Fig. 4-1) and the fastening (Fig. 3-4). Many articles are decorated.
One-sided combs made of separate pieces are of foreign origin. The oldest dates from the 1st half of the Xth century (Fig. 3-D, and the later one - to the IInd half of the Xth - the beginning of the Xlth century (Fig. 3-2). Then connection with cultural traditions of the Baltic region and North-Western Rus is obvious.
A special group is formed by the amulets made from the pierced fangs of a bear and astragal of a beaver (Fig. 2. 13-15; 3: 8-11, 13) Unorozh, due to its representative collection of amulets of beavers' astragal (numbers 10 items), occupies a special place among other synchronous sites on the left bank of the Volga near Kostroma. This collection indicates its relationship with Finno-Ugrian sites engaged in international fur trade since the end of the 1st millennium A.D.
The analysis of the articles made of bone and horn shows the heterogeneous composition of this collection which includes antiquities of local origin, as well as objects typical of both the North-Western and Nonh-Eastern forests of Eastern Europe. The synthesis of cultural traditions explained by the proximity of the site to the latitudinal trade route - the Sukhona-Vychegda waterway, which served as a means of communication between the multiethnic population on the territory between Lake Ladoga and the Vyatka-Kama region. These contacts led to the development of the unique culture of the Galich group of the Merya and its distinctions from related tribes of the Merya, in the country between the Volga and the Klyasma.
АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ АРХЕОЛОГИИ
Ю.В. Андреев. Коллапс микенской цивилизации и варварский мир Центральной Европы
Y.V. ANDREEV. The collapse of the Mycenaean civilization and the Barbarians of Central Europe
Archaeological investigations, which have been carried on in continental and insular Greece during the past few decades, have revealed the real scale of the catastrophe or even a series of catastrophes, of the Mycenaean civilization at the final stage of its development - at the end of the XIII-XIIth centuries B.C. The ruins of palaces and citadels, the destruction of a great number of small settlements, the desolation of vast territories, sharp decline in living, technological and cultural standards, the breaking-off of economic and cultural relations with Oriental countries and the beginning of a long-term isolation of the Aegean from the rest of the world (all these processes are certified by the excavation data) - these are the most typical features of this crucial period in the history of Greece which marked the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The reasons for this collapse of the whole Mycenaean world have remained unclear in many respects so far. Many authorities on this problem admit the fact the traditional explanations of the collapse connected with the ancient legend about "the return of the Heracleides" or "the Dorian conquest" of Peloponnesses, do not agreed well with archaeological data from the end of the Mycenaean era and should be rejected.
In an attempt to fill the historical "gap" after the Dorians had ceased to play a significant role and lost their positions at the final dramatic stage of the Mycenaean era, some historians and archaeologists, including Fr. Schachermeyr, M. Gimbutas, J. Bouzek, S. Deger-Jalkotzy, try to explain the events taking place in Greece in the XIII-XIIth centuries B.C. in the context of "the great migration of peoples" which, they believe, covered most parts of the mediterranean at that period - from Italy to Palestine and Egypt. Such assumptions seem to be confirmed, first, by the relative chronological closeness of cataclysms spatially remote from each other such as the fall of Mycenaean citadels in Balkan Greece, the collapse of the Hittite Kingdom in Asia Minor, the Ugarit state in Siberia and the onslaught of the so-called "Sea Peoples" on the borders of Egypt, and, secondly, by the finds - various bronze articles (mainly weapons and fibulae) - on the territories of Greece and other East Mediterranean countries. The closest parallels for these finds were found in a number of European regions (the Adriatic, the Danube region, the Pricarpathian region) - in the zone of the so-called "Urnen feld Kultur".
However, there is no necessity to explain the existence of a number of types of artefacts common for Mycenaean Greece and the countries of South and Genlral Europe to the north of it, by some large-scale movements of tribes, as this phenomenon can be considered as being as the result of simultaneous development of several centres of ancient metallurgy between which there were rather close economic contacts at the end of the Bronze Age. Lately some scientists (Sandars, Deger-Jalkotzy, Harding, Bouzek) have kept to the idea that at that time there developed a kind of common market in Europe, Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean which promoted wide circulation of new types of weapons and other metallic articles.
Nevertheless, the archaeological material collected in the past few years (particularly numerous bandmade ceramics of the type other then the Mycenaean one found in a number of places) allows us to speak about the penetration of comparatively small groups from the northern regions of the Balkan Peninsula, the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the Thrace and the banks of the Danube into the territory of Greece. However, this advancement of northern strangers into the region of the Mycenaean civilization was the consequence rather the reason of its decay which might have been caused by some other factors.
ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ НАУКИ
Л. Б. Кирчо. Воссоздание Института истории материальной культуры в Санкт-Петербурге
L.В. KIRCHO. The reconstruction of the Institute of the History of Material Culture in St. Petersburg
The Institute of the History of Material Culture was established on February 9th 1859, when imperator Alexander II signed the edict about the organization of the Emperor's Archaeological Commission (from 1918 called the Russian Stale Archaeological Commission). On April 18th 1919, V. I. Lenin signed a decree of the Council of People's Commissars, according to which the Russian State Archaeological Commission was substituted by the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture. After this, the reorganization of the archaeological centre of the country has passed different stages and this centre had different names: I) from 1926 - the State Academy of the History of Material Culture (Leningrad); 2) from 1937 - The Institute of the History of Material Culture (part of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR), which had its centre in Leningrad, and a department in Moscow; 3) from 19-15, by the decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the institute was transferred to Moscow, while in Leningrad a Branch of the Institute of the History of Material Culture was maintained; 4) from 1959, by decision of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Institute of the History of Material Culture became the Institute of Archaeology -and the Leningrad depart mend was called the Leningrad Branch of the Institute Of Archaeology; 5) on June 25th 1991, The Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archaeology was reorganized into an independent Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Academy of Sciences of Russia (director - professor V. M. Masson).
The main research directions of the Institute are: Methodology and theory of archaeology, Natural scientific methods in archaeology; The Paleolithic, the origin of Mankind and Society, the first stages of Prehistory; The Bronze Age and the ancient history and culture of Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Steppe Zone of Eurasia; The history of hunters and gatherers, tribal and later early state socio-economical formations in North-West Russia; Classical Archaeology of the Northern Black Sea Area and the Eastern Mediterranean area; Prehistoric technique and technology, based on experimental and traceological investigations.
Expeditions of the Institute of the History of Material Culture carry on archaeological investigations almost on the whole territory of Russia and many countries - members of the Commonwealth of Independent Nations. Especially great amount of work is being done during rescue excavations.
The Library of the Institute is the largest and practically the only special archaeological library of the former USSR and one of the most important libraries of this kind in Europe. The workers of the library regularly publish bibliographies on the archaeology of the USSR. The archives of manuscripts contain documents starting with 1793, including the funds of the Emperor's Archaeological Commission. the Russian Archaeological Society, the Moscow Archaeological Society, the Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture - the Institute of the History of Material Culture - the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Archaeology as well as private collections of many great Russian scientists. The unique archives of documentary photographs of the Institute contain materials on archaeological studies as well as on the history of art and architecture in Eurasia starting with 1851.
