Contents    3-4\2001

PHOTO
Editorial note 4
Tribes and Peoples 6
Doronichev V.B. Initial Populating of Eastern Europe 6
Gurkin S.V. Kipchaks and Kimaks in the 9th – First Third of the XIth Centuries 24
Articles, Publications, Notes 38
Vysotskaya T.N. Towards the Question of Religious Views of the Late Scythians 38
Belinsky A.B., Dudarev S.L., Harke H. On the Experience of Social Ranking of the Male Burials Belonging to the Pre-Scythian Epoch (the Klin-Yar III Burial Ground) 45
Khudyakov Yu.S. Earliest Bronze Helmets of the Central Asian Nomads 60
Fonyakova N.A. The Picture of a Long-Forgotten Custom on a Khazar Vessel of the Kotsk Town 67
Guguev Yu.K. A Polovtsian Sanctuary of an Unusual Arrangement on the Seversky Donets River Area 72
Yatsenko V.V. Accidental Finds (1998–2000) of Tanais Coins 83
Ivanov A.A., Kopylov V.P. Bronze Mirrors of the Early Middle-Age Sub-Mound Burials of the Lower Don Reaches and Volga-Don Country 126
From the History of Don-land Archaeology 131
Yatsimirsky A.I. Alternation of Old Peoples on the Don River and Azov Sea Territories and Their Archaeological Sites (foreword by L.S.Ilyukov) 134
Archaeological Masterpieces 146
Arsenyeva T.M., Naumenko S.A. The Marble Altar of Tanais 146
Bulava L.A. The Silver Vessel with an Engraved Ornament from the Collection of Krasnodar State Museum of History and Archaeology 153
Archaeological Mysteries 159
Styopkin V.V. Migulinskaya Caves 159
Critical Essays and Bibliography 166
Ñàðìàòû è èõ ñîñåäè íà Äîíó. Îòâ. ðåä. Þ.Ê.Ãóãóåâ. Ñ. 324. Ðîñòîâ-íà-Äîíó, 2000. Ñèìîíåíêî À.Â. 166
T.Scholl and V.Zin’ko. Archaeological Map of Nymphaion (Crimea). P. 126. Warsaw, 1999 Gurkin S.V. 175
Current News 182
Abbreviations 184
Contents 186

Summary

V.B.DORONICHEV
Initial Populating of Eastern Europe

The article introduces new materials concerning the early paleolith of Eastern Europe acquired by the author during his long work in Treugol’naya (Triangular) cave in the North Caucasus. This site, discovered and excavated by the author of the article, is remarkable for its outstanding plenitude of archaeological sources illustrating the initial stages of people’s assimilation of the southern areas of Eastern Europe. The integrated research carried out in Treugol’naya cave, first permitted to gain information on the chronology and palaeogeography of the earliest manifestations of human culture in the region under discussion. This fact places Treugol’naya cave together with the most important sites of the Eurasian early paleolith.
The materials collected at the site have served a basis for sketching up the development of early paleolithic culture in Eastern Europe, starting from the oldest for this region indisputable traces of the activity of those people who were represented by the lower Treugol’naya cave cultural complex. The age of these finds can be safely defined as about 600 thous. years due to the integrated research and absolute serial data.

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S.V.GURKIN
Kipchaks and Kimaks in the 9th – First Third of the XIth Centuries

This article views the questions of Kipchaks’ and Kimaks’ ethnopolitical history between the 9th and the first third of the 11th c. In the middle of the 9th c. Kipchaks and Kimaks roamed in the Irtysh River lands and the steppes of Eastern and Central Kazakhstan. Their advent at that territory turned a new page in their history. Headed by the Kimak ruling highest ranks, those tribal unions created a powerful body politique named Kimak kaganate which played an important role in the ethnopolitical history of the peoples inhabiting Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia in the 9th – 11th c. The author shows the way in which the kaganate territory was formed, the parts it consisted of, the political and territorial interests of the various tribal groups making that power, the reasons which drove the majority of Kipchaks to the west, i.e. to the East European steppes.

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T.N.VYSOTSKAYA
Towards the Question of Religious Views of the Late Scythians

The article is dedicated to the problems of late Scythians’ religious outlook. Since Herodotus’ time the Scythians inherited the cult of supreme goddess Tabiti with her dualism. Hence the worship of celestial and earthly fire. A special role in the late Scythians’ rituals was performed by animal offerings, those animals mainly being young rams. The Scythians preserved the Indo-Irani world model, with cosmos trinomial vertical subdivision. An illustrative example here is the published find of a tiling fragment in ashpit No.3 of Scythian Naples with three ideograms carved on it.

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A.B.BELINSKY, S.L.DUDAREV, H.HARKE
On the Experience of Social Ranking of the Male Burials Belonging to the Pre-Scythian Epoch (the Klin-Yar III Burial Ground)

The rich Klin-Yar III grave finds (excavations by V.S. Flyorov, J.B. Berezin, A.B. Belinsky, H. Harke) present a favourable opportunity for a continuation of the work begun in 1980's by Dr. V.B.Kovalevskaya and Prof. Dr. S.L.Dudarev on distinguishing social ranks in the famous Koban culture (cultural-historic unity) tribes. Our analysis is based on 100 male burials of the pre-Scythian epoch (9th – first half 7th c. BC).
Based on the grave-goods accompanying the dead, six groups of burials have been identified.
Another important criterion for distinguishing social ranks – the character of the funerary ritual – does not, as a rule, give ground to speak of marked difference among the groups listed above. In 76% of cases, regardless of the level of richness, burials are represented by humble size graves dug into the ground with one dead person lying crouched on one side in each.
The given facts show that, despite a marked property stratification in society, the strong tribal traditions did not yet allow the rising aristocracy to establish its way in the funerary ritual. Differentiation in society was linked to the nobility's participation in the Cimmerian's campaigns in Asia Minor, and also to the production of iron which allowed to manufacture more effective and prestigious steel articles for fighting and plundering, and lead to the enrichment of the tribal ruling elite. In agriculture tools of iron and steel were seldom in use, which hindered from efficient enrichment through physical labour.

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Yu.S.KHUDYAKOV
Earliest Bronze Helmets of the Central Asian Nomads

This article is dedicated to the find of earliest Nomadic bronze helmets on the territory of Central Asia. The circumstances of this find are stated and the problems linked with the helmets’ ethnic and cultural belonging, the reasons why they started to be used by the nomads, are analysed. The author tries to draw a classification of the helmets under discussion.

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N.A.FONYAKOVA
The Picture of a Long-Forgotten Custom on a Khazar Vessel of the Kotsk Town

The article is dedicated to one of the best examples of the early medieval applied art, a dipper of the town of Kotsk. This article was found in a treasure in the Ob River upper reaches and is dated by approximately the 9th century. The dipper is cast of silver, decorated with gilded figures etched around its skirting. The latter shows hunting and wrestling scenes resembling a contest. The author gives a new interpretation to them. Comparing the details of the protagonist in these scenes to what is stated in the sources (specifically to the notes of a Chinese pilgrim Suan’ Tszan) he concludes that here shown is a Khazar kagan in his fight for power. The author is more inclined to treat this plot as a ritual single combat.

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Yu.K.GUGUEV
A Polovtsian Sanctuary of an Unusual Arrangement on the Seversky Donets River Area

This article is a publication of a Polovtsian sanctuary complex examined by the expedition of the Archaeological Research Agency attached to the Rostov Branch of the Society for Preservation of Historical and Cultural Sites in the fall of 2000 in the Kamensk District of the Rostov Region. The site analysis shows that the cult complex originally was a latitude-oriented small house with a roof, clay fastened stone walls and clay floor, partially buried in the tumulus embankment. The eastern wall of the house had an entrance, while inside it, facing the entrance, there stood a coquina female statue carved as a three-dimensional sculpture referred to the “semirecumbent” type.
A Polovtsian sanctuary made as a stone house is first discovered during archaeological dig. However constructions of the kind were mentioned by Guillaume de Rubruk, a French diplomat and traveller who passed the North Azov Sea territories and the lower Don right bank in the 1250s.

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V.V.YATSENKO
Accidental Finds (1998–2000) of Tanais Coins

This article introduces into the general scientific research 303 antique coins of the 3rd c. BC – 4th c. AD found by accident between 1998 and 2000 on the territory of the museum town of Tanais. The author analyses the newly obtained material, compares it to the available data, specifies some aspects of the political and economic history of this town within the Bosporus Kingdom. All the coins are united into a single chronologically arranged catalogue presented as a table.

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A.A.IVANOV, V.P.KOPYLOV
Bronze Mirrors of the Early Middle-Age Sub-Mound Burials of the Lower Don Reaches and Volga-Don Country

This article introduces into the general scientific research a series of mirrors from nomadic burials of the Khazar time investigated on the lower Don territories. The authors make an attempt to give a typological and chronological characteristics of this finds category. The published mirrors have a peculiar look, rather rare for the early medieval epoch. The closest analogues are known on the South Ural and Central Asia territories. The authors believe that this category can serve a criterion characterising the ethnic peculiarity of the people who had once left this group of artefacts on the territory of the lower Don.

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T.M.ARSENYEVA, S.A.NAUMENKO
The Marble Altar of Tanais

The article is a publication of a unique antique find, a marble altar with relief pictures. The altar was discovered in 1995 during expedition works on the territory of the ruined old town of Tanais (Don River delta). The altar is carved from light marble and in the shape of a high cross-section rectangular monument, or stele. The broad faces of the altar have, on one side, a relief showing a bull head, while on the other side there is a relief figure, probably female. In spite of the archaeological context of the find, 3rd c. AD, the altar was undoubtedly used during a long period and can be referred to an earlier time.

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L.A.BULAVA
The Silver Vessel with an Engraved Ornament from the Collection of Krasnodar State Museum of History and Archaeology

The article is a publication of a medieval silver vessel from the collection of Krasnodar Museum (ÊÃÈÀÌÇ). In accordance with the documents, the vessel is coming from a ruined burial mound near stanitsa Novo-Platnirovskaya of the Leningrad District of the Krasnodar Territory. The vessel is decorated with a number of ornamental belts. The central belt shows a plot of beasts on heat. The author comes to a conclusion that the decor technique and plot iconography combine several cultural traditions – front-oriental and Byzantine. It seems certain that an article of the kind could be created in a highly developed urban craftspeople’s amidst, where Byzantine and front-oriental traditions in metalwork were combined together.

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V.V.STYOPKIN
Migulinskaya Caves

The article is dedicated to two cave monastery-type sites referred to the late medieval time and located near stanitsa Migulinskaya of the Verkhnedonskoy District of the Rostov Region.
In the summer of 2000 the Migulinskaya caves were explored by the author. Their layouts were made up. Found and examined were wall-paintings having no direct analogues in other cave monasteries of the Don Land.
The time of these sites has not been stated. According to some data, the cave monastery could appear and function in the 17-18th centuries.

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