Manipulations with the Head of those Buried in the Bystrovka Necropolis (the Early Iron Age of the Upper Ob Region)

• Published in: Povolzhskaya Arkheologiya (The Volga River Region Archaeology)
• Main Authors: Borodovskiy Andrey P., Volkov Pavel V.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, A.Kh. Khalikov Archaeology Institute 2023
• Subjects: archaeology of violence; traceological analysis; technology; experiment; reconstruction; early iron age; upper ob region; burial rituals with heads; Archaeology; CC1-960; Tagar culture
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.24852/pa2023.4.46.81.96; https://doaj.org/article/9df7016c79674e50b97f27cf72e3ae87

The article deals with analysis of the material from the Bystrovka necropolis (Bystrovka-1,2,3) of the Early Iron Age in the Upper Ob region. All these precedents were integrated into the context of various types of burial rites: inhumation, secondary burials, and ritual partial burials. On the surface of individual heads there are various traces of violent and industrial influences – stabbing, punching and cutting tools. In accordance with the shape of the holes from the piercing tools on the surface of some of the skulls from Bystrovka-2, kurgan-9, it can be determined that they were made with a chekhan with a subrectangular section. This type of impact weapon of the Early Iron Age is not widely represented in the north of the Upper Ob region. At the same time, most of the iron chasings of the Early Iron Age of the Upper Ob had a predominantly rounded cross-section of their striker. It should also be noted that the holes from the blows of the chekhan on the skull in Altai had a predominantly rounded section. Whereas, on the territory of the Middle Yenisei (Tagar culture), the holes from the chekhan of the coinage also had a predominantly sub-square section. Such a similarity of the entrance holes from the coinage on the Middle Yenisei and the Upper Ob (Bystrovka-2) indirectly indicates that the coinage with which the blows were struck could be of “Tagar” origin. Along with these features, it should be noted that, judging by the tracing features of striking with a coin on one of the skulls from Bystrovka-2 kurgan-9, it was struck on the head when the person was kneeling in front of the attacker. It is this pose that is shown on one of the petroglyphs on Mount Kunya in the Middle Yenisei. The presence of an extensive report of radiocarbon and dendrochronological dating for the Bystrovka necropolis makes it possible, along with various objects of the object complex (arrowheads, ceramic vessels, etc.), to date manipulations with the heads of those buried in the middle – the last third of the 1st millennium BC. In ...