The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin

• Published in: Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia
• Main Authors: I. P. Lazaretov, A. V. Poliakov, V. M. Lurye, P. B. Amzarakov
• Other Authors: This study was carried out under the program for basic scientifi c research of the state academies of sciences, on the topic of Public Contract No. FMZF-2022-0014 “Steppe Cattle Breeding Cultures, Settled Farmers, and Urban Civilizations of Northern Eurasia in the Chalcolithic – Late Iron Age (Sources, Interaction, Chronology)”.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IAET SB RAS 2023
• Subjects: Podgornoye stage; Middle Yenisey; Late Bronze Age; Tagar culture; Bainov stage; Yenisey
• Online Access: https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/1638; https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.108-118

Based on the most recent excavation fi ndings, this article discusses a disputable group of burials, previously believed to represent the Bainov stage of the Tagar culture (900–700 BC) in the Minusinsk Basin. Analysis of these burials unambiguously supports I.P. Lazaretov’s idea that they fall into two independent and unrelated groups. One of them continues Late Bronze Age traditions, whereas the other demonstrates new features exclusively associated with the Tagar culture. Most complexes of the Bainov type represent the fi nal stage in the evolution of Late Bronze Age traditions. This is evidenced by various categories of grave goods, features of burial structures, and the funerary rite. These burials can be attributed to stage IV of the Late Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin. The second, smaller group reveals entirely new features, typical of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. These include novel structural features in kurgan architecture, different female funerary attire, and the custom of placing weapons in graves. This attests to the arrival of a new population group with its own traditions, resulting in the emergence of a Scythian type culture on the Middle Yenisey. These burials should be attributed to the beginning of the Podgornoye stage of the Tagar culture. Hopefully, future studies will help to separate out a special late group of Bainov burials, contemporaneous with the early Podgornoye kurgans. Currently, it is possible to discern certain features suggesting that this population took part in the origin of the Tagar culture.