The Katkovo-1 burial mound (on the upper date of the Verkhneobskaya culture of the Novosibirsk Ob basin)

The article presents the materials of the burial mound of Katkovo-1 (excavations by Durakov I.A.), located in Kochenevsky district of Novosibirsk region, for the first time. A brief history of the changing views of researchers on the dating of the Verkhneobskaya culture gives us the basis for identification of the following issues: a definition of the upper date of the existence of the culture and a cultural and chronological definition of the monuments where a combination of the Verkhneobskaya culture material and later material complexes was found out, which greatly complicates its dating. A similar situation is observed at the settlement of Yurt-Akbalyk-3. Originally, the complex was considered as Yurt-Akbalyk stage of the Verkhneobskaya culture (VIII–IX centuries AD.). The cemetery is characterized by a combination of the material of the Verhneobskaya culture with a later material complex, which dates back to the X–XI centuries AD. The purpose of the work is to clarify the dating of the burial mound of Katkovo-1. The vessels found at the monument by their morphological characterstics and ornaments can be attributed to the Verkhneobskaya culture, however, there are some changes in the ornamentation observed, due to the influence of Northern tribes, while morphological characteristics are largely unchanged. One decorative element isn`t typical of the Novosibirsk Ob basin, it was brought by the Northern tribes of the Lower Ob river. Weapons, in particular, some flat iron arrowheads and spearheads are dated back within the VI–X centuries AD by the researchers, elements of harness date back to the IX–XII centuries AD. Bronze jewelry belongs to the VIII–X centuries AD. The ceramic material found, as well as items of armaments and harness, in comparison with their analogies found in Southern Siberia, the Ob river basin near Tomsk and Novosibirsk, and other adjacent territories, confirmed their dating back to the the Yurt-Akbalyk stage of the Verhneobskaya culture, but afforded ground for extension of the datings’s top limit of the burial ground up to the X century AD. This situation allowed us to question the IX century AD as the top date of the Verkhneobskaya culture. Presence of the materials used in the X–XI centuries AD on the monuments gave us an opportunity to expand the upper limit of the existence of the Verkhneobskaya culture up to the X century AD.

Key words: the Verkhneobskaya culture, chronology, funerary complex, dating material, Yurt-Akbalyk stage.

DOI: 10.20874/2071-0437-2017-36-1-013-020

20.03.2017

M.S. Demakhina

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, prоsp. Acad. Lavrent’ev, 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation

E-mail: marshinza@mail.ru