Mellya-Tamak VI Settlement of Chiyalik Culture

Abstract

The authors publish the fi ndings of the digs on Mellya-Tamak VI temporary settlement belonging to the Chiyalik archaeological culture – one of the most comprehensively studied settlements in this complex of sites. Besides proper Chiyalik materials, some artefacts of Mesolithic-Neolithic, Early Iron Age (Pyany Bor culture) and Early Middle Ages (Kushnarenkovo culture) have been identifi ed here. The Chiyalik stage is represented by debris of a summer camp, with its surface structures, hearths, stones from wall cladding and household pits. The life time of the Chiyalik settlement on the Mellya-Tamak dune can be dated within the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, as suggested by the authors based on some fi nds of glass beads with overlaid linear-undulate paste threads and the ceramic complex. As a result of years of research, the authors conclude that the Chiyalik sites were left by the Uralic Ugrians, who were part of the Golden Horde population and were undergoing the process of Islamization and Turkization.

Keywords

• archaeology
• Middle Volga region
• Neolithic
• Early Iron Age
• Middle Ages
• Pyany Bor culture
• Kushnarenkovo culture
• Chiyalik culture
• temporary settlement
• summer camp
• Uralic Ugrians