The Andronoid Cultures of the Ob Region: Historiography

Abstract

The current paper features the historiography of the Andronoid cultures of the Ob region. The author identifies four investigation districts: Tomsk-Narym, Novosibirsk, Barnaul-Biysk Ob, and Kuznetsk Basin. For each district, the author describes cultural affiliation, territory of distribution, cultural and historical processes, chronology and periodization, house-building traditions, burial rites, typology of ceramics, economy and production, anthropological type and ethnicity of the Postandronian population. In addition, the author points out three periods in the research process of Andronoid antiquities in the Ob region. The first period is characterized by the dominance of the idea that the Karasuk era tribes settled all over the Ob region. The second period is marked by the concept of Yelovo culture (or stage) in the Ob region. The third period featured alternative concepts based on local materials. The author reports the current state and the key problems of the historiography of Postandronian cultures of the Ob. In conclusion, the author summarizes the more than 80-year history of Andronoid antiquities research in the Ob region, the fundamental importance of the accumulated data, and the promising research directions.

Keywords

• western siberia
• late bronze age
• postandronian epoch
• korchazhka culture
• yelovo culture
• hord-era type
• bystrovskiy period