To the periodisation of the Transitional Period from the Bronze Epoch to Early Iron Age in the lower Ishim River basin

Abstract

In the end of the 1st millennium BCE, in the lower Ishim River basin, the events were taking place that turned out to be groundbreaking in the history of Western Siberia. As in the bordering southern-taiga and forest-steppe territories of the Tobol and Irtysh river basins, under the changing environmental conditions and increasing migration flow from the taiga regions, there begins the development of cultures precursive to the establishment of the cultural formations of the Early Iron Age. The representatives of the tradition of crossed ornamentation of ware, penetrating into the forest-steppe, commingled with the indigenous Late Bronze Age pastoralist population. The developed, as a result, complexes and cultures of Ust’-Utyak, Krasnoozerka, Late Irmen, and Zavyalovo, according to the materials, represent the stages within the timeframe of the Transitional Period, which, in our opinion, continued until the formation of established Sargatka and Bolsherechenskaya Cultures. In the lover Ishim basin, transition from the Bronze to Iron Age, as it would seem, spans the period from the formation of the Krasnoozersk Culture (the Ishim basin variant), including the stages of its development — Efimovo, Borki, Marai, and Likhachevo,— until the emergence of Sargatka complexes. In the population of the Lower Lower Ishim basin and bordering territories, taiga traditions retain — building of fortified settlements with above-ground dwellings was in common practice, burials were performed in earthen graves or there was another type of interment. There appears to be a rapid change of the material culture. It would seem that from the 4th c. BCE a reorientation towards the tradition of the forest-steppe and steppe cultures was taking place. There appear ground-deepened dwellings and a ceremony of burial under kurgan mounds. Similar processes with various nuances can be observed virtually across the entire forest-steppe and southern-steppe belt of Western Siberia.

Keywords

• lower ishim region
• transition period
• krasnoozerka culture
• complexes of the efimovo
• borki
• marai
• likhachevo stages
• development process
• periodization