Informative Capacity of the Sargat Culture’s Disturbed Burials: Kurgan Novopokrovka 16 in the Middle Irtysh River Basin

Abstract

The article deals with a complex study of the materials obtained during archaeological excavation of the kurgan Novopokrovka 16 in the middle Irtysh river basin (Omsk region). The site, which is attributed to the Sargat culture (5th century BC – second half of the 3rd century AD), was located farmost on the right bank of the river Irtysh, nearby the group of “Princely kurgans”. Despite almost total disturbance by robbers and agricultural activity, common scholars’ efforts demonstrate high informative capacity of the multidisciplinary approach, while modern level of undertaken research is not just being declared but enables to reconstruct seemingly lost information. The kurgan erection stages and mound structure features have been decoded using the results of a geophysical survey and soil morphology data. The paleoanthropological study of the incomplete skeletal remains does not support multiple or inlet interment inside the central grave, and provides sexing and aging of the buried individuals as well as some paleopathological observations. Apart from species examination, archaeozoological data testify that a warm period from spring to early autumn was the season of animal slaughter. Characteristics of mortuary rituals and direction of intercultural contacts of the ancient forest-steppe groups have been completed by new details based on the results of strontium isotope analyses (dental enamel of humans and animals) and evidence non-local origin of the individual buried under the excavated kurgan, what is different from local origin of horses butchered for funereal feasts. The proposed hypothesis supports previously suggested archaeological, paleoanthropological and paleogenetic facts on the origin of the forest-steppe population, indicating an involvement of various population groups with notable external components. Based on the archaeological materials, the kurgan under study might be dated back to mid-4th – 3rd centuries BC.

Keywords

• west siberian forest-steppe
• sargat culture
• the early iron age
• multidisciplinary investigation in archaeology