The concept of ecological and archeological site "Donskaya Troya"

The aim of the work is to form conceptual solutions of the ecological and archaeological site "Donskaya Troya’. The unique archaeological site founded in the 17th century, BC by the tribes of the North Caucasian catacomb culture locates westward Rostov-on-Don, on the right bank of the Mertvy Donets River, between Karataevo and Liventsovka villages in the Soviet region. The stone fortresses discovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, are the oldest in Eastern Europe. The preservation of the Liventsovka archaeological ensemble is very relevant, since today it is in a deplorable state, namely excavations with bushes, dacha garbage dumps, dilapidated walls and ditches filled with stones. The media quite keenly discuss the sad fate of this territory. The paper proposes to create a museum to show the unique historical and cultural potential of the Karataevo and Liventsovka fortresses, which will be and open-air museum, a festival space with a research center and other educational and entertainment areas. Urban planning, scenario-functional and artistic-figurative concepts of the museum relate to the existing historical and cultural artifacts, the ideas of a "living ethnic landscape", the life of people from re-created times and modern trends in the design of museum complexes.

«Северокавказский компонент» в керамике катакомбной культуры Калмыкии (происхождение и хронология)

Goal. The article aims to trace the origins and chronological position of pits and catacombs with left-sided burials and ‘North Caucasian’ ceramics. Materials. The paper describes burials with amphorae and red-ochre vessels from kurgans excavated in 1965, 1966, and 1986 in Kalmykia, as well as similar complexes from North Ossetia’s kurgans. Conclusions. The ‘North Caucasian component’ in the ceramics of the Ciscaucasian Catacomb culture marks the beginning of a ‘pure’ Ciscaucasian catacomb culture and attests to the participation of the Kuban-Terek culture in its formation associated with the common origin of both the Novosvobodnaya Dolmen culture and directly with the Corded Ware and Globular amphora cultures of Eastern Europe constituting the core of the Catacomb cultural complex. Mounds of the East Manych (Chogray Reservoir, Kalmykia) contain amphorae with asymmetrical handles with mugs and incense vessels, as well as red-ocher vessels with incense pots, that are untypical for the Coscaucasian Catacomb culture. The first researchers of this region noted the similarity between some vessels of the Ciscaucasian Catacomb culture (the so-called «Manych type») and ceramics discovered in the Novosvobodnaya dolmens and the alleged links between their burial rites as well. These facts were reflected in the hypothesis of the catacombs as a Renaissance form of the Caucasian dolmens, from which it follows that the Ciscaucasian catacomb culture has a local origin. These issues are closely related to the problem of the origin and chronology of the Catacomb culture in the Ciscaucasia and the North Caucasus for which a solution is proposed in this article.

Distribution of the Donetsk Type Beakers Among the Ingul Catacomb Culture Burials

The prominent pottery type of the Catacomb cultures of the northern Pontic steppe in 2500—2300 BC are the beakers of the Donetsk type. Donetsk beakers can be described as globular vessels with straight neck and articulated foot. Beaker’s body is often decorated with impressions of braid that form circles or a garland. Though the majority of Donetsk beakers originate from the burials of Donetsk Catacomb culture of the Seversky Donets basin, several beakers were found to the west from the Donetsk culture area. Currently, 14 Donetsk beakers coming from the Inhul Catacomb culture are known. Mapping of the Donetsk beakers found in the burials of the Inhul Catacomb culture indicates the distribution of the Eastern vessels among all local groups of the Inhul culture such as Molochansk, the North-Crimea, the Oril-Samara, the Southern and Northern Inhul and Kryvyi Rih territorial areas. As an exception can be named the Dniester-Southern Bug group. The latter is often described in historiography as an inclusion from outer influences during the second half of the 3rd millennia and the study of beakers is supported by such a conclusion. Mapping also reveals the concentration of Donetsk beakers near Kryvyi Rih copper ore basin, which had been exploited since the second half of the 4th millennia BC. It may be assumed that the appearance of Donetsk beakers represents the migration of Donetsk culture’s metallurgists who were searching for the new sources of raw materials. The distribution of the Donetsk Catacomb culture burials, as well as Donetsk beakers, allows reconstructing two routs of migration of the Donetsk people. Some of them could have come from the South, the North-Eastern Azov region. Others could have come from the North, the territory of the Left-bank Ukraine Forest-Steppe. Distribution areas of the Donetsk and Inhul cultures collide on the line Poltava-Lozova which is attested by the materials of Storozhove, Ternivka and Petrivka burial mound. Thus, numerous examples of Donetsk beakers found inside the burials of the Inhul Catacomb culture indicate a long-running migration of the Donetsk people from the Sevesky Donets basin to the Ukrainian Right-bank steppe during the period from 2500 to 2300 BC.

Погребения восточно-манычской катакомбной культуры из курганной группы Малые Дербеты-II (анализ половозрастного состава)

Introduction. The article focuses on the gender-age composition of the burials of the East-Manych Catacomb culture from the two mounds of the Malye-Derbety II mound group located in the northern part of the Ergeninskiy heights (Maloderbetovskiy region of the Republic of Kalmykia). The mounds were built on the Yamna-catacomb burials of a woman (mound No. 1) and a man (mound No. 2). Around the main burial there were inlet burials of the Catacomb culture. The publication of the materials of the Malye Derbety mound group in the monograph “The Ancient Necropolises of the Ergeninskiy Heights” is supplemented by the author’s appendices with the analysis of the anthropological materials (M. A. Balabanova) and the analysis of the pathological changes (E. V. Pererva). Due to the great number of burials belonging to the same archaeological culture and located in the certain order under the same mound, the additional more detailed examination of the peculiarities of their gender-age composition and the position on the mound plan is of great interest. Results. The archaeologists found the bones of three men, seven women and eight children in the Bronze Age burials. Both mounds each had one burial of a middle-age man: the main burial in mound 2 (40-50 years old) and inlet burial in mound 1 (35–45 years old), located to the south of the center of the mound. To the group of the men burials belongs the burial of a teenager (14–16 years old) from the group of inlet burials (mound 1, burial 7). To the group of women burials belong the burials of two elderly women: from the main burial of the mound 1 (40–50 years old) and the inlet burial 6 of the mound 1 (50 years old). The latter was located in the eastern part of the mound and was next to an 18-months old child. The other women of the inlet burials were younger (from 17 up to 30 years old). One of them was in the last months of pregnancy (mound 2 burial 5). It should be noted that all the burials of the young women were located in the western part of the mound. There were eight children and half of them were buried together with women.

THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT PHASESOF CATACOMB CULTURES REVISITED

Накопление археологического материала и увеличение количества исследований со временем приводит к необходимости сделать некоторые общие заключения. Проблема утверждения и раннего распространения катакомбного культурного феномена эпохи средней бронзы требует такого освещения. Выделение форм катакомбных погребальных конструкций, их стратиграфическая последовательность и соотношение с пиками климатических изменений дает основания выделить фазы, которые составляют ранний этап становления и распространения катакомбного образования на просторах Азово-Кубанской равнины и юго-западной части Нижнего Подонья. As time passes, accumulation of archaeological material and the increased number of studies necessitate some general conclusions. The emergence and the early spread of the Catacomb cultural phenomenon of the Middle Bronze Age call for such analysis. The identified forms of Catacomb burial constructions, their stratigraphic sequence and correlation with peaks of climatic changes provide grounds for singling out phases that constitute the early development stages of the Catacomb culture and its spread across vast areas of the Azov-Kuban Plain and the southwestern part of the Lower Don region.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF DEMEMBRATION IN THE FUNERAL PRACTICE OF THE LOWER DON CATACOMB CULTURE PEOPLE

The paper is devoted to the analysis of a series of Middle Bronze Age burials from the barrow cemeteries of Veselyi I, Chaltyrskiy XI, Glubokaya II and Molokanovskiy III in the Lower Don region. All of them present a hitherto unknown type of demembration which involves a complete of partial displacement of bones “in blocks”, i. e. in anatomical articulation. Judging by both their inventory and ritual details, the burials in question belong to the late stage of the Catacomb culture (late stage of the Donets culture, Bakhmur variant, and the Manych culture). The displacement of bones “in blocks” (and penetration into the grave) took place during the first year after the funeral. There is a number of hypotheses that attempt to explain the appearance of demembration in ritual practices of ancient people. The burial contexts described in this paper support the hypothesis ac- cording to which demembration served as a method of rendering the dear harmless.

MIDDLE BRONZE AGE BARROW BURIALS ON THE RIGHT BANK OF THE EYA RIVER IN THE EAST AZOV SEA REGION

The paper elucidates the results of archaeological excavations of destroyed barrow No. 1 of the Yuzhny VII cemetery situated on the right bank of the Eya river in the East Azov Sea region. Twelve burials were studied in the preserved part of the barrow. Seven of them date from the Mid- dle Bronze Age: two belong to the Catacomb culture, and three are presumably of the post-Cata- comb age. Six Т-shaped and one Н-shaped catacombs were studied, as well as burials Nos. 1 and 10 dating from the final of the Middle Bronze Age. The authors identify the place of the excavated complexes among the Bronze Age sites of the steppe Fore-Caucasus and provide evidence showing the influence exerted by the North Caucasian traditions on the Middle Bronze Age culture of the Eya river.