May 9 11:00
Scientists from Altai State University have discovered evidence of the presence of the first representatives of Homo Sapiens in the vicinity of Belokurikha. The find was made at the Ulyanovka-3 archaeological site.
As sibnovosti.ru writes, work in this area began back in 2014, and three years later, when laying a high-voltage power line, they came across a mound. It turned out that there was an ancient settlement here, whose lower layers date back to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era – the period when Homo sapiens was just beginning to settle in the territory of the modern Altai Territory.
Several domestic horizons have been identified on the site: from the Early Upper Paleolithic to the Scythian time. In the Scythian era, a large necropolis functioned at this place. The monument is located 200 meters from the city limits of Belokurikha, in the northern foothills of Altai, on the left bank of the Berezovka River.
During the excavations, archaeologists found five burials, including a child’s. One of them was located under a mound. The burials dated back to the 8th–3rd centuries BC and were attributed to the Pazyryk culture – this is indicated by the ritual: the deceased was laid on his side with his legs bent. In one of the graves, a man of 40-50 years old was first buried, and later a woman of the same age was buried next to him. Radiocarbon dating showed that a century and a half passed between these events. Most likely, the buried were related.
In addition to the burials, archaeologists recovered fragments of ceramics, a fragment of a bronze awl and animal bones. Researchers have established that different tribal groups lived in this territory for about 500 years and successively buried their dead here.
The Pazyryk culture of the 6th–3rd centuries BC is famous for the “frozen” mounds of the Altai Mountains with mummified remains and tattoos. Research shows that by the end of its existence, northern groups of Pazyryk people participated in the formation of the population of the Upper Ob region.
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Related links:
- Siberian Federal University scientists studied jewelry for indigenous Siberians, made to order by Russian craftsmen
- In the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, archaeologists have discovered finds from the Middle Paleolithic.
