KozhukhovaE.I., MustafinKh.Kh., SemenovV.A., UchanevaE.N. Reconstructing Ethnocultural Processes in the Sausken Valley (Tuva) during the Later Half of the 1st Millennium BC
Authors: Kilunovskaya Marina E. ,   Institute for the History of Material Culture Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint-Petersburg, Russia), Alborova Irina E. , Anikeeva Olga V. , Brown Samantha , Busova Varvara S. , Kozhukhova Evgeniia I. , Mustafin Kharis K. , Semenov Vladimir A. , Uchaneva Evgeniia N. ,   Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) (Moscow, Russia),   State Research Institute for Restoration (Moscow),   Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany),   Institute for the History of Material Culture Russian Academy of Sciences. (Russia, Saint-Petersburg),   National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute". 1 Kurchatov Square, 123182 (Russian Federation, Moscow),   Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) (Moscow, Russia),   Institute for the History of Material Culture Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint-Petersburg, Russia),   Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
Published: July 2024

The article represents findings of the group research devoted to reconstructing ethnocultural processes of the second half of the 1st millennium BC (Sausken Terrain Feature, Tuva). The research comprehensively studies local population groups who left behind their burial monuments in Eerbek River Valley. The study engages geneticist, ancient technologies experts, anthropologists and archaeologists. Kurgans of the middle and late Uyuk-Sagly Culture (5th–2nd century BC) were excavated in 2011–2016 by Tuva archaeological expedition arranged by the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for the History of Material Culture. Nearly all burials in the kurgans had been robbed back in the ancient days. The study analyses above-ground structures and internal layouts of the kurgans, the burial ritual and tools (weapons, mirrors, belt accessories, bone items, embellishments). It allows to conclude that the kurgans have varying cultural attributions. The research also implies instrumental process analysis of glass and stone beads, chromatography of fabrics and proteomic analysis of archaeological leather. The paper reveals radiocarbon dating (14C) and correlations with other burial monuments of the Scythian Tuva. Craniological materials analysed allow to determine populations that could have been related to the aliens who arrived at the Eerbek River Valley in the Uyuk times. The Ozen-Ala-Belig groups differ from their peers from other territories in Tuva. It might be explained through the Uyuyk migrants mixing with the Eerbek Valley people who had been living there since the late Bronze Age. The paleogenetic study of 19 items especially focuses on researching the Y-chromosome DNA. For many researched samples the study determines haplogroups Q1b1a3-L330 and R1a1a1b2-Z93 (or its subgroups). The area of spread for these haplogroups is Soviet Central Asia, Central Asia, West and South Siberia. One samples is assigned to I2a1b1-M223 haplogroups with the area of spread in the Balkans and South-Eastern Europe. The obtained findings may indicate that the Western and Eastern nomads kept in touch during the researched period. The archaeological, anthropological and genetic data lead to a conclusion that the Scythian cultures in the given region is complex and multi-faceted.