Buried Treasures and Hiding Places of Bronze Items with Iron Tools of the Hun-Sarmatian Age from the Middle Yenisei
Authors: Borodovsky A. P. , Oborin Yu. V. 
Published: May 2019

Purpose. The troves and hiding places containing iron tools in the Middle Yenisei region are located in the Nazarovskaya, the Chulymo-Yeniseiskaya and the Minusinskaya hollows. The study of the artifacts from these trove and hiding places helps to date them, interpret and systematize such collections of items. We aimed at providing absolute and relative dating for the artifacts found.
Results. It is possible to systematize the sites where the troves and hiding places containing iron tools are located on the basis of their hydrographic or orographic viscinity. The hydrographic context implies characterizing the location of a trove or a hiding place next to different water basins, such as rivers, lakes, etc., including river tributaries. The orographic context is considered as the location of a trove or a hiding place in a certain mountainous landscape, including mountain peaks, slopes, mound feet, mountain gorges, valleys, etc. Based on these criteria, the Middle Yenisei troves and hiding places belonging to the Hun-Sarmatian time were divided into two groups from the territorial point of view. The first group, which was identified according to the hydrographic location, includes the Askyrovskii, Sharypovskii, Shirinskii, Lugavskii, Shunerskii troves and hiding places and those located on the Ostrov Gladkii. The second group, which was located in a mountainous landscape, includes the Kasangol’skii, Sagarkhaiskii, Uibatskii, Ust’-Kamyshtinskii, 1st and 2nd Askizskii, Dzhirimskii troves and hiding places.The sets of iron tools discovered, which included different axes, ice breaks and iron breakers, stone hammers and adzes, allow us not only to relate and synchronize a whole array of troves, but also to significantly elaborate the interpretation of items within the framework of their functional purpose. Some troves containing iron tools were accompanied with adjacent small hiding places with similar sets of iron tools.
Conclusion. Summarizing the results of the discussion on the Middle Yenisei troves and hiding places containing different sets of iron tools, we can conclude the following. Firstly, based on the combination of several item complexes belonging to different periods of time, i. e. the Tagar time, the Hun time, the Bronze Age and sets of various iron tools, we should pay attention to the peculiarities of different collections, which help to determine a relative chronological distribution of the troves. Secondly, a number of the Middle Yenisei troves containing iron tools have a feature of being located in close vicinity to similar sets of tools buried in hiding places. This peculiarity is quite common for the Middle Yenisei troves as it has been consistently registered in a few cases, e. g., the Iyusskii trove, one located next to the town of Krasny Iyuss; the 1st and 2nd Kosogolskii Troves, etc. Thirdly, the presence of iron tools and sets of items inside a trove or a nearby hiding place can be directly related to the character of its production specialization, e. g., a caster's trove or a miner’s trove containing a set of tools for mining activities. On the whole, identification and study of troves and hiding places containing sets of various iron tools opens new perspectives for relative dating, interpreting and systematizing such collections of artifacts.