The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-25
RUSSIAN MOUND BUILDERS.
Light Thrown Upon EthnoiogicaA
Problems by siberian Archaeology.

London Standard.
A telegram from our Moscow correspond
ent this morning tells us that a french
archaeologist. Baron de Bay, mas peen i
some months past engaged In excaVatlns
three sepuichral mounds IN the hels saa ~n
are interesting, and this for more thah one
reason. The mounds, or kurgans, are COM
different people or to very distinct epochs
in the history of the same people. some OF
them are not more than three nun.
dred years Old while the most ancient
only GO three centuries turther pach.
Details, of course at present, are wanting,
but we may venture to suggest that
the dates can only be appncaple 70 d
particular group of kurgans, or TO those m
a limited district such as the vicinity OF
Tomsk because it seems certain that many
of these tumuli in Siberia belong to muc caa
earlier period. In many countries the haplt
of mound building is mark or remote
antiquity. In Europe as in Brltaln an0
France, il is mainly pre-Roman' ,houS ate ~
date. These remains are ABUNDANT IN o.,
IBERIA, which seems to have been innaplted
since neohthic tines-that Is, When Weapons
were made of stone often smoothed and
polished. and before bronze was known.
The people using them were followed by a
race that knew bronze and not iron, and to
them succeeded the folk acquainted with
iron. Many parts. in fact, OF Siberia snow
the usual succession.
But we must not conclude that the dates
of these different stages OF civiilzatlon are
and central Europe. Probably the contrary
is the case, and every stage was reached
distinctly later in the former nan ra en sons one
why Siberian archaeology Is likely TO pc
exceptionally interesting. Here prlmevai
customs, as in some other parts OF ASA,
may be found lingering into the present
century, as they do in the khasia GhautS
of India. In fact, no one can read tne ue-
scriptions of the Samoyedes of northern
Siberia without perceiving that among
them the traveller is brought very near to
toms. and superstitions of these nomads he
may see depicted the races which once
wandered over our own isianns or .le
neighboring parts of Europe. The turtle
backed tumuli or Tomsk correspond In
plan, we presume, better with the long par
rows than with the round barrows of the
West Here they are generally the earlier.
often containing, where circumstances per-
nit. chambers built of great blocks or
stone, and as bronze has not been found i'm
them, they are referred to the stone. age
But this rule need not apply TO
are ascribed to quite late date. The posi-
ton of Tomsk should make 1T an Interest,"
ing center. ;.
lies in belt of country, extending for
considerable distance to east and west.
which is mainly occupied by Tartars; to
the south. Russians dominate; to the north,
the Ostiaks. Both of the earlier races, to
say nothing of any predecessors-for such
them. But with most of these races we
are not now concerned; the latest-the
working of bronze silver and gold, but ig-
norant of iron-are supposed to have ar
rived in Siberia about the third century
before the Christian era. Some eight hum
dred years later there was an immigration
of the khagasses and other Turkish stocks.
who were acquainted with the metallurgy
of iron. Their work ultimately attained
considerable artistic perfection, and the do
mion of the Khagasses lasted till the thir-
teenth century. Then they were subdued
by irTuptions of the Mongols, under Jen-
ghiz Khan, who conquered them and de-
stroyed their civilization. Hence, the ar
tistic relics described by your correspon-
dent probably belong to the Turkish race,
and the inferior, but later, work Is that
the Russians reached the country In the
latter part of the sixteenth century it had
gone back a long way toward barbarism.
In these circumstances, the later graves
will be of comparatively little value. but
the earlier will probably add new facts to
the history of a race which has already
engaged the attentive interest of Russian
archaeoogists.