Late Bronze Appearance of the Culture of the Population of Southern Transbaikalia, Central and Eastern Mongolia Steppes in the Scythian Period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2024.5.80.93Keywords:
archaeology, Mongolia, Southern Transbaikalia, Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, slab burials culture, palaeogeography, aridization, adaptation, transformation, migratory habits (nomadic) pastoralism, traditionAbstract
The article presents an explanation of the phenomenon of preservation of a complex of material culture, burial rites, and burial structures of the Late Bronze Age in the culture of the population of the Scythian period in the eastern part of northern Central Asia. The reasons for this phenomenon are formulated: the formation of the nomadic culture of slab burials in Mongolia and Transbaikalia in the middle of the II millennium BC as a result of the adaptation of the population of the Selenga-Dauriya culture of the Early Bronze Age to natural climatic changes in the region - the establishment of a dry, warm climate, the transition from home-based pastoral farming and a sedentary lifestyle to nomadic cattle breeding and a nomadic, semi-nomadic lifestyle. From that time on, the complex of material and spiritual culture (burial goods, religious beliefs and burials rites) of the bearers of the slab burials culture were associated with the nomad economy and way of life. The economic and cultural type of nomadic, semi-nomadic cattle breeding among the population of this culture continued to be preserved during the Late Bronze Age, and then in the Early Iron Age. Therefore, with the beginning of the Scythian era, there was no change in archaeological culture here. The region was still inhabited by bearers of this cultural formation. Their material and spiritual culture continued to largely retain its Late Bronze Age appearance. They led the same nomadic lifestyle, continued to use Karasuk-type objects, adhered to the same religious beliefs and buried their dead according to the same burial rites. Some changes in material and spiritual culture were not of a fundamental nature and concerned only some details in certain spheres of life of the nomads of the Mongolian Trans-Baikal steppes.
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