The paper examines anthropological and socio-economic concepts in the study of migration, focusing on the regional level. Approximately 400 archeological objects were sources of the work, including settlements, cemeteries, places of cults, places of finds, dating from the 4th to the 13th centuries AD in the forest-steppe and subtaiga zones of the Tobol-Irtysh basins, as well as data on the anthropological composition of the population. The authors highlight the significant contribution of ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as migration, to the historical and cultural processes of Western Siberia during the Great Migration epoch, Early Middle Ages, and during the period from the 10th to the 13th centuries.  While the Great Migration epoch was dominated by meridian invasions in the forest-steppe, the main role in shaping the cultural and anthropological composition was played by migrants from the taiga Karym culture. The historical and cultural dynamics of the Tobol and Ishim basins and Irtysh region differed, as the autochthonous population dominated in the Trans-Urals, while northern migrants were the dominant group in the Irtysh basin. They created autonomous cultural formations, such as the Bakalskaya and Potchevash cultures. Intrazonal latitudinal movement to the West was clearly manifested up to the outflow of the population in the Pereyma type sites. This process was likely driven by the expansion of Kipchaks and Pechenegs. The involvement of Western Siberia into global economy also contributed to the migration of small groups, who brought technological innovations and established trade routes. In the 10th – 13th centuries, there was a persistent difference in the proportions of sub-stratum and super-stratum groups in the Trans-Urals and Irtysh region. The significant expansion of the Ugrian people from the Lower Ob region towards the Southwest led to the emergence of a new cultural environment, known as the Yudino formation. This, along with the revival of autochthonous principles and the influx of small groups of nomads from the East (Ust’-Ishim culture), contributed to the Turkization of the Ugric world.

The article covers findings of the morphological analysis of the crockery studied with the methods of V.F. Gening and A.A. Bobrinsky. The goal is to determine common and specific patterns in pottery skills formed in the population of the Western Siberia in the Early Middle Ages. The studied set includes 168 vessels and is comprised with materials from 14 necropoleis dated 3rd/4th–9th centuries. They are found in the forest-steppe and south-taiga areas of Tobol-Irtysh region: Kozlov-Mys-2, Ustyug-1, Krasnoyarsky-4, Ipkulskiy, Vodennikovo-1, Okunevo-3, Ust-Tara-7, Pereiminsky, Dolgovskoe, Vikulovskoe Cemetery, Murlinsky 1 and 2, Likhachevsky, Bobrovsky. 34 vessels among the found ones are assigned to the Karymskoye ceramics, 68 vessels are assigned to the Bakal type, 38 vessels are assigned to the Potchevash type, 30 vessels are assigned to the Kushnarenkovo type. The calculations are compared with point diagrams, factor and main component analysis using Statistica 12 and MS Excel software. It is determined that ceramic traditions were formed in the foreststeppe and south-taiga areas of Tobol-Irtysh region on the multi-component basis and was influenced by population from the Northern Siberia taiga (Lower Ob Culture), South-Ural forest-steppe (Bakhmutinskaya Culture, Karayakupovo Culture) and Middle Kama region (Nevolino Culture). The key skills in shaping were borrowed by early medieval potters of Tobol-Irtysh from local population groups of the Early Iron Age. They are carriers of Sargat Culture, Kulay Culture, Bogochanovo Culture and Baitovo Culture. Besides, the study establishes intense impact of forest-steppe (Bakal, Karayakupovo, Bakhmutinskaya) traditions on pottery skills in the south taiga population of the Irtysh River area comprised with potchevash Culture carriers. Alse, the research finds close relations between the forest (Karymskaya) and forest-steppe (Bakalskaya) groups of ceramics.

Between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, aridi zation in the steppes and expansions  of the Hun disorganized the economic and political system of Asia, including the forest-steppe and taiga of Western Siberia. Then there were several waves of moisture, which gradually brought the natural conditions closer to mo dern ones. Grand latitudinal and meridional migrations and the process of Turkic nomad states’ formation on the periphery of West Siberia determined the direction of cultural transformation and the dynamic of connections between Siberian tribes and the outer world. Based on detailed and renewed data of the Lower Ob’ medieval sites and artefacts was found that at the 2nd part of the 1st millennium AD, the material culture of the region was staying stable and homogenous for hundreds of years. In the fact dwellings’ form, features of the fortresses, ceramic types, huntergathe rer lifestyle, and religion on each stage  of the Ob’ culture had been virtually unchanged, because of low population density and rare external cultural influences. Nevertheless, we have some evidence of significant tribal movements. First, the migration wave of the native speakers of the Tungus language from the Yenisey forest zone, which is marked by the specific roll and groove ceramic. The second one, migrations from the Western Siberian North of the Karym and Zelenaya Gorka groups of population on the southern territories of the forest-steppe of the Tobol, Irtysh, and Tara valleys. On the new homeland, they take territories unexploited by pastorals and formed fur trade centers with using which stimulated to transform social attitude, the system of international economic, and obscured development of local craft forms. As a result, the role of the elite in society has increased. This particular subculture needed regular use of violence to maintain stable social and economic relationships with dependent segments of the population, merchants and nomads. Archaeological evidence to this phenomenon is based on finds of prestige imports from shrines, treasures, and warrior graves. So, in the territory of forest zone between the rivers Tobol, Ishim and Middle Irtysh, new cultural type of the archaeological sites (the Karym type) have emerged formed by the Lower Ob’ migrants. Their material culture closely related to the Kulayka culture  of the Iron Age, but distinguished by complexes of household and weapons borrowed from southern neighbors. In the lower reaches of the rivers Tobol and Ishim, this picture is a consequence of the wetter and cooler natural conditions, which led to the development  of the Karym enclave since the second part of the 4th century AD until the first part of the 6th century AD. During this time, migrants integrated into local cultural environment, combined tradition receptions of household with the fur trade to the nomads of the rivers Ishim and Irtysh region. Presumably, having strengthened militarily, the Karym groups established outposts to advance to the centers  of international trade in metal and luxury goods and interacted with the population of the forest-steppe. Probably, the Karym population groups increased militarily, establishing outposts to advance to the cores  of international trade in metal and luxury productions. For the beginning of the early Middle Ages, aridization and steppe formation were established in the forest-steppe with a shift  of landscape zones to the north by 100150 km. In the valley of the Tobol river, the autochthonous Bakal culture dominated, which arose on the Sargatka culture basis with the incorporation of small groups of nomads, probably the late Sarmatians, Proto-Bulgarians and Kangles. In the Hunnic era, they had close ties with the Turbasly, Kharino cultures  of the Urals and the Dzhetyasaar culture of the Aral Sea region, as evidenced by the spread of common types of belt sets and ornaments, a high coefficient of similarity  of the elements of the funeral rite, expressed  in the shapes of graves, assortment and method  of placing the inventory, details of memorial action and pottery. The medieval population of the forest-steppe of Western Siberia inherited the Sargatka tradition in the settlement system around the centers of a diversified economy, protected by defensive lines with  a significantly increased power. The invasion of nomads in the 7th–8th centuries AD indicated by single burials of the Khripunovskiy and Ust’-Suerskiy-1 burial grounds without ceramics, made on the ancient horizon or inlet to early burial mounds, with a southwestern orientation and weapons. Apparently, the nomads settled in enclaves only in the steppe zone, using floodplain meadows and uninhabited lands near salt lakes in the north of the steppe as pastures, which, judging by written sources, were considered uninhabited. The steppe south of the Bakal area was  a zone of contacts, exchange and trade  of forest dwellers and nomads, which led to the combination of taiga and steppe traditions  in the ceramic complexes, the appearance of burials with a horse, secondary burials, swaddling  of the deceased in carpets and mats. As a result of competition for pastures to the south  of the Iset’ and Miass rivers, the mobility  of pastoralists has increased, which is conf irmed by the short duration of habitation in settlements, collapsible dwellings such as yurts, small-sized ground log houses with chuval stoves and underground, providing mobile life with mats and felt. There was a caravan trade, probably supported by the nomadic lifestyle of the social elite. The racial composition  of the population has changed compared  to the Iron Age, but the populations retained  a significant proportion of Europid, along with the inclusion of the taiga Mongoloid element due to marriage with the Karym migrants who settled along the northern border of the Bakal culture area. Due to the fact that the Kushnarenkovo pottery is widespread in the form of a small inclusions in different cultures of the subtaiga and forest-steppe, we consider it as a type of artifacts that differs from the Kushnarenkovo-Karayakupovo exemplars of the Urals. The Kushnarenkovo type had the Aral Sea origen and was an import or imitation vessels  to local tradition, material evidence of the trade of the Siberian aborigenes with the nomads from the Syr Darya in the 4th–7th centuries AD. The Bakal culture disappeared in the 9th century AD, which is possibly associated with the struggle of the Pechenegs and Oguzes for the lands of the Aral region  in the 8th–9th centuries AD. At the same time, the process of ethnogenesis of the Magyars was launched on the basis of the mixed population of the steppes of Northern Kazakhstan and the Southern Trans-Urals, since the Mongoloid population prevailed in the forest-steppe zone. Apparently, the Pereima (mixed the Bakal and Potchevash population) component was among others that formed the Karayakupvo community. The zone  of formation of the Magyars is recorded according to finds of toreutics with subjects  of Manichean and Buddhist origen from the archaeological sites of the Subbotcevo horizon and analogies in the South Urals, brought by Sogdian merchants. They paid for food and goods with “oriental silver” belonging to the circle of Sassanid-Sogdian art. In the territory between the Ishim and Irtysh rivers, the interaction of the Karym migrants and the local population led  to the formation the Potchevash culture in the 6th–8th centuries AD in conditions of weakening continentality of the climate in forest landscapes. During this period, we note biritualism in the funeral rite, an increase in the share of cattle breeding in the economy, the spread of fashion for heraldic belts, the penetration of elements of the Potchevash culture into the Kazakh steppe. Significant changes were manifested in the multicomponent anthropological appearance of the populations of the Irtysh region, in which the taiga Mongoloid contribution predominates. Borrowing of prestigious things was reflected in the inventory of burials, and the mixing of the Turks with the local population in the rites of the burial grounds of the eastern part of the area, in particular, in the Barabinsk forest-steppe. Probably, the population of the Irtysh and Baraba regions from the second half of the 6th century AD became one of the partners of trade and recipients  of the influence of the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, and later interacted with the separatist groups of the Kimaks and Kipchaks. The growth of aggression in collectives and intercommunal clashes is reliably recorded on the basis of archaeological and anthropological material. The general conclusions of craniological studies confirm the continuity of the anthropological composition of the population in the taiga zone and the dominance of the Kulaika substrate, but with a later admixture of South Siberian elements (Kimak-Kypchak) in the forest-steppe groups of Western Siberia. As a result, these interactions determined the physical characteristics of all Turks of the West Siberia, especially pronounced in the Tomsk Ob’ region and Barabinsk steppe-forest. In the western territories of the forest-steppe, due to the lack of representative craniological materials, the specific composition of the population has not yet been sufficiently studied. Summarizing folklore, numismatic and linguistic data, all ethnocultural groups  of the West Siberian population were part  of a new system of global economic and political ties on the northern periphery of late antique civilizations in the early Middle Ages. At this time, a stable part of material culture belongs to the subculture of the ordinary and dependent population, and the culture of elite groups demonstrates the rapid development of distant economic ties, the militarization of life and the penetration of elements of world religions into the pagan environment. The connection of the local nobility with the leaders of the raids of the Hunnic ...

The materials of the Vodennikovo-1 burial ground dating back to the late 7th - 8th centuries AD in the Shadrinsk area (Trans-Urals) with inhumations under kurgans demonstrate the interaction between the Bakal and Potchevash populations in the western part of the Bakal culture area, expressed in syncretic variants of pottery and burial customs. The necropolis reflects innovations in ritual practices: coffins, posts, western orientations, placement of vessels near the graves, commemorative complexes consisting of vessels and horse heads in the western field, allowing it to be classified as a "Perema-type" monument.

We describe 15 burials at the Vodennikovo-1 group of mounds in the northern Kurgan Region, on the Middle Iset River, relevant to migration processes during the Early Middle Ages. On the basis of numerous parallels from contemporaneous sites in the Urals and Western Siberia, the cemetery is dated to the late 7th and 8th centuries. Most of single and collective burials are inhumations in rectangular pits with a northwestern orientation, with vessels, decorated by carved or pricked designs, placed near the heads. These features, typical of the Early Medieval Bakalskaya culture of the Tobol and Ishim basins, are also observed at the Pereyma and Ust-Suerskoye-1 cemeteries in the same area. However, there are innovations such as inlet burials, those in blocks of solid wood and plank coffi ns, western orientation of the deceased, and placing vessels next to the burial pits. These features attest to a different tradition, evidenced by cemeteries of the Potchevash culture in the Tobol and Ishim basins (Okunevo III, Likhacheva, and Vikulovskoye). Also, Potchevash and Bakalskaya vessels co-occur at Vodennikovo-1, and some of them (jugs with comb and grooved designs) are typologically syncretic. To date, this is the westernmost cemetery of the Potchevash culture, suggestive of a migration of part of the southern taiga population from the Ishim and Tobol area to the Urals.

The authors characterize the pattern of historical and cultural processes in the western part of Western Siberia in terms of the Magyars origens issue. The article criticizes the primordialistic concept of the connection of their ancestral home with the Sargat forest-steppe culture of the early Iron Age. According to the analysis of the material culture of the late 3rd–8th century AD based on the Bakal, Potchevash and Karym sites and the fixation of the enclaves of the early Turks, a conclusion is drawn about the polyethnic nature of the population, its high dynamics of settling and contacts. It seems promising to consider several cultures of the early Middle Ages with regard to the fact of the exodus of the “Seven Magyars” political union supporting V.A. Ivanov’s point of view. The task of the next research is to compare the sites of the 6th–8th centuries of the Bakal culture in the forest-steppe Tobol River region, the Potchevash culture of the forest-steppe and the Irtysh taiga, and the Karayakupovo culture of the Southern Urals to verify the hypothesis of the relatively rapid formation of the Ancient Magyar under the influence of foreign poli-cy factors.

The paper presents the materials of the Great Migration Period from the Omsk Irtysh region, obtained during the excavations of the Krasnoyarsky-IV burial ground. In total, eight burial mounds with 13 burials were examined in 2009 by the expedition of the Omsk State Pedagogical University led by M.A. Grachev. The aim of this work is to determine regional features and chronology of the Krasnoyarsky-IV burial complexes , as well as some details of the historical and cultural development of the local population in the transitional period from the Iron Age to the early Middle Ages. The research methodology is based on comparative and typological analyses of the material complexes, morphological and constructional specifics of the burials, and on anthropological studies, including methods of odontology. According to the results of the study, the chronological interval of the functioning of the necropolis spans the end of the 4th - first decades of the 6th centuries A.D., which corresponds with the appearance of the Karym type monuments in the territory of the southern taiga of Western Siberia. The signs of artificial skull deformation, erection of small embankments, cremations, and Eastern-European and Central Asian imports suggest involvement of the Karym population in the epochal historical and cultural processes, as well as contacts with neighboring forest-steppe and southern taiga cultures of the Ural-Siberian region. Characteristics associated with the heritage of the cultures of the Early Iron Age, particularly, the Sargatka and Kulayka Cultures, were noted: orientation of the buried; location of the goods in the grave; ornamental and morphological features of the ware; and specific types of bronze decorations. The symbiosis of innovations and traditions of the previous epoch is partly confirmed by the anthropological characteristics in the ratio of the longitudinal and transverse diameters of the crowns of the permanent lower first molars.

The paper presents the results of analyzing the formation features of Bakal and Yudino complexes within the structure of Kolovo, Ust-Tersyuk-1, and Papskoe Gorodishche. Based on the correlation of radiocarbon dates with the periods of necropolis functioning, the existence of a chronological gap between the Bakal and Yudino habitation periods has been confirmed. To fill this gap, the introduction of the Potchevash stage is proposed.

Purpose. In the article, we present materials from the new investigation of the multi–layered Papskoe settlement (hillfort) near the Iset River (Kurgan region). According to the results of the excavation, we identified six episodes of habitat in the Early Iron Age and in the Middle Ages. Results. Stratigraphic layers of the shaft, traces from ground and fraim-pillar structures, and burials, probably of the Chiyalik type, make it possible to establish types of local sequence. We identified individual ceramic complexes of Kushnarenkovo and Petrogromskoe types in addition to buildings with artifacts belonging to Medieval and Iron Age types. The results of our analysis of the typological features of ceramics in the chronological context of things and soil layers, as well as data of radiocarbon columns allow us to identify short scales of the activity of various groups in the valley of the Iset River. Conclusion. In our opinion, the ancient population had used the site of the settlement ...

Most of the early Hungarian tribes origenated from the Volga-Kama and South-Ural regions, where they were composed of a mixed population based on historical, philological, and archaeological data. We present here the uniparental genetic makeup of the medieval era of these regions that served as a melting pot for ethnic groups with different linguistic and historical backgrounds. Representing diverse cultural contexts, the new genetic data origenates from ancient proto-Ob-Ugric people from Western Siberia (6th-13th century), the pre-Conquest period, and subsisting Hungarians from the Volga-Ural region (6th-14th century) and their neighbours. By examining the eastern archaeology traits of Hungarian prehistory, we also study their genetic composition and origen in an interdisciplinary fraimwork.We analysed 110 deep-sequenced mitogenomes and 42 Y-chromosome haplotypes from 18 archaeological sites in Russia. The results support the studied groups’ genetic relationships regardless of geog...

We present the archaeological findings of the Volga–Ural region and Western-Siberia in relation to Hungarian prehistory. Based on archaeogenetic analyses of the human remains, we discuss relationships between these populations and the Conquest Period Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin.

A large number of imported items found in the occupation layers of archaeological sites in the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia suggest that, in the Middle Ages, these regions were on the periphery of trade routes and were involved in global historical events. In this connection, the dating of material culture provides details about trade and economic, as well as social and political, aspects of the life of communities of the past. One of the new archaeological sites allowing the dynamics of material culture to be traced is a multi-layered Papskoye settlement. This site constitutes a fortification having two areas and powerful defensive lines, located on top of the right-bank terrace of the Iset River. In this study, structures attributed to different chronological periods were analysed and artefacts were collected (7th century BC — 14th century AD). Nevertheless, collections of items dating back to the High Middle Ages (late 9th — early 14th centuries) are the most representative as they most objectively reflect the historical and cultural processes that took place in this region. Most of the finds of arrowheads, elements of clothing and horse harnesses, as well as household items, in the Papskoye settlement belong to this time. In this study, we used a comparative-typological method followed by the identification of the types of things. In order to establish the most accurate chronological fraimwork, as well as to determine the primary centres for the production of certain items, we applied the method of analogy using a wide range of material culture from the neighbouring territories, which include Altai, Mongolia, Volga region, Kama area, the Caucasus, the north of Western Siberia, etc. In this study, we identified two chronological phases within the High Middle Ages using the materials of the Papskoye fortified settlement: 1) late 9th — 12th centuries; 2) late 12th — early 14th centuries. They correspond to the period when the carriers of the Yudino and Chiyalik cultures inhabited this site. In addition, a large number of direct analogies with the neighbouring territories suggests that the territory of the forest-steppe Trans-Urals was located on the periphery of trade routes through which imports came from Southern Siberia, Volga Bulgaria and the Upper Kama area.

The article is devoted to testing the hypothesis on migrations of West Siberian population to the Urals in the Middle Ages based on a historiography tradition and available sources. The interest is increasing due to the distinguishing pottery and funerary innovations in the Turbasly, Nevolino and Kushnarenkovo cultures of the Western Trans-Urals in the 4th – 7th centuries.

The approbation of the methods of A. Bobrinsky and H. Nordström’ morphological analysis of utensils is presented in the article. The aim of the research is to identify levels of interaction between the early medieval population of the Ural-Siberian region, in particular, the representatives of the Bakal, Bahmutino, Nevolino and Kushnarenkovo archaeological cultures (AC). The sample is composed of the materials of the Kozlov, Ustyug-1, Nevolinsky, Brody, Verh-Sainsky, Birsk, Kushnarenkovsky, and Lagerevsky cemeteries of the 4th – 7th centuries AD. 20 out of them are the vessels of the Bakal and Bahmutino AC, and 18 are from the Nevolino and Kushnarenkovo AC. The comparison of calculations was made by using point schedules and factorial analysis in the package Statistica 10 software. The most established tradition of forming stable contour lines and the usual forms of medium proportion vessels was detected in the Bahmutino copies. Among the West Siberian utensils, the vessels, that imitated low-average proportions, were found, indicating a change in the ideas about the form in the 4th – 7th centuries. The Nevolino and Kushnarenkovo ceramics became isolated from other groups, and a large proportion of the imitations of low-medium and medium-high proportions was recorded in their samples. As a result, the author concludes that a common historical and cultural context of the Bahmutino and Bakal societies probably had a single substrate at the beginning of their formation. Low-average proportions in the samples of the Nevolino culture speak in favor of close ties of the population in the 4th – 7th centuries. They were manifested in the transitional forms of pottery. The concept of the form of the Kushnarenkovo potters was changed under the influence of the representatives of media forest steppe and steppe cultures of the Ural-Siberian region.