Review on the Monograph Gorbunov V.V., Tishkin A.A.“The Srostki Culture Barrows on the Ob Plateu“. 2022

Abstract

In 2022, the monograph "The Srostki culture barrows on the Ob Plateau" was published, prepared by scientists of the Altai State University V.V. Gorbunov and A.A. Tishkin. The publication is dedicated to the generalization and systematization of archaeological materials of the Srostki sites studied over 150 years on the Ob Plateau. The main publication part of the monograph includes the results of ASU research in the late 1990s – early 2000s, including 34 burial sites on the left bank of the Middle Ob, the valley of the Lower Alei and Charysh. As a result of the typological analysis of the artifacts and the subsequent systematization of the burial rite elements, the necropolises were dated to the second half of the 8th to the 12th centuries AD (divided into stages). The authors managed to create a picture of the ethnosocial processes that took place among the population of the Srostki community during this period and to identify stable features characteristic of the Srostki sites of the studied region: barrow necropolises or, much less often, necropolises without mounds; a row arrangement of burials with the allocation of a central burial; moats or frame-fences; pillars at the "head end" of the graves; above-ground coverings of burial pits; intra-grave frames with a covering and a floor; an elongated position of the deceased with orientation towards the eastern sector. The combination of all these features or the presence of most of them can be united by the concept of "Srostki burial assemblage" in the studied culture.