Introduction

In the course of excavations of necropolises of the second and third quarters of the second millennium AD in the contact zone of the northern taiga and southern Turkic-speaking nomadic population in the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, a group of archaeological sites was investigated, the peculiar structure of which allows us to speak of them as an independent type of archaeological sites. Structures of this kind were first discovered in the north of the forest-steppe and in the south of the forest belt in the 1970s (Sobolev, 1978). However, at that time it was not possible to identify them as an independent type of monument due to the rare nature of such finds, which had pronounced traces of external damage. Moreover, they were perceived as looted burials made according to the cremation rite, or as cenotaphs [Ibid.]. Subsequent excavations of a complex of multi-time necropolises in the Sopka tract at the confluence of the Om and Tartas rivers allowed us to clarify information about the internal structure of a number of such objects, determine their cult character and link them with traces of actions performed at the final stage of parting with the ytterma-a temporary receptacle of one of the souls of a deceased person, which was made in the form of an anthropomorphic statue or doll. The obtained data made it possible to raise the question of identifying the Southern Khanty (Kyshtovo) archaeological culture in the Ob-Irtysh forerunner (Molodin, 1990) and,together with finds from other sites, to identify its characteristic stable ceramic tradition, which has been traced in the region for the second millennium and is well correlated with data on the Ugric belonging of various objects at different times (Molodin, 1990). Sobolev and Solov'ev, 1990, pp. 173-175]. In the course of further research, on the southern periphery of the forest belt of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, the Ust-Izes-1 funerary and ritual complex was identified (Fig. 1), which is culturally related

Fig. 1. Location of Sopka-2 and Ust-Izes-1 monuments

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a group of funerary monuments in the Barabinsk forest-steppe and ritual objects of the Sopka-2 monument. In addition, it contained structures similar to the religious buildings of Sopka-2.

Discussion of materials

The objects under consideration were practically identical in appearance to mounds. They were domed earth structures (Figs. 2, 1), which did not contain burials, but in the center of the mounds often preserved fragments of charred poles and logs - the remains of walls and ceilings of quadrangular sub-rectangular structures erected at the level of the buried soil (Figs. 2,2, 3). Various objects were found inside them: iron and bone arrowheads (Fig. 4, 1, 2), iron knives and their horn handles, moonlight badges decorated with grain (Fig. 5), belt pads (see Fig. 4, 4), punctures (Fig. 6, 1), earrings, iron petal pendants (see figs. 4, 3), metal faceted twisted rod with rings (see figs. 6, 2), burnt

2. Cult complex No. 5. Ust-Izes-1. 1 - appearance before the excavation; 2-corner part of the burnt structure.

Fig. 3. Remains of burnt wooden log cabins under embankments (first type). Sopka-2.

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fragments of ornamented wooden plates (Fig. 7) and dishes (cups, troughs). Of particular interest are partially preserved wooden sculptures: a small figure of a bird-shaped idol (Molodin, 1990) and rather large (up to 0.5 m) anthropomorphic sculptures (Fig. 8) (Molodin, 1992).

Among the latter, there are figures with a round or pointed head. At the base of wooden structures, as a rule, there were inverted round-bottomed vessels (Figs. 9, 10) with a corolla in the form of a wide collar, decorated (along the cut and in the upper third of the product) with an ornament in the form of a horizontal combed herringbone or grid, and mainly two (rarely three or more) belts of pits, one of which is located under the corolla, and the other - on the body. Field observations and experimental results suggest that mounds were erected over most structures when the fire subsided and the heat began to subside (Molodin and Glushkov, 1992).

On the Sopka-2 monument, all the objects under consideration fit seamlessly into the planigraphy of more ancient burial grounds; they were located along the same line as the previous ones.-

Figure 4. Items from places of worship. Sopka-2.

1,2 - iron and bone arrowheads; 3-iron pendant (cult complex N 2); 4-bronze belt pad (cult complex N 2).

5. Silver pendants from the religious complexes Ust-Izes-1 (1) and Sopka-2 (2).

6. Objects from the cult complex No. 2. Sopka-2.

1-horn piercing; 2-pointed iron rod with rings.

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Fig. 7. Ornamental wooden products. Sopka-2.

1 - plank; 2, 3-trough.

Figure 8. Wooden statues. Sopka-2.

1-bird-shaped idol; 2, 3-wooden statues; 4-round-headed idol.

at night or in small groups in the inter-camp area. On the territory of the Ust-Izes-1 complex, such objects were identified as part of the kurgan chain. On the Sopka-2 monument, one object was located above the mound of a burial mound of the 13th-14th centuries, which contained the burial of a man with a" stuffed " horse (Molodin and Solovyov, 1995). This, together with the characteristic complex of Mongolian arrowheads, belt linings, pendants and lunnits, determines the time of construction of the objects under consideration in both monument complexes.

A comparison of the structures on both monuments revealed their typological differences. Of course, the scheme proposed below will be somewhat conditional, because it is based on materials from deliberately destroyed (burned) complexes, the degree of preservation of which largely depends on the intensity and duration of combustion, as well as the CCA.-

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9. Inverted vessels in burnt structures.

1, 3-Sopka-2; 2-Ust-Izes-1.

10. Vessels from cult complexes. Sopka-2.

difficulties of subsequent backfilling of buildings with soil. Nevertheless, the steady repetition of the main set of reconstructed features makes it possible to hope for the validity of the division.

The proposed typological division of places of worship is based on the complexity of their internal structure. The first type includes large covered structures made of logs, stacked in several (at least three or four) crowns, with vessels in the corners (see Fig. 3). In one of these objects, a fragment of the lower jaw of a person was found. Sometimes shallow, rounded pits are fixed along the wall line, outlining the outline of the structure. Some of them have preserved the remains of vertical columns, which were probably of constructive significance. Inside a number of buildings, a shallow pit was found that cut through the mainland (yellow loam). It is possible to assume its presence on other objects, if in the thickness of the black loamy sandy loam below the level of the walls there were remnants of birch bark sheets that covered the bottom. In these cases, the depth of the pit did not exceed the thickness of the sod-humus layer. Thus, we can talk about variants of structures of the first type: with a" deep " (cutting through the mainland) pit and with pits; with the same cavity and without pits; with a small depression in the thickness of the humus layer and pits around the perimeter; with a similar pit and without pits. The roofs of all such structures, judging by the shape and uniform longitudinal arrangement of the rafters (in cases where this could be traced), were most likely flat or semi-gable.

The second type is a simplified version of structures with a smaller number of vessels at the base, thinner and lighter walls, and smaller pits (Fig. 11, 1-3).

The third type is represented by a charred birch bark cloth, a vessel on it, and small burnt poles that were used to assemble the hut (Figs. 11, 4). As a variant (subtype), there are structures without a noticeable earth embankment. The vessels may have shown signs of deliberate damage; some are represented by only half a pot. There are charred bones.

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Fig. 11. Cult complexes.

1 - 3-Ust-Izes-1; 4-Sopka-2.

The fourth type shows a further simplification of the ritual; it is a mound with puncture marks. small pits (or without them) with burnt faunal remains.

The fifth type is almost empty mounds with faint traces of fire, which are most often perceived as cenotaphs during excavations.

Mounds over structures of the first and second types are the most prominent. The mounds of other objects can be quite large or barely noticeable.

It draws attention to the similarity in the structure of some types of places of worship and residential buildings. Structures of the first and second types find parallels among the semi-earths known from the Selkups and Ob Ugrians [Sokolova, 1998, p. 25, 38, 39]. Buildings of the third type have analogues among lightweight frame-post structures of summer homes, etc.

It is possible to emphasize the semantic variability of monuments: on Sopka-2 there are more than 47 structures of the Kyshtovo culture and only three burials of this culture are indisputably present [Molodin and Solov'ev, 2004, p. 29, Fig. 61; p. 24, fig. 50, 51]. At the same time, the number of places of worship on the Ust-Izes-1 monument coincides with the number of underground burials. We can even talk about a correlation in terms of labor and material costs between burials and religious buildings. In quantitative terms, objects belonging to the first, most complex, variant correspond to burials with a "skin" or "stuffed" horse - the most representative in terms of inventory and completeness of rituals performed and belonging to the local elite, which borrowed many prestigious elements of material culture from nomadic societies.

The materials of the groups of grave structures on the Sopka-2 and Ust-Izes-1 monuments reflect the simplification of the funeral ceremony. First of all, the "basic" rites were performed - the most important from the point of view of the ideological program of posthumous rebirth and return to one's own kind, the necessary minimum of which could guarantee the realization of the life cycle. These include all ritual acts related to the construction of a grave and the construction of a mound, the placement of an established set of equipment. All other acts were obviously considered desirable, but not mandatory; their implementation depended on the material capabilities of the burials. The materials of burials of younger age groups (children of 2.5 - 3 years, teenagers) also demonstrate an indisputable simplification of the ritual; they are located away from the burial mounds and

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Not only do they not have birch bark structures inside and on top of pits, but also earth mounds (Solov'ev, 2006, p. 23). According to the ideas of the Ugric and Samoyedic populations of Western Siberia, children up to a certain age have not yet severed their connection with the worlds from which they came and where their ancestors go [Gemuev, 1980, p.128; Kulemzin and Lukina, 1977, p. 150]. Therefore, part of the ritual actions performed at the burial of adults was omitted in the event of the premature death of such children. For example, ytterma dolls depicting the deceased were not made for them. The burned objects also have the simplest versions of structures that can be associated with children's burials.

The connection of" cult complexes " with funerary rites can also be indirectly indicated by vessels that are in an inverted state, with traces of deliberate damage. It should be noted that no broken fragments of pots in complexes were found in any object. This, in our opinion, indicates that by the time of the "burial" things were already damaged. It is important to note that some ceramic products were in pits. According to the traditional societies of the Ob Ugrians, Samoyeds of the Lower Ob region, and Turks of Southern Siberia, other worlds to which the dead go were inverted reflections of the world of living people (and what was broken here became whole there [Kulemzin, 1994, p.152-153; 1994, p. 377]). Lowering the body into a pit that goes deep into the earth, as well as burying objects or, on the contrary, placing them on a height, could be considered as their movement, in the broad sense of the word, departure, transportation beyond the boundaries of earthly existence [Kosarev, 2003, pp. 145-148, 156-158]. Let us also note that in all cases known to us in medieval archeology of the pre-taiga Ob-Irtysh region, the vessels under the burial mounds near the graves (Maly Chulankul-1, Ust-Izes-2, Kyshtovka-1) were upside down or were deliberately fragmented. A similar position of dishes in grave pits is preserved at the monuments of the developed and late Middle Ages Sadovka-2, Turunovka-2, Kyshtovka-1, -2, Bergamak II, Kryuchnoye-6, Abramovo-10 [Molodin, Sobolev, Solovyov, 1990, p. 117, Fig. 96; Sobolev, 1978, pp. 93-94; Molodin, 1979, p. 49, Tables XII, 3; XVII, 2, 3, Fig. 1, 3; Korusenko, 2003, pp. 38-39, Fig. 52, 55].

Thus, arranging and then in the process of ritual burning religious buildings, people turned to the otherworldly levels of the universe. And if the mentioned vessels and pits can be interpreted as evidence of an appeal to the lower worlds, into which the "grave" soul descends, then the act of burning should be understood as a message to the upper, bright spheres, guaranteeing the revival of another soul sent here. Both the cult and burial mound complexes appear to us as links of a single ritual chain separated in time-traces of rituals performed at the initial and final stages of the process of transferring the souls and bodies of a deceased tribesman to the mythical space with which their subsequent destinies are connected (Molodin and Solov'ev, 2007).

The search for answers to questions about the origin of such cult complexes is difficult. Some experts find a correspondence between "burnt" buildings and quadrangular memorial structures (fences) of the ancient Turkic period, containing archaeological objects, including dishes, traces of fire and a human sculpture, the meaning of which is still not agreed upon [Adamov, 2000, pp. 24-28]. However, in our opinion, the main structural and typological differences between "burnt" places and ancient Turkic memorial sites, the sacred meaning of which was based on the idea of the eternity of their existence, and the myth-ritual structure assumed the need for repeated visits and the performance of new rituals, are the "one-time" use of wooden buildings, the short duration of their existence (only for the duration of the rite). the subsequent ritual destruction and, finally, the final "burial" of the charred remains, i.e., their artificial hiding under the ground, which stopped any possibility of physical contact with the former abode of the spirit. This ritual has a pronounced taiga color and finds archaeological parallels with the rites at the sites where ytterma were discovered. A. P. Zykov and N. V. Fedorova allow the taiga population to use such items in ritual practice already in the era of the Great Migration of Peoples-III-IV centuries A.D. They interpret the materials of the Kholmogorsky hoard as evidence of the Ytterm burial performed in a special structure [2001, pp. 59-63]. The myth-ritual structure of stone fences (comparable to a temple) allows us to relate them more to barns on sacrificial and sacred sites of the Ob Ugrians, in which revered images of family and ancestral spirits-ancestors, owners of territories-were kept. The northern taiga flavor of the complexes under consideration is enhanced by a peculiar taiga-like pottery, the origins of which can be seen in the Beloyarsk culture of the Early Iron Age of the Middle Ob Region (see [Borzunov and Chemyakin, 2006, Fig. 4 - 22, 23, 26 - 28]).

Let's pay attention to the fact that the scenario of "soul wires", according to which places of worship were used, is comparable in its mythological content to the scheme of the burial rite. This determines the direction of the search, which leads us to the structures of the XI-XII centuries. recently allocated wenge-

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Rova culture: earth mounds of different diameters - from 5 to 20 m or more (mainly 5 to 12 m). Under the earth mounds left by the carriers of this culture, at the level of the buried soil, burnt wooden quadrangular log cabins or frames of sub-rectangular or sub-square shape were found [Savinov, 1988, p. 91-105], which could have from two to three to seven to eight crowns and reach a height of 1 m at the time of construction. Inside the remains of these structures, which were given over to the fire, there were mostly single burials, oriented along the west-east line with slight deviations to the north and south-west. It should be noted that the funerary rites of the" Hungarian " population included the laying of corpses and the burning of corpses [Ibid., p. 104].

Before us is a certain cultural phenomenon that involved the widespread use of wooden structures that clearly imitate residential structures; fire that destroyed these buildings, and in some cases the bodies of the buried; the construction of a mound as the log cabins were burned (possibly during the burning process); the creation of ditches around the latter. These structures and the ones we are considering have a similar set of typologically significant features. The main difference between them is seen in the fact that in one case (Hungarian culture) real remains of human bodies were placed inside them, and in the other (Kyshtovo culture) - symbolic "substitutes" carved out of wood (in this context, a human jaw found in one of the structures of the Sopka-2 complex is of particular importance). [Molodin, 1990, p. 128]. In the funerary practice of the ancient population of Southern Siberia, even in the early Iron Age, numerous dolls, mannequins and other substitutions of the deceased were used, in which the ashes of the deceased were placed, manifesting in the literal and figurative sense of their unity. It is impossible not to pay attention to the hair cut off from the deceased and attached by the Ob Ugrians to the ytterma* (Chernetsov, 1959, p. 4). 150, 152; Baulo, 2002, p. 62]. According to oral tradition, in this way the reincarnating soul was transferred to the doll (or statue) [Chernetsov, 1959, p. 150, 152], which was later accompanied by destroying the figure in the way described above or getting rid of it in some other way - burying it in the grave, leaving it in the forest, in the cemetery, etc. The presence of the indigenous population of the West Siberian taiga since the Middle Ages is confirmed by archaeological materials (Karacharov, 2002, pp. 26-52). It is quite likely that the Sopka and Ust-Izess (mostly Ugric) populations are closely acquainted with the burial practices of their southern neighbors (burning wooden frames and log cabins, western orientation), as well as their borrowing of the main ritual features and adaptation of their elements to their own views.

As for borrowing, its possibility is confirmed by the coincidence of the most important factors of time and place. In terms of time, the construction of burial grounds of the Hungarian culture coincides with the advance of its carriers to the north and closes with the lower chronological boundary of the Sopka and Ust-Izessky monuments marking the era of penetration of the bearers of forest traditions into the forest-steppe. The border of the Hungarian culture area reaches the forest-steppe areas on the right bank of the Omi River and actually coincides in this territory with the southern periphery of the Kyshtovo cultural monuments zone. For the early (Sadovkinsky) stage of the Kyshtovo culture, burned wooden structures under the embankment have not yet been noted. We are able to verify that along with the rites performed directly on the monuments (Ust-Izes-1), there were special sanctuaries (Sopka-2), probably arranged in hard-to-reach specific places.

It is possible that at the turn of the XII-XIII centuries, here-in the north of the West Siberian forest-steppe - the Kyshtovites borrowed a whole block of funeral rites, which, being translated into a new environment, began to serve as an important addition and, so to speak, the finishing touch in sending off their tribesmen on their last journey. Echoes of such "double" funerals, when, escorting the reborn soul to the upper spheres, the body was buried (in our case, burned, which is semantically basically equivalent to burial) statues together with the house built for it, in various forms of "getting rid" of ytterm, have come down to our days. N. Chernetsov believed that once there were even special places for sending off souls [1959]. In the advanced Middle Ages, according to our materials, they could have been cemeteries. In ethnographic times, such sites were open (apparently already randomly selected) areas on the outskirts of villages.

Conclusion

All of this makes it possible to state the appearance of a new type of objects associated with changes in funeral practices and the transformation of the views of the local population during the Mongol period - during the era of the maximum shift of ethnic borders and the introduction of population massifs from the south into the pre - taiga zone. Influence of a more socially developed population

* The use of a photograph of the deceased, which is pasted on such figures instead of a face, is significant today [Gemuyev, 1990, p. 209].

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In the southern open spaces, the population of the southern taiga periphery of the Ob-Irtysh region was forced to borrow elements of material culture and a system of spiritual values that were typologically close and understandable, as well as adapt them to their own ritual practice. In our opinion, the manifestation of this process was the separation in time of the rituals associated with the burial of the deceased (construction of the grave and construction of the mound), the period of stay of some of its non-material part (doll-ytterma) among the tribesmen, which ended with its final release and sending to the place of further "existence".

The historical perspective of the development of the considered cult complexes is seen in the gradual separation of ritual sites from necropolises and the transformation of some of them into independent ritual objects associated with the sacralization of ancestral spirits-the sacred patrons of the territory. On the monuments of the XV-XVI centuries. there is a reduction in the number of such structures on the area of excavated burial grounds. It corresponds to the number of burials of the local elite. For all the other members of the ancient collectives, the rites were obviously performed away from the necropolis. There was a further simplification of rituals and a reduction in material costs for their implementation. The general degradation of ceramic production is also reflected, due to the replacement of broken vessels with crumpled metal (bronze) containers, which are found under very small mounds located away from the necropolis (Solov'ev, 2006). For the XVII-XVIII centuries, such places in cemeteries are not marked (Molodin, 1979).

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 17.04.07.

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