Alexey Kovalev

In the first part of our multivolume work we present materials to give a detailed characteristic  of the Chemurchek cultural phenomenon – the complex of West European megalithic traditions spreaded over the foothills of the Mongol Altai (from the Russian Altai region to Trans-Altai Gobi) in 3rd – early 2nd millenium BC (Ковалев 2011, 2012б; Kovalev 2011).
In 1998-2000 the International Central-Asian Archaeological Expedition  organized by A. Kovalev in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of Kazakhstan undertook excavations of  twelve rectangular stone enclosures of the Early Bronze Age in the Alkabek River basin (Eastern-Kazakhstan region) near the Chinese border.
Since 2003 our expedition with support of State Museum of Roerichs in collaboration with the Institute of History of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and the Ulaanbaatar University excavated eleven barrows in  Bulgan sum of Khovd aimag and four rectangular burial enclosures in Ulankhus sum of Bayan-Olgii aimag too. One barrow (Kurgak-Govi 2) had been coupled with the barrow Kurgak-Govi 1 of Afanasievo culture at a separate burial place.
Barrows excavated in the Alkabek River basin consisted of rectangular enclosures made of stone slabs; an “entrance” made of huge slabs was placed in the middle of the eastern side of the enclosure. A dry-stone corridor (passage) made of small flat slabs led to the burial pit. The walls of these corridors surrounded the burial pit. In all barrows, without exceptions, burial pits were situated 2-5 meters eastwards from the center towards the “entrances”. These constructions with passages, built using dry walling, mostly resembled late “pseudo-gallery” megalithic burials of Provence and Languedoc dated from the end of 4th - the beginning of 3rd  millennium B.C.
Ritual places excavated by our expedition in Bayan-Olgii looked like rectangular stone enclosures, oriented along their longer sides in a west-east direction (Kulala-Ula – north-south), with primary ritual pits and secondary burials. Stone pillars were erected by the front sides of the three of four abovementioned mounds. Rectangular stone enclosures, accompanied by stelae erected by the front side find their analogies among the monuments of Western France, dated from the 4th millennium B.C.
The burial places of Bulgan look like huge stone boxes, oriented east-westwards and constructed of massive stone slabs which are situated on the ancient surface or inserted into the soil, and used as a crypt for many burials (up to 10 persons). Stone boxes were reinforced from the outside (not covered) by surrounding stone or soil cairns which overlapped one another and were supplied with “facades” of slabs or light boulders. Near the eastern sides of the barrow Yagshiin Khodoo 3 and Khukh Uzuuriin Dugui I-1 statues were erected. Similar megalithic sepulchers with facades, overlapping each other like “onion skin” originated in Brittany and Normandy in the first half of the 5th  millennium B.C., they dominated within the Western France, partly in Ireland and England, and were spread within Languedoc at the end of 4th  – the beginning of 3rd millennium B.C.
Numerous 14C dates, obtained from the samples from excavated mounds, gave us an evidence that these monuments were synchronous in general and belonged to the period from the middle of the 3rd  to the beginning of the 2nd  millennium B.C. Artifacts discovered by us were similar with findings from “Ke’ermuqi burial site” and from other analogous sites of Xinjiang, which belonged to the same period. Also similarities have been revealed in the architecture of sepulchers, in the burial rite, in the style of ochre drawings and stone sculptures. That is why all these sites should be considered as belonged to a single cultural area. These burial monuments suddenly appeared in the foothills of Mongol Altai from Zaisan Lake to the Tien Shan not later than in the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. and showing a number of specific features which distinguish them from all the other known monuments of the Early Bronze Age of Asia and Eastern Europe. This cultural complex have been called “The Chemurchek Cultural Phenomenon”.
All specific features are not represented in every mound, but they are spread over separate regions, resulting in the origin of peculiar types of burial constructions. The independent, but simultaneous, appearance of several original innovations of burial construction in one and the same region appears quite impossible. We can suppose that firstly there was one source of all these innovations, but later people of a single culture spread over the Altai and preserved separate and different combinations of features of the burial rite traditions. It emerges that this situation is found in Western and Southern France. Besides the abovementioned analogies in the construction of burial mounds, we can find in this distant region similarity in the form and ornamentation of vessels, in red ochre  paintings and in the decoration of stone sculptures (Kovalev 2011).  Unique ceramic/stone vessels tradition is characterized by spheroid, ellipsoid  jars, and also flat bottom pots, slightly narrowing to the mouth and base; vessels do not have any emphasized neck or flared mouth, the mouths of all vessels being slightly contracted. The most usual type of decoration looks like a horizontal line with triangular scallops stretched under a vessel’s rim. Pottery of such shapes, almost without decoration, is characteristic of the Late and Final Neolithic in the West, South and East France, in Western Switzerland and also in Spain. Stone statues chiseled by “Chemurchek people” are an absolutely peculiar phenomenon in the territory of Asian steppes in the 3rd millennium BCE. Only some statues-menhirs from Southern France in the same way are characterized by the protruding contour of the perimeter of a face, connected with a straight nose, with the eyes shown by protruding circles or disks, the shoulder-blades marked by two curls, and one or several girdles decorating the neck. In Chemurchek burials we discovered drawings made with red ochre looking like rows of triangular scallops, which can be compared with ochre drawings and gravures in Spain, France, Switzerland and North Italy.
All the analogies from Western Europe were dated from the period preceding the appearance of Chemurchek monuments in the Altai. Nothing like those kinds of burial construction and pottery has been ever found among the monuments of the 3rd  millennium BCE at the territory between France and Altai. This is why some suppose that part of the population of South-Western Europe migrated to the Altai at the beginning of the 3rd  millennium BCE.

A critical analysis was conducted regarding of the record in "Shi ji" (juan 110), containing the first mention of Xiongnu leader Touman shanyu, father of Maodun, and creator of the Xiongnu empire: “当是之时，东胡强而月氏盛。匈奴单于曰头曼，头曼不胜秦，北徙”. In scholarly works various interpretations of this passage are given, in particular, the question of the dating of the departure of Touman "to the north" after the conflict with Qin, which remains debatable. Based on this study of the context of the “Shi Ji” record, and numerous examples of persistent combinations of individual characters in Han written sources, the author concludes that the transfer of Touman headquarters should be attributed to the time of the Qin Dynasty. Unfortunately the juan 110 text does not contain information which would allow for more accurate dating of this event. Therefore, it is unlikely that the passage in question would belong to a period earlier than the unification of China under Qin rule, as described directly in the text with the use of the character 后. The author also argues that the phrase十余年而 "more than ten years has passed ..." used later in the text as a characteristic of the moment of the invasion of Xiongnu in the Qin controlled part of Ordos, is of a formulaic nature and does not carry arithmetic meanings. In the Han time works "Shi Ji", "Han shu" and "Yan te lun," the formulation 十 (有) 余年 ("more than ten years") was used as a symbolic meaning of the Qin dynasty period. The sentence 头曼不胜秦，北徙 also does not give grounds for assessing the nature of the clash between Xiongnu and Qin, which  aused the migration of Xiongnu.This does not preclude the possibility of considering the entry of juan 6 of "Shi ji" referring to the 33rd year of the reign of Qin Shih Huang (214 BC): "西北 斥逐 匈奴" ("In the north-west ousted and drove away Xiongnu").

В работе проведен критический разбор сообщения «Ши цзи» (цзюань 110), содержащего первое упоминание шаньюя сюнну Тоуманя – отца Маодуня, создателя империи сюнну: “当是之时，东胡强而月氏盛。匈奴单于曰头曼，头曼不胜秦，北徙”(«В это время дунху усилились, а юэчжи достигли расцвета. Шаньюй сюнну звался Тоумань, Тоумань не преодолел [в боевых действиях династию] Цинь, ушел на север»). В научной литературе существуют различные интерпретации этого отрывка, в частности, дискуссионным остается вопрос о датировке ухода Тоуманя «на север» после столкновения с Цинь. На основе исследования контекста этого сообщения автор приходит к выводу, что перенос ставки Тоуманя должен быть отнесен ко времени правления династии Цинь, однако в тексте цзюани 110 не содержится информации, позволяющей более точно датировать это событие. Сообщение также не дает оснований для оценки характера столкновения сюнну и Цинь, послужившего причиной
миграции сюнну. Это не исключает возможность рассматривать в качестве корреспондирующего сообщения запись цзюани 6 «Ши цзи» за 33-й год правления Цинь Ши-хуана (214 г. до н.э.): “西北斥逐匈奴” «...На северо-западе вытеснили и прогнали сюнну».

The article is devoted to origine of burial constructions (pits) in the form of four-wheel charts of the end of 3rd mill. BCE., discovered by Chinese archaeologists during excavations in the Sayensai cemetery (Xinjiang, Urumqi district), similar to Yamnaya&Catakomb cultures' graves with four-wheels vehicles. According to the author, the funeral rite of this previously unknown “Saensayi culture” (burial in a four-wheel carriage installed in the figured pit) had origine in the funeral rite of the (East) Manych catacomb culture. See in the file as additional article by M. Pertseva “The pits with shaped hollows are a special type of burial of the Middle Bronze Age”. The same “figure” burial pits were explored in the Chemurchek culture barrows of Eastern Kazakhstan (Kopa 1, 2) dating back to same period. Here, this form of burial structures is most likely the result of contact with the Saensayi culture. It is likely that the carriers of the Saensayi culture migrated from the North-Western Pre-Caspian region to the Eastern Tien Shan through Central Asia, retaining in their new place of residence their ties with the developed cultures of Bactria and Margiana.
Статья посвящена особым формам могильных сооружений конца III — начала II тыс. до н. э., обнаруженным китайскими археологами при раскопках в урочище Саэньсаи (Синьцзян, городской округ Урумчи). По мнению автора, погребальный обряд этой ранее неизвестной «культуры Саэньсаи» (захоронение в четырехколесной повозке, установленной в фигурную яму) является развитием погребального обряда (восточно)манычской катакомбной культуры. См. в файле статью Перцева М. А. Ямы с фигурными выемками — особый вид погребений среднего бронзового века. Такие же фигурные ямы были исследованы в чемурчекских курганах Восточного Казахстана (курганы Копа 1, 2), датирующихся рубежом III–II тыс. до н. э. Здесь эта форма погребения, скорее всего, появилась в результате контактов с культурой Саэньсаи. Вероятно, носители культуры Саэньсаи мигрировали из Северо-Западного Прикаспия в Восточный Тянь-Шань через Среднюю Азию, сохранив на новом месте жительства приобретённые связи с развитыми культурами Бактрии и Маргианы.

The article contains data on finds of deer stones deliberately buried in a vertical position in graves of the Xinjiang burial mounds. In the author's view, the discovery of these burials supports his 2000 year hypothesis about the Xinjiang origin of “European” deer stones, since the Ust’-Labinsk stele in the North Caucasus was also buried in the same way. One of the buried in Xinjiang deer stones had two incline lines on the front facet, which is a specific feature of European deer stones. At the same time, the fact of deliberate burial of deer stones in graves confirms the assumption of the use of these stelae as cenotaphs, replacing the real buried.
В статье приводятся данные о находках оленных камней, захороненных в вертикальном положении в подкурганных могилах Синьцзяна. На взгляд автора, обнаружение этих захоронений подкрепляет его гипотезу 2000 года о синьцзянском происхождении оленных камней западного региона, поскольку таким же образом была захоронена и Усть-Лабинская стела на Северном Кавказе. Один из захороненных синьцзянских оленных камней имел две косые черты на передней грани, что является специфическим признаком европейских оленных камней. В то же время факт намеренного захоронения оленных камней в могилах подтверждает предположение об использовании этих изваяний в качестве памятников-кенотафов, замещающих реального погребенного.

The article is devoted to the external links of the Munkh-Khayrkhan culture of the Bronze Age firstly discovered by AA Kovalev and D. Erdenebaatar in 2003. By now, sites of this culture were discovered not only in Western and Central Mongolia, but also in the in the Western Sayan Mountains. Burials of the Munkh-Khairkhan culture date back to the (19)18-15 cent. BC as a whole. Thus, this culture occupied the Sayan mountains, the Northern and Central Mongolia from the Mongolian Altai to Selenga river, while the territories to the west and northwest were inhabited by late Krotovo, late Okunevo and Andronovo cultures’ peoples. According to the author, analogies in burial goods and funerary rite show that the bearers of the Munkh-Khairkhan culture were natives of Eastern Siberia. This is supported by the fillinga grave pit with multilayered stonework, the presence of bone spoons, mother-of-pearl bages, as well as bone arrowheads with a splited stem. The specificconstruction of these arrowheads allows to propose the migration of the Munkh-Khairkhan people from the Upper Lena valley. Later, thanks to the connections with the Munkh-Khairkhan culture, rings with two funnels and single-blade knives without a stem spread into Galzkovo culture, which makes it possible to specify the dating of the late period of the Glazkovo culture.
Статья посвящена внешним связям мунх-хайрханской культуры периода развитой бронзы, открытой А.А. Ковалевым и Д.Эрдэнэбаатаром в 2003 году. К настоящему времени памятники этой культуры известны не только в Западной и Центральной Монголии, но и на территории Красноярского края, в Саянах. Памятники мунх-хайрханской культуры датируются в целом (XIX)XVIII–XV вв. до н.э. Таким образом, эта культура занимала юг Красноярского края, Туву, север и центр Монголии от Монгольского Алтая до Селенги, в то время как территории к западу и северо-западу были заселены позднекротовскими, позднеокуневскими и андроновскими племенами. По мнению автора, аналогии в погребальном инвентаре и обряде показывают, что носителями мунх-хайрханской культуры были выходцы из Восточной Сибири. Об этом говорит обычай заполнять могильную яму многослойной каменной кладкой, наличие в погребениях костяных ложек, перламутровых нашивок, а также костяных наконечников стрел с расщепленным насадом. Специфическая форма таких наконечников позволяет выдвинуть предположение о миграции мунх-хайрханцев из долины Верхней Лены. Позже, благодаря связям с мунх-хайрханской культурой, в глазковских комплексах появляются кольца с двумя раструбами и однолезвийные пластинчатые ножи без черешка, что позволяет уточнить датировку позднего периода глазковской культуры.

The article presents the most complete information about the currently known manifestations of Afanasievo culture in Xinjiang. The author argues that, contrary to popular belief, any signs of the influence of Afanasievo culture of the territories south of the Tien Shan, including the Gumugou type sites, are not observed. Besides excavated at the very north of region two Afanasievo type mounds, materials which have not yet been published, evidence of Afanasievo presence in Xinjiang are only clay and stone vessels with features typical for the Afanasievo ceramics. In the article are published fifteen images of objects available for the study. The character of the ornamentation, characteristics of the shape of these vessels, as well as the connection of a number of finds of this kind with Chemurchek cultural phenomenon of the Early Bronze Age, according to the author, talks about the penetration of carriers of Afanasievo culture in the Xinjiang in the later stage of its existence, in the second quarter of the 3rd  millenium BC and coexistence of Afanasievo newcomers with carriers of Chemurchek phenomenon. Dispersed distribution of specific features of Afanasievo ceramics of Xinjiang in the Altai and Upper Yenisei shows that Afanasievo people of Xinjjiang, in its turn, had an impact on their northern neighbors. Besides evidence of the influence of carriers of the Chemurchek phenomenon in Afanasievo ceramics of Xinjiang can be traced component of Eastern European origin, which could be yet another confirmation of the participation of the population of the Eastern European steppes in the migration of Chemurchek population from France to Altai in the beginning of 3rd millenium BC.

Keywords: Afanasievo culture, Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) phenomenon, Eneolithicum, Early Bronze Age, Xinjiang archaeology, Kemi-Obinskaya (Kemi-Oba) culture, Western European megaliths.

В статье приведены максимально полные сведения об известных к настоящему времени проявлениях афанасьевской культуры на территории Синьцзяна. Автор утверждает, что, вопреки распространенному мнению, каких-либо признаков влияния афанасьевской культуры на территориях южнее Тянь-Шаня, в том числе в памятниках типа Гумугоу, не наблюдается. Кроме раскопанных на самом севере региона двух афанасьевских курганов, материалы которых до сих пор не опубликованы, свидетельствами афанасьевского присутствия в Синьцзяне являются только глиняные и каменные сосуды с признаками, типичными для афанасьевской керамики. В статье публикуются изображения пятнадцати доступных для изучения предметов. Характер орнаментации, особенности формы этих сосудов, а также связь ряда находок такого рода с чемурчекским культурным феноменом эпохи ранней бронзы, по мнению автора, говорит о проникновении носителей афанасьевской культуры в Синьцзян на позднем этапе ее существования, во второй четверти 3 тыс. до н.э. и сосуществовании пришлых афанасьевцев с носителями чемурческого феномена. Дисперсное распространение специфических признаков афанасьевской керамики Синьцзяна на Алтае и Верхнем Енисее показывает, что синцзянские афанасьевцы, в свою очередь, оказали влияние на своих северных соседей. Кроме признаков влияния носителей чемурчекского культурного феномена, в афанасьевской керамике Синьцзяна прослеживается компонент восточно-европейского происхождения, что может быть еще одним подтверждением участия населения степей Восточной Европы в миграции чемурчекского населения из Франции на Алтай.   
       
Ключевые слова: афанасьевская культура, чемурчекский феномен, эпоха энеолита, период ранней бронзы, археология Синьцзяна, кеми-обинская культура, мегалиты Западной Европы.

I tried to gather and recapitulate all the available data on Chemurchek-type sites and finds in Xinjang, even short and deficient publications of Chinese scholars and desultory information from popular books and documentaries. Such work I had to hold recently on Chemurchek sculptures (Kovalev, 2012); partial results of the study sites in this former book reflected in the presented article. Because the distribution center of Chemurchek cultural phenomenon located in Xinjiang that should define special attention to Dzhungarian finds. In presented article was given the most reliable information from a variety of sources: scientific publications, albums, popular publications, documentaries and personal observations of the author. Vessels and other objects, the parameters of which were known to me, are in the same scale (1: 2) on all figures. Most of the drawings is specially done for this article.
Numerous 14C dates, obtained from the samples from excavated Chemurchek mounds in Mongolia , gave us an evidence that these monuments were synchronous in general and belonged to the period from the middle of the 3rd  to the beginning of the 2nd  millennium B.C. Artifacts discovered by us were similar with findings from “Ke’ermuqi burial site” and from other analogous sites of Xinjiang, which belonged to the same period. Also similarities have been revealed in the architecture of sepulchers, in the burial rite, in the style of ochre drawings and stone sculptures. That is why all these sites should be considered as belonged to a single cultural area. These burial monuments suddenly appeared in the foothills of Mongol Altai from Zaisan Lake to the Tien Shan not later than in the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. and showing a number of specific features which distinguish them from all the other known monuments of the Early Bronze Age of Asia and Eastern Europe. This cultural complex have been called “The Chemurchek Cultural Phenomenon”.
We can suppose that firstly there was one source of all these innovations, but later people of a single culture spread over the Altai and preserved separate and different combinations of features of the burial rite traditions. It emerges that this situation is found in Western and Southern France. Besides the abovementioned analogies in the construction of burial mounds, we can find in this distant region similarity in the form and ornamentation of vessels, in red ochre  paintings and in the decoration of stone sculptures (Kovalev 2011).  Unique ceramic/stone vessels tradition is characterized by spheroid, ellipsoid  jars, and also flat bottom pots, slightly narrowing to the mouth and base; vessels do not have any emphasized neck or flared mouth, the mouths of all vessels being slightly contracted. The most usual type of decoration looks like a horizontal line with triangular scallops stretched under a vessel’s rim. Pottery of such shapes, almost without decoration, is characteristic of the Late and Final Neolithic in the West, South and East France, in Western Switzerland and also in Spain. Stone statues chiseled by “Chemurchek people” are an absolutely peculiar phenomenon in the territory of Asian steppes in the 3rd millennium BCE. Only some statues-menhirs from Southern France in the same way are characterized by the protruding contour of the perimeter of a face, connected with a straight nose, with the eyes shown by protruding circles or disks, the shoulder-blades marked by two curls, and one or several girdles decorating the neck. In Chemurchek burials we discovered drawings made with red ochre looking like rows of triangular scallops, which can be compared with ochre drawings and gravures in Spain, France, Switzerland and North Italy. All the analogies from Western Europe were dated from the period preceding the appearance of Chemurchek monuments in the Altai. Nothing like those kinds of burial construction and pottery has been ever found among the monuments of the 3rd  millennium BCE at the territory between France and Altai. This is why some suppose that part of the population of South-Western Europe migrated to the Altai at the beginning of the 3rd  millennium BCE.

In 2015 ritual complex Har Chuluut 1 was investigated by A. Kovalev and Ch.Munhbayar in Bayan-Olgii aimag of Mongolia. This site belong to Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) cultural phenomenon (26-18 c. BC). During the excavation "treasure" of 79 engraved and not-engraved stone plaques was found. The closest analogies of these engraved plaques are engraved anthropomorphic plaques from megalithic monuments of the Iberian Peninsula (31-27 c. BC.), as well as statues-menhirs of Sion-Aosta type (29-27 c. BC.), which supports the hypothesis of Western European origin of Chemurchek phenomenon. Similar anthropomorphic engravings on pebbles and slate plates, according to the author, were distributed in the Sayan-Altai region as result of expansion of cultural traditions of  Chemurchek people (Kovalev A. 2010).
В 2015 году А.А.Ковалевым и Ч.Мунхбаяром в Баян-Ульги аймаке Монголии был исследован ритуальный комплекс Хар чулуут 1, относящийся к чемурчекскому культурному феномену (XXVI-XVIII вв. до н.э.). При раскопках был обнаружен «клад» из 79 каменных пластинок, многие из которых были украшены гравированными изображениями. Ближайшими аналогиями найденным миниатюрам являются гравированные каменные пластинки из мегалитических памятников Иберийского полуострова (XXXI-XXVII вв. до н.э.), а также антропоморфные стелы типа Сьон-Аоста (XXIX-XXVII вв. до н.э.), что подтверждает гипотезу западноевропейского происхождения чемурчекского феномена. Схожие гравировки на гальках и сланцевых пластинках, по мнению автора, распространяются в Саяно-Алтае в результате воздействия культурных традиций пришлого чемурчекского населения.

A true notion of the Chemurchek cultural phenomenon can not be completed without an information concerning it's surrounding. Thereby we undertook a publication of a data on a previously unknown culture
of the Early Bronze Age (contemporaneous with Chemurchek, 22-20 century BC) namely the Saensayi culture of the Eastern Tien Shan. People of this culture most probably migrated to the Inner Asia from the North-Western Caspian region, and preserved a rite of burial in “shaped pits” with ritual four-wheels vehicle. Vehicles of same construction and analogous figure pits are one of the most characteristic features of "Manych" Catacomb grave culture (25-23 century BC) in Kalmykia and surrounding regions. The Saensayi culture had close relations with Chemurchek population of East Kazakhstan, that is corroborated by the discovery of the traces of the same burial rite there, for example in the Kopa 2, Kopa 3 barrows (Ковалев и др. 2014). The appearance of a culture Saensayi in the Tian Shan was the result of the migration of  Catacomb grave culture people from the Caspian region to Central Asia and further to Xinjiang about 23 century BC.

Статья посвящена реконструкции структуры и истории сооружения ритуального комплекса с оленными камнями Ушкийн-Увэр (Хубсугульский аймак, Монголия) на основе масштабных раскопок 2013 г. В ходе работ были обнаружены и исследованы объекты наиболее раннего периода его существования: шесть забитых камнем катакомб и ритуальные ямы. Получены новые данные о возможных местах установки известных оленных камней, а также обнаружены in situ нижние части пяти новых. Определено, что в исследованную часть комплекса входили два единых по композиции ансамбля сооружений с рядами оленных камней. Основу каждого из них составляли две каменные платформы: одна изогнутая (ориентирована в меридиональном направлении), а другая прямоугольная (ориентирована в широтном направлении, сопровождалась каменными стелами). Оленные камни устанавливались по западному краю изогнутых платформ. Ансамбли с востока, севера и юга дополнялись жертвенниками с захоронениями костей лошади. Эти объекты не перекрывали друг друга, что говорит о едином композиционном замысле сооружения. К северу от него располагались еще два ряда оленных камней, к востоку от которых также находились аналогичные жертвенники, а к западу – каменные кольца с фрагментами кальцинированных костей животных. По составу и композиции все ансамбли (платформы со стелами, дуга из жертвенников с останками лошадей с востока, каменные кольца с кальцинированными костями животных с запада) аналогичны ритуальным сооружениям, сопровождающим погребальные курганы-херексуры Центральной Монголии, что подтверждает высказанное ранее предположение о замещении оленными камнями реальных погребений. Ключевые слова: Монголия, поздний бронзовый – ранний железный век, оленные камни, херексуры, древние ритуалы, кенотафы.

The composition and construction history of a ritual complex with deer stones at Uushigiin Uvur, Hovsgol Aimag, Mongolia, are inferred from findings of large-scale excavations in 2013. The earliest elements of the complex were six catacombs filled with stones, and ritual-pits. Possible placement of known deer stones was discovered, and lower parts of five new ones were found in situ. The excavated part of the complex included two ensembles similar in composition, and consisting of rows of deer stones. Each ensemble rested on two stone platforms, one curved (oriented north– south), the other rectangular (oriented east–west and accompanied by stone steles). Deer stones were placed along the western edges of the curved platforms. East, north, and south of the ensembles, sacrifice structures with buried horse-bones were discovered. They did not overlap one another, suggesting that the structure had been designed as a whole. Further north, two more rows of deer stones were situated. On the eastern side of those, there were similar horse sacrifice burials; and on the western side, stone rings with fragments of calcined animal-bones. In terms of structure and composition, all ensembles (platforms with steles, an arc of sacrifice structures with horse-remains on the east, stone rings with calcined animal-bones on the west) are similar to ritual constructions around funerary mounds—the khereksurs of Central Mongolia, supporting the idea that deer stones had replaced actual burials.

Investigated by our expedition in 2015 ritual complex Khar chuluut 1 of Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) culture, together with previous data shows that in the high mountains of Northwestern Mongolia focused ritual structures and ritual places with petroglyphs of Chemurchek culture, hovever, were not built burial constructions of this culture. The repertoire of images on the ritual sites have analogies in the Russian Altai, Kazakhstan and France, where was originated the Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) phenomenon.

The author criticizes S. S. Minyaev’s paper «Zhao military leader Li Mu and his struggle against Xiongnu», published in issue 9 of this periodical. An attempt is made to show that there are no «contradictions» in the chronology of the narration devoted
to Li Mu. Three versions of the story of Li Mu’s struggle against northern barbarians are analyzed (two fragments of «Shi ji» and one fragment from «Zhanguo ce») to substantiate the idea that the narration about Li Mu could have been independently
borrowed by the authors of both texts from an earlier source, where «Xiongnu» and their «Shanyu» are mentioned. The fragments concerning the attack of «Xiongnu» and «Hu» on the Yan kingdom, considered by S. S. Minyaev as reports of one and the same event, appear to belong to different periods of time. Hence, it follows that the word «Xiongnu» existed in the original text and could not have been used instead of
the word «hu» («the nomads»). The author holds the opinion, that the study of Chinese narrative sources can give a lot of authentic information on the localization of Xiongnu before the creation of their «Empire».

This article is devoted to gorgeous artifacts from the elite burial Xinzhuangtou M30 from the Lover Capital of the Yan state (Yixian, Hebei province). These things have stylistic similarity with artifacts belonged to the Pazyryk culture of Altai. Basing on the examination of these artifacts, and of similar gold, silver and bronze objects from Ordos on one hand and on Chinese written sources on the other hand, a conclusion is made that the discussed tomb belonged to a member of the part of Loufan tribe, which had been in Yan kingdom’s service as frontier guards. The author improves his opinion that «Loufan» was the title of nomads which had resettled to Ordos and to the northern frontiers of China from Mountain Altai at the end of IV century BC.
Настоящая статья посвящена элитному погребению Синьчжуантоу М30 (середина III в. до н. э.), открытому при раскопках Нижней столицы царства Янь (уезд Исянь, провинция Хэбэй, КНР ). Большинство престижных предметов, входивших в инвентарь этого погребения, обнаруживают сходство с артефактами, относящимися к пазырыкской культуре Алтая, а также с предметами из элитных
ордосских комплексов IV–III вв. до н. э. Данные письменных источников («Ши цзи», «Шо юань», «Чжаньго цэ») свидетельствуют о присутствии в эпоху Чжаньго на территориях Ордоса и царства Янь некитайского народа «лоуфань». В царстве Янь для расселения лоуфаней были образованы особые административные единицы; тем самым, видимо, обеспечивалась защита его северных рубежей. Сопоставление данных письменных и археологических источников позволяет высказать предположение о переселении части пазырыкцев в конце IV в. до н. э. в Ордос и далее в пределы китайских государств, где они получили имя «лоуфань». Могила Синьчжуантоу М30, видимо, принадлежала представителю этого народа, занимавшему
высочайшее положение в яньской элите.

Гипотеза о происхождении скифов (геродотовых) из Джунгарии была выдвинута А.А.Ковалевым в 1996 году. Основаниями гипотезы стали находки на территории от Алтая до Тянь-Шаня специфических предметов, являющихся, по мнению А.А.Ковалева, этническими индикаторами "скифов", пришедших в 7 в. до н.э. в Переднюю Азию и Причерноморье:
- костяные пластинчатые трехдырчатые псалии с изображением головы животного на одном конце и копыта на другом;
- каменные изваяния обнаженных мужчин с оружием, с рельефно подчеркнутыми грудными мышцами, круглыми глазами и т.п.
В настоящее время серия подобных псалиев  найдена в могильнике Янхай (Турфан) (9-8 в. до н.э.), что подтверждает предположение автора. 
The hypothesis of the origin of the Scythians from Dzhungaria was launched by A. Kovalev in 1996. The basis of the hypothesis steel findings on the territory from the Altai in the North to the Tien Shan in the South specific artifacts that are, in the opinion of A. Kovalev, ethnic indicators of "Scythians", who came in the 7th century BC in Middle East and the Black Sea region:
- Bone plate-shaped cheekpieces with three holes and the animal's head at one end and hoof on the other;
- Stone sculptures of naked men with weapons, with boldly underlined the pectoral muscles, round eyes, etc.
Now, a series of similar cheek-pieces found in the Yanghai cemetery (Turpan, Xinjiang) (9-8 cent. BC), which confirms the suggestion of the author.

The article  is devoted  to the discovery  of a new Bronze Age culture, which occupied a tremendous territory in the centre of Asia from Mongolian  Altai in the west to the Khovsgol lake in the east, and from Sayan mountains in the north to Khangai mountans in the south. It is dated to a period between the 18th  and 14th
century  BC. Monuments  of this culture were
discovered  for the first time by A. A. Kovalev in Munkh-khairkhan  sum of Khovd aimag of Mongolia.  The barrows  of  this  culture  look like flat  stone  cairns  of  round  or  rectangu- lar shape and consist of one layer of stones. Burials were placed in small pits of oval shape, the deceased laid strongly flexed on the left side, with the head directed to the north-east. Pits were filled with boulders, which formed a kind of a vault. Ordinary mounds are usually 2 to 5 m in diameter, except one barrow of the same construction  that reached 30 m in di- ameter (Galbagiin Uzuur-1). Burials of Munkh- Khairhan culture yielded bronze knives which find analogies among the artifacts of the Early Andronovo (Sintashta-Petrovka  stage) and of Krotovo cultures, as well as in the Qijia culture of North-West China. In addition, four bronze awls, unique ornaments made of bone and mother-of-pearl, and bone arrowheads were found in the burials. The Munkh-Khairkhan culture was geographically intermediate between the  Seima-Turbino  and Andronovo  areas, on one hand, and cultures  of Northern and Western China, on the other. It appears to have served as a «bridge» through which the cultural impulses from Western Siberia spread to Early China in the first half of the II millennium BC.
Keywords: Munkh-khairkhan  culture, Bronze Age, Central Eurasia, Seima-Turbino  phaenomenon,  Andronovo  culture,  Krotovo  culture, Qijia culture, Erlitou, archaeoastronomy.