Current work site: Republic of Khakassia, Republic of Buryatia
Head of expedition: Nikolay Nikolaev
The Expedition currently operates in two areas of Russia - the Republic of Khakassia and the Republic of Buryatia.
The Khakassian project aims to identify the key patterns of historic and cultural development in the region and outline the local features in the genesis and interaction of Bronze Age cultures in the north of the Khakass-Minusinsk Hollow. Since 2007, excavations of the gravesites Itkol 1 and Itkol 2 (Okunev Culture) dating from the 25th–18th c. BC have been performed jointly with the Middle-Yenisey Expedition of the Institute of History of Material Culture (Russian Academy of Sciences). Although most of the burials had been disturbed by robbers, some features of the funerary rite could be established. In a number of cases, historical changes were registered in the design of the surface structures on the burial site. The important finds include a small stone figurine (bust) of a human; some stone beads; pendants made of sable jaws; a bronze blade; bronze needlecases with bone needles and a peculiar L-shaped stone artefact bearing traces of use. All excavated materials have been transferred to the State Hermitage Museum for restoration, subsequent recording and study.
Research conducted in the Buryatia Republic primarily aims to clarify the social structure of ancient nomadic societies using the data from the funerary rites of the Xiongnu (Asian Huns) and to outline the general and local features of the Xiongnu influence on the ethnic and cultural situation in the Altai-Sayan Region, Transbaikal Region and Mongolia. In 2009, works began on the Orgoyton Gravesite on the left side of the Selenga River. Most research efforts were concentrated on “the princely mound”, the largest burial on the gravesite comparable in size with Kurgan 24 in Noin-Ula, Sudzukte Valley, Mongolia, studied by S.A. Teploukhov in 1924. In addition to the “princely mound”, a smaller kurgan was studied in Orgoyton; despite being completely robbed, the tomb was found to contain a fragment of a bronze mirror dating from the 1st c. BC–1st c. AD. Works on the Orgoyton Gravesite continue.
