Contact:D.Pokutta (Sweden): dalia.pokutta@arklab.su.seL.Oleszczak (Poland): l.oleszczak@wp.plGeneral info and enquires (in Russian): altaicenter2011@gmail.com

The Altai Mountains are located in the heart of Asia, crossingthe borders of Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and China. Theunique scenery of ‘Golden Mountains’ with thousands of lakesand snow-capped glaciers is a fusion of ancient cultures,ravishing landscapes, and extraordinarily high biodiversity. TheAltai region is a natural boundary between the Siberian taigaforests and the Central Asian deserts; it is also one of the lastremaining untouched areas of the world. The archaeology ofthis region starts in Palaeolithic. For thousands of years Altaicmountains, forests and steppe served as a homeland for largenomadic populations in Eurasia.The Altai Isotopic Project is an international partnershipbetween the Russian Academy of Sciences, JagiellonianUniversity and the University of Stockholm. The main scientificaims are an archaeological assessment and extendedbioarchaeological analyses of Iron Age tombs of nomadic elitesand warlords from Northern Altai. 

Excavations and discoveries 

The last several decades have witnessed an unprecedented rise involume of fieldwork on Altaic burial grounds and settlements.Since 2000 prof. A.P. Borodovskiy (Institute of Archaeologyand Ethnography, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy ofScience) has run excavations at one of the largest barrow burialgrounds of this region dated to Iron Age, the Chultukov Logsite 1. The spectacular success of his work triggered aninternational interest and resulted in cooperation (since 2012onwards) with an archaeological team from JagiellonianUniversity, Cracow, led by L.Oleszczak. Working together withRussian scientists, this Polish team has undertaken excavationson several archaeological sites in the Manzherok microregion. 

Chultukov Log 1 comprise of 123 barrows dated to the IronAge (5th-2nd century BC) and is considered the largest nomadicburial ground ever found in the Altai region. Moreover, the sitewas never ransacked or destroyed by grave robbers.Excavations yielded new information and important findings,the volume of which exceeded expectations; one of which was apetroglyph deposited inside the barrow. Currently, mentionedstele is considered the northernmost located rock art depictionin Central Asia. Significant variations in burial rites and formsof interment associated with different Altaic populations wererecorded. For example, the tombs of the Kara-Koba culturecomprised of stone coffins reassembling sarcophagi, while othermounds contained wooden chambers covered over by largecairns of boulders and stones.

The Chultukov Log (sites 1 and 2) and adjacent Manzherok 12burial grounds consist of over 150 barrows. The tombs containthe remains of men, women and children, however, adult malesare most common. The deceased were lavishly equipped withvarious everyday items such as decorated ceramics, tools andweaponry, bronze mirrors and typical for Scythians acinacidaggers, pendants and jewellery; pins covered with gold foil(triquetras) and iron knives with ring heads. Some burialscontained intentionally incomplete equestrian equipment.Among the most distinctive features associated with localtraditions were black wigs fastened with bronze hairpins,recovered from several female graves. Polymetallic items such astriquetras made of iron, copper, and gold were also found inEarly Iron Age burials in the northern Altai. 

Hundreds of burial mounds located at ancient floodplains ofLower Katun River silently attest the importance of this place inprehistory. Barrows form a long chronological sequence linkedto intersecting impact and domination of four local pastoralpopulations. In the Iron Age this territory played an importantrole as a tribal centre and settlement zone located at junction ofcommunication routes linked to the Silk Road. The power ofAltaic warlords is evident from the presence of various exoticand foreign objects, such as glass beads from Egypt, items fromIndia, Persia or China. 

Anthropological data retrieved from skeletons buried in Altaictombs indicates the presence of re-burial practises and the ritesof war. In archaeological literature the people of the Pazyrykculture as advanced horse breeders are linked to continual, low-threshold warfare and expansion of tribal warrior society.Scalping and cut marks uncovered on male remains in tombscan be interpreted as evidence for several periods of inter-tribalwarfare. The high mobility and perpetual animosity between theneighbouring tribes highly ritualized endemic warfare andplayed an important function in social ranking among nomads.

Project aims and methods 

The Iron Age in Altai region spans from 9th century BC till 5th

century AD. This time has traditionally been sub-divided intotwo periods. The Scythian period (5th-3rd century BC) wasassociated with domination of the Pazyryk culture, sometimesethnically identified with the Saka people, a large group ofEastern Iranian nomadic tribes inhabiting the Eurasian Steppe.The following Hunnic period was linked to expansion of theMaima culture (Hiungnu/Huns). The territorial expansion ofthe Maima people in Altai region marks a profound culturaltransformation however, the mechanisms and nature of thatchange remains inconclusive. Military expansion and warfarebrought by the Huns caused mass migrations of Indo-EuropeanTocharians. These changes ultimately resulted in destruction ofthe Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom in 2nd century BC.The Altai Isotopic Project broadens the cross-disciplinaryperspectives on pastoral nomadism in Central Asia. This projectinvestigates the socio-demographic structure of several differentAltaic populations (the Bystryanska, the Kara-Koba, thePazyryk and the Maima cultures); their diet, lifestyle, socialranking and mobility.The subsistence strategies of pastoral societies providedistinctive social and cultural opportunities and limitations. Inprehistory pastoral societies were more easily affected byclimate change as they had a lower level of buffering andtechnological capacity than agricultural societies. However,many Altaic populations practised agriculture and in fact theirsubsistence strategy represents a hybrid model.

Isotopic analyses of diet (13C/15N) and feeding practices targetseveral clearly defined issues e.g. gender-based differentiation indiet among adults and non-adults, or manuring and seasonalityas part of agricultural regime. One of the leading questions ishow the inter-generational transmission of socioeconomic statusand socioeconomic differentials in demographic behaviourinteract to shape patterns of inequality over the long term.Zooarchaeological materials from the recently excavatedChultukov Log 9 settlement (Maima culture) enable us to havedeeper insight into pastoral land management and animalhusbandry practices in discussed area. 

Isotopic analyses of mobility of nomadic populations can beseen as one of the most difficult and challenging problems inarchaeological science today. Pastoral nomadism isfundamentally an economic adaptation that entails mobility as aby-product of specialised pastoral economy. It could be alsounderstood as cultural phenomenon, because in many casessuch as the Pazyryk or Maima groups, the community’s self-identity goes well beyond its economic base. Moreover, theglobal concept of nomadic tribalism includes also sedentarizednomads who remain bound to mobile tribe. 

The sheer scale of social and territorial mobility in Iron AgeAltai creates new challenges and opportunities for traditional87Sr/86Sr isotopic analyses. Stable isotope profiles or signaturesgained from human tissue can be used to reconstruct the lifehistory of an individual, and the basic principles involve thecomparison of isotope ratios in human dental enamel (or longbone, or both) with local geological strontium values. In thisproject we use both improved solution methods and laserablation to explore intra-individual variability and residentialmobility of nomadic nobility buried in barrows of Chultukovand Manzerok.     

Participants 

Dalia A. Pokutta, Department of Archaeology SULukasz Oleszczak, Department of Archaeology UJProf Andrey P. Borodowski, Institute of Archaeology andEthnography SB RASProf Laszlo Bartosiewicz, Department of Archaeology SUProf Kerstin Lidén, Department of Archaeology SU

Altai Isotopic ProjectLife and mobility of nomadic nobilityin Central Asia