Nina Morgunova

Оренбургский государственный педагогический университет · Археологическая лаборатория

The aim of this paper is to publish new radiocarbon dating data for three complexes stratified under one mound (mound No. 1 in the Boldyrevo IV burial ground in the Western Orenburg region), which are distinguished by the unusual nature of the burial in comparison with the known, reference necropolises of the Yamnaya culture. Kurgan 1, one of the l...

The collective monograph “From Meteorite to Iron Bloom...” is the first in a series of books dedicated to the discoveries of early iron artifacts in Eastern Europe dating from the 3rd millennium BC to the first half of the 1st millennium BC. Geographical coverage and chronological range reflect pathways of ancient societies of this region in the pr...

Domestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare¹. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling2–4 at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 bc³. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestic...

The article summarizes the data on the initial stage of metal production in the Southern Urals of the Bronze Age. Lots of Yamnaya culture burial mounds with copper items inside were excavated near the Kargaly deposit in the Orenburg oblast. The variety and originality of tools forms indicate the independent nature of the Ural metallurgy in the earl...

Multidisciplinary research undertaken on archeological sites in the Southern Cis-Urals steppe resulted in the identification of six distinct ‘chronosections’, i.e., chronological intervals within the period of the 5th–3rd millennium BC. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction showed that the first half of this period was predominately arid, whereas the s...

I describe a rare artifact—a staff with a zoomorphic finial, carved from the curved part of an elk antler. It was found in 1982 on a bank of the Tok River, in the western Orenburg region. The artifact was in a seated burial, discovered by chance. The archaeological context is described, and a cultural and chronological attribution is proposed. It is...

Introduction. The article considers the features of cattle breeding and consumption of meat products in the Eneolithic cultures (the Samara culture) and the Early Bronze Age cultures (the Repin stage of the Pit Grave culture) on the territory of the Southern Urals (the Samara Trans-Volga region). The paper specifies the chronology of these cultures...

The investigations of iron technology of different cultures developed within the territory of Eastern Europe are of great importance. The progress of iron production from using meteoric iron to bloomery iron-making process, the chronology of the development of iron technology, and influence of paleoenvironment on spreading of this technology, all t...

The multi-layered settlement of Turganik in the Tok River valley (steppe region west of the Urals) has been studied using paleopedological and microbiomorphical methods. Early humans lived in the settlement during the Eneolithic epoch (the fifth millennium BC) and in the Early Bronze Age (the fourth millennium BC). The cultural layers attributable...

A multilayered archaeological site Turganik Settlement in the valley of the Tok River in the Cis- Ural steppe (Orenburg oblast) was examined with the use of paleopedological and microbiomorph methods. Ancient people inhabited this area in the Latest Neolithic (Eneolithic) (5th millennium BC) and Early Bronze (4th millennium BC) ages. It was found t...

The aim of the paper is to provide the research results concerning the Pit-Grave culture sites of the south Ural region, which is a part of the Volga-Ural interfluve. The Pit-Grave culture developed mostly out of the Khvalynsk Eneolithic culture at the turn of the 5th–4th millennium cal BC. People of the Sredny Stog and forest-steppe Eneolithic cul...

In the ceramic collection of Turganic settlement in the Orenburg region there is a group of bronze age pottery, which by its morphological and technological indicators stands out sharply from the main group of dishes. They are large size vessels with massive aureoles and distended body. The authors called these vessels hums. The aim of this study i...

The paper studies the evolution of pottery from the early Eneolithic period to the Early Bronze Age in the Volga area near Samara and South Ural in accordance with the typological and technological features of the ceramics peculiar to the Samara culture and the early stage of the Yamnaya (Pit-Grave) culture. It is concluded that the Early Bronze Ag...

Nina Morgunova, Olga Khokhlova Chronology and periodization of the Pit-Grave culture in the region between the Volga and Ural rivers based on radiocarbon dating and paleopedological research // Radiocarbon. Vol. 55, Nr 2-3, 2013, p. 1286-1296

A new study of the group of kurgans (burial mounds) which stands near Orenburg at the south end of the Ural mountains has revealed a sequence that began in the early Bronze Age and continued intermittently until the era of the Golden Horde in the Middle Ages. The application of modern techniques of cultural and environmental investigation has throw...

A collective burial of three persons excavated at Maloyuldashevo I, southern Urals, and dating to the Sintashta period, is described. Both the funerary rite and burial goods evidence an admixture of various contemporaneous traditions such as Sintashta, Potapovka, and Abashevo, as well as earlier traditions of the Volga-Ural region. Copyright © 2015...

We studied the chronology and periodization of the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) culture at the Volga and Ural interfluve. Establishing the chronology of the Pit-Grave culture by archaeological methods is difficult due to the lack of artifacts in the burials. Therefore, we excavated 3 kurgan groups in the Orenburg region of Russia during the last decade. Eig...

We studied the chronology and periodization of the Pit-Grave (Yamnaya) culture at the Volga and Ural interfluve. Establishing the chronology of the Pit-Grave culture by archaeological methods is difficult due to the lack of artifacts in the burials. Therefore, we excavated 3 kurgan groups in the Orenburg region of Russia during the last decade. Eig...

Paleosols buried under kurgans of the Yamnaya (the third millennium BC) and Srubnaya (the 18th–17th centuries BC) cultures within the Skvortsovka group of kurgans in the Buzuluk River valley in Orenburg oblast have been studied. This is the area of the dry steppe zone. The changes in the paleosol properties make it possible to distinguish between r...

The analysis of soil chronosequences developed from loamy and loamy sandy substrates and buried under kurgans dating back to the Pit-grave archaeological culture in the steppe zone of the Cis-Ural region demonstrated that it is possible to trace the dynamics of the soil properties and to perform paleoclimatic reconstructions for different intervals...

A new approach to the interpretation of radiocarbon dates of pedogenic calcite is offered. The radiocarbon age of carbonates in the studied chronosequence of sandy-loamy chernozems in the Cis-Urals steppe depends on the climatic regime at the time of their development and transformation. That is, the carbonates can have either an older or younger 1...

The evolution of soils in the Cis-Ural steppe in the second half of the Holocene is studied using as an example the chronological sequence that includes paleosols of the Early Bronze, Early Iron, Middle Ages, and modern southern chernozems. A scheme of paleoclimatic reconstructions within the studied chronological intervals and for the last 5500 ye...