Kurumchi culture
| Preceded by the Pleistocene |
| Holocene Epoch |
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Blytt–Sernander stages/ages
*Relative to year 2000 (b2k). †Relative to year 1950 (BP/Before "Present"). |
The Kurumchi culture was proposed as the first Iron Age society of Baikalia by Bernhard Petri. He oversaw excavations in contemporary Ekhirit-Bulagatsky District[1] of the Ust-Orda Buryat Okrug during the final years of the Russian Empire. Artifacts made of iron and tools related to smithing were found in the dig sites. Petri concluded that an archaeological culture desiginated the "Kurumchi blacksmiths" (Russian: Курумчинские кузнецы) created the items.[2][3] He also speculated that they were the protigenitors of the Sakha people, a claim that didn't go unchallenged by his contemporaries.
Alexey Okladnikov oversaw new archaeological digs in Baikalia after the Great Patriotic War. The Kurumchi existed throughout the 6th-10th centuries C.E. based upon his interpretation of Chinese historiography. Certain accounts described a people called the Kurykans which Okladnikov considered to actually be the Kurumchi. The Kurumchi social hierarchy was analogous to the Yenisei Kyrgyz[4] and was perhaps composed of "simple people and the aristocrats."[5] Kurumchi cliff drawings were seen as an offshoot of the Yenisei and Altai Turkic artwork traditions, in addition to having commonalities with the Türgesh.[6]
Starting in the 1990s scholars have begun to challenge the claims made by Petri and his successor Okladnikov. Bair Dashibalov concluded that Petri's findings come from a wide chronological period ranging from the 9th-14th centuries C.E.[7]
Background[]
In 1912 the Russian Committee for the Study of Central and East Asia sent Bernhard Petri to Irkutsk. He was an employee of the Kunstkamera from 1910 until 1917.[8] Petri was directed to document the social and material culture of the Buryats along with their religious beliefs. He was also instructed to seek out and discover ancient artifacts, so he initiated archaeological digs in the Murin River valley.[9] During the late Russian Empire it was located within the Kurumchi khoshun and was sometimes called the Kurumchi Valley.[1]
Previously an educator named O. A. Monastyreva found a spindle whorl inscribed with Old Turkic script (described below) outside modern Narin-Kunta. Monastyreva assisted Petri in digging at this location, which was the primary focus of the year. Among the initial findings there were pottery shards and a small forge that Petri illustrated.[10] In the following year he returned and expanded upon the excavation sites.[11]
In 1916 Petri explored cave systems in Olkhon Island. Their entrances were barricaded with rocks in such way to only allow movement by crawling. They were perhaps seasonally inhabited only when dry during the winter months.[3] Among the discoveries were flat stone slabs used to create graves arranged in a row. Their appearance was compared to Buryat yurts by Petri[12] and Okladnikov also considered them similar to Evenki dwellings called джу.
Kurumchi blacksmiths[]
In the 1920s Bernhard Petri published his interpretation of the artifacts found in the Murin River valley during the previous decade. He concluded that a hitherto unknown society produced the archeological remains. Iron items were discovered in their settlements which led to Petri calling them the "Kurumchi blacksmiths".[13][2][14] A pupil of Petri's, Pavel Khoroshikh, stated the research performed by his teacher substantiated the southern origin of the Sakha people theory previously proposed by Vladimir I. Ogorodnikov, Mikhail P. Ovchinnikov, and Wacław Sieroszewski.[2] In autumn 1923 Petri led an expedition to Lake Khövsgöl and found ceramic remains he considered from the Kurumchi.[15][16]
Territory[]
Petri saw Lake Baikal as the center of Kurumchi activity. He proposed that their northern cultural boundary was formed by the Lena headwaters, contemporary Balagansk on the Angara, and the river mouth of the Kichera; while the southern ran from modern Tunka to the Uda.[17][3]
Iron smithing[]
The Kurumchi were sophisticated blacksmiths according to Petri. While their iron kettles were of Chinese origin,[14] they were capable of repairing cracks with external patches. Kurumchi cliff drawings include figures possibly adorned in chainmail.[18] Okladnikov detailed the Kurumchi iron-smithing techniques:
"The furnace had the appearance of a large thick-walled vessel with a round bottom. In the pot there were two openings for nozzles, and it also contained ore and charcoal in layers. During smelter, air was forced into the vessel through the nozzle with bellows attached, and from above coal and softened [preheated] ore were gradually added. In the process of smelting, the iron settled, and a large iron ingot was formed, its lower part rounded and the upper surface flat."[19]
Old Turkic writing[]
In the Baikalia region during the early 20th century coal spindle whorls were discovered. Two in particular had Old Turkic writing and are generally considered Kurumchi manufactured products.[13][21][22][23] Both items were given to Petri for further study,[24] and later deposited at the Irkutsk State University. Petri first mentioned them in 1922[25] and described them as having a diameter of 3.5–6 cm in the following year.[26] An assistant and student of Petri,[20] Gavriil Ksenofontov, characterized the findings as random discoveries found by non-archaeologists.[27] As of 2019 they are reportedly lost and only photographs remain.[28]
Narin-Kunta spindlewhorl[]
