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The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations of the nomads‘ social elite from the Southern Urals buried in the cemetries of the kurgans Filippovka 1, 2. The total craniological series of these monuments consists of 22 skulls (9 male and 13 female) representing brachycranial broad-faced Caucasoids. The aim of the study is to determine the historical roots of this group including their migration patterns, as well as their contacts with the surrounding population. The study is based on a comparative analysis of 35 craniological series of the Early Iron Age sites in the steppe and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. The comparison was carried out according to the canonical analysis method using the Multican and Statistica 12 programs. In terms of morphological features, the individuals buried in the Filippovka kurgans are as close as possible to the nomads of the Southern Urals and the Lower Volga region of the Sauromatian (6th – 5th/4th centuries BC) and early Sarmatian (4th – 3rd centuries BC) time. They probably come from the local nomadic population who resided in this territory in early Sauromatian time. Representatives of the Filippovka group are also morphologically close to the Saka of the Aral Sea region and to the bearers of the Tasmolа culture from Central Kazakhstan. The formation of the pastoral population of the Early Iron Age (5th – 4th centuries BC) of two regions – the Southern Urals and the Aral Sea – might have taken place on a single anthropological basis, which is associated with the nomadic tribes of Central Kazakhstan including the bearers of the Tasmolа culture who had contacts with the Southern Siberia settled groups. As a result of mestizo processes on the contact territory, a special type of population the so-called Eastern Caucasoids with a small Mongoloid admixture was formed, which then spread in the southern Aral and western Ural directions. The spatial connections of the population that left the Filippovka kurgans are geographically wide. Judging by the archaeological data, they were grounded primarily on the basis of trade and economic relations. The craniological source shows some heterogeneity of the Ural nomads, but it is difficult to speak confidently about the time and mixing forms of their constituent components; the recorded phenomenon is also relevant among other synchronous groups of mobile pastoralists from Central Asia.

The papre is devoted to determining the date of the kurgan 28, Filippovka 1 burial ground, which is a necropolis of the social elite of the Southern Urals nomads in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. A burial partially destroyed by repeated robbery was found in the kurgan. At least six people were buried in the grave pit with a dromos entrance, covered with a structure of radially diverging logs. The features of the five individuals‘ bone remains location in the western part of the grave indicate their simultaneous or relatively simultaneous burial. Another burial was made in an underground passage leading from the outside of the kurgan mound to the grave pit. The accompanying grave goods were placed in the destroyed part of the grave near the buried individuals as well as in on the buried soil as a part of the sacrificial complex. They included weapons and parts of military ammunition (armor, daggers, arrows, a quiver hook, a lanyard pendant, a vorvorki), parts of a horse harness (bit, cheek-pieces, bridle plaques, pierced), as well as jewelry (earrings, bracelets, beads, sewn-on plaques), ritual objects (a bone spoon, a fragment of a stone altar) and household items. An analysis of the grave goods and a radiocarbon dating obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry method suggest that five people were buried in the western part of the grave in the middle or third quarter of the 4th century BC. However, the construction of the funerary structure and the placement of the dead in its eastern part could have begun earlier - in the period falling at the turn of the 5th-4th centuries BC - early 4th century BC.

Introduction. This is a report on the results of archaeological excavations at Maksimovka I, the subterranean burial ground located in the forest-steppe Volga region. The site is unique because it contains burial complexes of different epochs. The purpose of the paper is to introduce the materials found during the 2018 excavations for the attention of the academic community. In particular, the paper focuses on the description and characterization of the archaeological complexes under investigation, and, also, on their cultural-chronological attribution. Data. The cultural layer was not particularly rich but contained fragments of Neolithic, Eneolithic, and Bronze Age ceramics, stone tools, and waste left after stone processing. Three burials were examined in the excavation area. The first burial comprised the skeleton of a deceased person in a supine position; the head oriented to the north-northeast; the grave goods included iron items (a fragment of a boiler and of a bit, rod-shaped items, and a firesteel), grindstones, and flints. The second buried person was found in the seated position, leg bones bent at the knee joint, head oriented to northeast; the finds included a nonferrous metal ring, a bone pendant, a silicon wafer, and tubular beads. The third buried person was also in a seated position, head oriented to the northeast; no grave goods were found in the third burial. Also, two other burial constructions recovered on the site were partially examined. Results. The first burial was attributed to the Golden Horde period in the Middle Ages (the second half of the 13th or the 14th c.). The second burial has a number of parallels to burial complexes of mid-late Eneolithic era of the forest-steppe Volga region. The third burial was left unidentified in terms of its cultural-chronological attribution, granted the non-standard position of the skeletal remains in the grave and the absence of goods. Conclusions. The examination of the subterranean burial ground Maksimovka I has allowed to introduce the archaeological material of different periods, such as Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze, and Middle Ages.

The article illustrates a study of cheek-pieces with zoomorphic images used by the nomads of the Samara-Ural region at the end of the VI–IV centuries BC. A review of 79 cheek-pieces is presented, as well as their characteristics. As a result of the excavations, two chronological groups of such horse gear are identified. The date of the early group refers to the second half of the VI–V centuries BC. It is characterized by rod-like straight and arcuate curved bronze, iron, bimetallic double-hole bit shank with zoomorphic ends. The most common endings are decorated with realistic sculptural images of the heads of birds of prey / griffins, wolves and horses. Combinations of the heads of a predatory animal and a bird of prey, a predatory animal and a horse, a camel and a horse, as well as the head of a bird of prey and a hoof are rare images. The late group refers to the period of the end of the V–IV centuries BC. This group is characterized by the following cheek-pieces: S-shaped with endings shaped as horse hooves; L-shaped with curved endings shaped as a horse’s hoof or an open-work plate, which is a stylized image of a bird’s paw, the claws of which are transformed into the heads of birds or animals. A significant difference between these two groups is stated and based on their composition, motives (plots) of images and their stylistics. The mapping of the findings allowed to record the concentration of the most numerous groups of cheek-pieces (straight lines with endings in the form of the heads of birds of prey / griffins, wolves, horses, and S-shaped bit shanks with endings in the form of horse hooves) on the territory of the steppes, adjoining the western slopes of the Ural Mountains. These are mainly steppes in the basin of the middle and lower reaches of the river Ilek.

The article is devoted to characterizing bridle plaques with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, which were used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the 6th – 4th centuries BC. The paper presents a summary of these horse ammunition items, which includes about 80 finds. The author proposes a typology of these subjects. Types of bridle plaques are distinguished by a combination of features that characterize the plot, composition and style of images. The items are represented by various types of plaques in the form of predatory and hoofed animals, birds, several species of animals or their parts, fish, and a rider on a horse. All the plaques are divided into four chronological groups in accordance with currently accepted dates of the monuments, where they were found: the late 6th – the early 5th century BC, the late 6th – the 5th century BC, the late 5th – the 4th century BC, the late 6th – the 4th century BC. Thus, nomads used plaques with zoomorphic images throughout the period under consideration. The distribution of types of plaques with zoomorphic images on chronological groups demonstrates both continuity in the nomads’ culture development throughout the 6th – 4th centuries BC and cultural transformations that occurred during this period. The transformations are reflected in changing nomenclature in the category of horse ammunition, style of zoomorphic images (including due to the appearance of plaques indicating links with the Don region, the North Caucasus, and the North Pontic region), and emergence of a tradition to use plaques with anthropomorphic images.

The paper is devoted to the description of horse forehead pieces, which were used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the 6th – 4th centuries BC for protecting the horse’s head and / or decorating bridle. The research is based on the analysis of sample consisting of 47 finds. The author proposes the typology of the items under consideration, characterizes the types of lamellar forehead pieces with and without zoomorphic images, rodlike and rod-lamellar forehead pieces, forehead pieces in the form of zoomorphic images, representing a round sculpture. All the finds are divided into two chronological groups. The first group includes forehead pieces, which were part of horse equipment mainly at the end of the 6th – 5th centuries BC. This period was charactized by the prevalence of forehead pieces in the form of fairly large trapezoidal or subrectangular plates depicting the heads of prey birds in profile on one or both short sides. The second group unites the items referring to the end of the 5th –4th centuries BC. The most common type in this period is represented with forehead pieces in the form of a rod, the upper part of which is bent as a loop and ends with a spherical thickening, and the lower part is loose in the form of an elongated plate. A significant difference in the nomenclature of the two chronological groups of the horse forehead pieces has been revealed. This was probably due to the ethnocultural changes that took place in the nomadic society of the Southern Urals in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC, including those in the nature and direction of external relations.

The article is devoted to the research of peculiarities of using girth clasps by the nomadic cattlebreeders living in the steppes of South Ural area in 6th-4th centuries BC. The analysis of location of metal parts of girth clasps in interments of horses, the quantity and content of these details in interments of people and sacrificial places proves the point about the preferable usage of girth clasps by nomads at the end of 6th-4th centuries BC, which looked like rings, horse brasses with fixed ledge-stops being perpendicular towards the plane of clasp. The left clasp consisted of two metal parts, the right – of one part. The presence, quantity and location of ledge-stops were caused by the purpose of details of clasps. The deviation from this rule is recorded. In the article probable variants of different types of parts of clasps are studied.