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Статья посвящена проблемам определения возраста и владельца дворца в китайском стиле, открытого на левом берегу р. Абакан в 1940 г. Проанализированы существующие гипотезы, основные особенности дворца и важные для его датировки и интерпретации обстоятельства. Рассмотрены вопросы структуры полного титула правителей хунну и хронологии использования ими именования «Сын Неба». Изучены варианты обозначения и описания резиденций правителей хунну в хрониках Хань. На основе сопоставления результатов анализа со сведениями китайских письменных источников о людях и событиях эпохи Хань предложена новая гипотеза: Абаканский дворец являлся резиденцией правителя хунну Чжичжи, которую он создал во владении Цзянькунь, покоренном им около 49 г. до н. э. Анализ древнейших сведений о Цзянькунь, приведенных в Ши цзи, Хань шу и Вэй люэ, позволяет уже с 3 в. до н. э. локализовать эти земли в Минусинской котловине. Соседние владения Уцзе и Динлин располагались к юго - западу и юго - востоку: Уцзе - на северо - западе Монголии и соседних землях, а Динлин - на севере Центральной, Восточной Монголии и в Забайкалье. The paper is devoted to the problem of defining the age and the owner of the palace in the Chinese style, discovered on the left bank of the Abakan River in 1940. The existing hypotheses, main features of the palace and circumstances important for its dating and interpretation are analyzed. Questions of the structure of the Xiongnu rulers’ full title and the chronology of their use of nomination “the Son of Heaven” are considered. Variants of designation and description of the Xiongnu rulers’ residences in the Han chronicles are studied. Based on a comparison of the results of the analysis with data from Chinese written sources about people and events of the Han era, a new hypothesis is proposed: the Abakan palace can be identified with the residence of Zhizhi, the Xiongnu ruler, which he established in the Jiankun domain, conquered by him approximately in 49 BC. Analysis of the oldest data about Jiankun, given in Shi ji, Han shu and Wei lue, allows us to localize these lands in the Minusinsk Basin as far back as the 3rd century BC. The neighboring Wujie and Dingling domains were located to the southwest and southeast: Wujie - in northwest of Mongolia and neighboring lands, a Dingling - in the north of Central, Eastern Mongolia, and in Transbaikalia.

Статья посвящена изучению географических сведений о стране кыргызов в атласе Нузхат ал - муштак фихтирак ал - афак арабского географа X I I в. ал - Идриси. Установлено, что в некоторых аспектах картографический материал выходит за пределы словесного описания этих же земель, существенно его дополняет, т. е. иным способом и в ином объеме передает доступную ал - Идриси исходную географическую информацию. При этом наибольшей полнотой географических сведений обладает карта из ранней рукописи (ок. 1300 г.), хранящейся в Национальной библиотеке Франции (Arabe 2221). Сделан вывод, что показанные владения кыргызов соответствуют их коренным землям в бассейне р. Енисей в Южной Сибири. Согласно описанию, эти земли с четырьмя городами были основной частью их владений, хотя имелась и другая часть, обособленная от основной и не имевшая выхода к морю. Последнее обстоятельство, а также расположение кыргызов относительно Китая, тугузгузов (уйгуров) и кимаков отражает историческую ситуацию, сложившуюся в середине - второй половине I X в. Сделан вывод, что источником этой информации для ал - Идриси было географическое сочинение ал - Джайхани начала X в. На основе изучения композиции карты и ее сравнительного анализа со сведениями других арабо - персидских сочинений, китайских и древнетюркских источников реконструированы пути внешних коммуникаций страны кыргызов. Рассмотрена возможная идентификация городов кыргызов с археологическими материалами. Сделан вывод, что сведения ал - Идриси о городах с индивидуальными названиями и о маршрутах из Восточного Туркестана и Северной Монголии относятся к периоду около 757 - 790 гг. и происходят из сочинения Ибн Хурдазбиха. Визуализацией этих же маршрутных сведений являются и основные природные объекты, показанные на карте. The article is devoted to the study of the geographic information on the Kyrghyz Country in atlas Nuzhat al - muštāq fiʾḫtiraq al - āfāq of the Arab geographer of the 12th century al - Idrīsī. I demonstrate that in some aspects the cartographic material goes beyond the verbal description of the same lands, substantially complements it, i.e. transmits the initial geographic information available to al-Idrīsī in a different way and in a different volume. Wherein, the map from the early manuscript (ca. 1300), kept in the National Library of France (Arabe 2221), has the greatest completeness of geographical information. I concluded that the depicted domains of the Kyrghyz match to their indigenous lands in the basin of the Yenisei River in South Siberia. According to the description, these lands with four towns were the main part of their possessions, although there was another part that was separate from the main one and had no access to the sea. The last circumstance and the Kyrghyz’ location relative to China, the Tughuzghuz (Uyghurs), and the Kimaks reflect the historical situation of the middle - second half of the 9th century. I made conclusion that al-Idrīsī’s main source of this information could be the geographical work of al - Jayhānī, compiled at the beginning of the 10th century. Based on a study of the map composition and its comparative analysis with information from Arab - Persian, Chinese and Old Turkic sources, I propose a reconstruction of external communication routes of the Kyrghyz Country and discuss possible identification of four Kyrghyz towns with the archaeological materials. I also prove that al - Idrīsī’s information on the towns with individual names and on the routes from Eastern Turkestan and Northern Mongolia describes the situation in the period between 757 and 790 and originated from the geographical work of Ibn Ḫurdāḏbih. The main terrain objects on the map are the result of the visualization of these routes description as well.

International audience; The issue of using chariots in the culture of the Bronze Age population of Central Mongolia was studied on the materials of archaeological sites from one micro-region in the Khoid Tamir river valley, drawing primarily from images on rocks and stone stelae. Systematic analysis of rock art styles and burial traditions based on radiocarbon dates of burials and ritual deposits of bone enabled us to distinguish two periods of chariots’ usage here: 1)prior to ca. 1200 BCE, in the Sagsai culture; 2) after ca. 1200 BCE, with the DSK culture. The study of the chariot image, its parts, and attributes of charioteers in visual compositions allowed us to reconstruct its role in the life and beliefs of herders. On deer stones, a charioteer’s attributes (belt plates with a pair of hooks) are always adjacent to individual sets of weapons, which indicates the use of chariots by warriors. At the same time, images of the chariot and chariot draught teams on rocks and stelae of both periods appear connected with burial rites and ideas about the posthumous path to the afterlife. An important role in this transition was performed by a male deer, which led the deceased and his horses to the sky. Veneration of the deer image increased significantly during the second period, which is reflected in the composition of deer stones of the Mongol-Transbaikal type.

International audience; This study introduces the engravings on a mammoth tusk from the lower reaches of the Tom River in WestSiberia. The tusk was found in 1988 during construction works and was later transferred to the Tomsk StateUniversity, but it remained almost unknown to specialists until now. Radiocarbon dating by AMS reported theage of the tusk as 13,100–13,005 Сal BP (95% confidence level). The surface of the tusk is engraved with imagesof two-humped camels arranged in two pairs. In addition, arrows and wounds within the contours of the animalscan be seen. The comparative analysis of the stylistic features of the camel figures shows that they correspond tothe age of the tusk itself, making them, at present, the oldest camel images in Asia. The discovery of the en-gravings in this region is consistent with the theory of mobile population groups moving to western Siberia fromthe periglacial steppe to the south in the Late Upper Paleolithic.

11 pages; International audience; The present study proposes a workflow to extract from orthomosaics the enormous amount of dry stones used by past societies to construct funeral complexes in the Mongolian steppes. Several different machine learning algorithms for binary pixel classification (i.e. stone vs non-stone) were evaluated. Input features were extracted from high-resolution orthomosaics and digital elevation models (both derived from aerial imaging). Comparative analysis used two colour spaces (RGB and HSV), texture features (contrast, homogeneity and entropy raster maps), and the topographic position index, combined with nine supervised learning algorithms (nearest centroid, naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbours, logistic regression, linear and quadratic discriminant analyses, support vector machine, random forest, and artificial neural network). When features are processed together, excellent output maps, very close to or outperforming current standards in archaeology, are observed for almost all classifiers. The size of the training set can be drastically reduced (to ca. 300 samples) by majority voting, while maintaining performance at the highest level (about 99.5% for all performance scores). Note, however, that if the training set is inadequate or not fully representative, the classification results are poor. That said, the methods applied and tested here are extremely rapid. Extensive mapping, which would have been difficult with traditional, manual, or semi-automatic delineation of stones using a vector graphics editor, now becomes possible. This workflow generally surpasses pedestrian surveys using differential GPS or a total station.

The ‘Monumental Myopia’ project uses multiscalar remote-sensing techniques to identify potential prehistoric nomadic settlements in the Siberian landscape. Eschewing the monumental burial mounds, the project aims to explore the everyday life of pastoral societies in the first millennium BC.

Photospheres, or 360&deg, photos, offer valuable opportunities for perceiving space, especially when viewed through head-mounted displays designed for virtual reality. Here, we propose to take advantage of this potential for archaeology and cultural heritage, and to extend it by augmenting the images with existing documentation, such as 2D maps or 3D models, resulting from research studies. Photospheres are generally produced in the form of distorted equirectangular projections, neither georeferenced nor oriented, so that any registration of external documentation is far from straightforward. The present paper seeks to fill this gap by providing simple practical solutions, based on rigid and non-rigid transformations. Immersive virtual environments augmented by research materials can be very useful to contextualize archaeological discoveries, and to test research hypotheses, especially when the team is back at the laboratory. Colleagues and the general public can also be transported to the site, almost physically, generating an authentic sense of presence, which greatly facilitates the contextualization of the archaeological information gathered. This is especially true with head-mounted displays, but the resulting images can also be inspected using applications designed for the web, or viewers for smartphones, tablets and computers.

This study focuses on traces of paint on stone stelae of Mongolia, dating from the late second to the mid-first millennia BC. The painting was made in various shades of red. In all cases, remains of paint were found on facets which had been protected from weathering because the stelae had collapsed or been reused. Additional protection might have been provided by a calcite crust formed where the stelae were in contact with the ground. On the basis of the role of painting in visual imagery, two groups of paintings are described: supportive (filling in the engraved figures or outlining them) and independent. The first group is the largest. In terms of composition, stelae fall into two types:1) those whose front is on the narrow vertical facet, carrying images of deer in the Mongolian-Transbaikal style;2) and those whose front is on the wide vertical facet, where the upper tier is emphasized, and neither deer nor belts with weapons are represented. The relative chronology of the two types is established by the fact that in certain instances, stelae of the first type were reshaped into those of the second type. Also, the first type is related to funerary and memorial sites of the Khereksur and Deer Stone culture of Central Mongolia ; the second, to burials of the Slab Grave culture. The tradition of decorating engraved figures with red mineral paint originated among eastern Eurasian steppe pastoralists in the Early Bronze Age., Cette étude porte plus particulièrement sur les traces de peinture présentes sur certaines stèles dites « pierres à cerfs » de Mongolie, datant de la fin du deuxième au milieu du premier millénaire BC. La peinture apparaît selon diverses nuances de rouge. Dans tous les cas, les traces de peinture ont été trouvées sur les faces protégées des intempéries notamment sur les stèles qui furent en partie ensevelies ou qui avaient été réutilisées dans des tombes. Une protection supplémentaire pourrait avoir été apportée par une croûte de calcite formée au contact des stèles avec le sol. De façon générale, l’utilisation de la peinture dans la constitution des iconographies se répartit en deux catégories. La première, la plus rencontrée, est le remplissage des figures gravées ou le rehaussement de leurs bords. La seconde correspond aux motifs peints distincts des figures gravées. En termes de composition, les stèles se répartissent en deux types :l) celles dont la face avant est sur le côté étroit, portant des images de cerfs dans le style mongol-Transbaïkal ;2) celles dont la face avant est sur un côté large, où la partie supérieure est mise en valeur par rapport à une base sans figurations de cerf ni de ceinture portant des armes. La chronologie relative entre ces deux types est établie par le fait que dans certains cas, les stèles du premier ont été transformées pour devenir celles du deuxième type. Aussi, la première catégorie appartient aux sites funéraires et commémoratifs de la culture des Khereksur et « pierre à cerfs » de Mongolie centrale ; la seconde, aux sépultures de la culture des tombes à dalles. La tradition de colorer des gravures à l’aide de peinture minérale rouge a commencé chez les pasteurs des steppes de l’est de l’Eurasie au début de l’âge du Bronze.

Rock art studies are facing major technical challenges for extensive documentation. Nowadays, recording is essentially obtained from time-consuming tracing and rubbing, techniques that also require a high level of expertise. Recent advances in 3D modelling of natural objects and computational treatment of the modelled surfaces may provide an alternative, and reduce the current documentation bottleneck. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which such treatments can be applied. The case study presented here concerns the famous deer stones erected by ancient Mongolian nomad populations. The 3D acquisition workflow is based on structure-from-motion, a versatile photogrammetric technique, well adapted to various field conditions. From the 3D geometry of objects of interest, elevation raster maps are produced by projection on four sides of the stela. These digital elevation models are then tested using algorithms based on differential geometry, sky visibility and local morphology, the general principles of which are briefly exposed. All these approaches may be appropriate with essentially planar surfaces. However, in the case of irregular carved surfaces, such as those of deer stones, the most efficient algorithm appears to be positive openness. In favourable cases, the incisions can be automatically delineated, facilitating the final drawing. Results obtained at the end of the process are comparable to the best drawings available in the literature, and can also include archaeological information about rock surface conditions. The procedure considerably accelerates the workflow in comparison with traditional techniques, reduces the level of expertise required, and provides 3D models, which can easily be shared, or further analysed by morphometric methods, for instance. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

During his archaeological missions the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology tested the 3D modelling of several typesof objects. His team chose the ‘Structure-from-Motion’ (SfM) method which works according the basic principle of stereoscopicphotogrammetry, namely that 3D structure can be resolved from two or more overlapping, offset images. Most of other methodscapable of surveying, at high resolution, often complex objects and landforms are very expensive and have a difficult portability.Using only a consumer-grade digital camera and a scale on the ground, the user moves through the environment, acquiringphotographs of the area of interest from as many locations and perspectives as possible. Software is then used to reconstruct scenegeometry. Results from example applications of the technique to engraving art, archaeological zone and architecture are presented.Such data are invaluable for the archaeological heritage inventory on difficult and remote field. To conclude, SfM output is directlycompared with that obtained from a classic archaeological documentation., Au cours de ses missions archéologiques, le Musée d’Anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco a testé la modélisation 3D de plusieurstypes d’objets. Son équipe a choisi la méthode ‘Structure-from-Motion’ (SfM) qui fonctionne selon le principe de base de la photogrammétriestéréoscopique, à savoir que la structure 3D peut être résolue à partir de deux images superposées et décalées. La plupart desautres méthodes capables d’acquérir, à haute résolution, des objets et des paysages souvent complexes, sont très coûteuses et d’une portabilitédifficile. En utilisant uniquement un appareil photo numérique de qualité grand public et une échelle sur le sol, l’utilisateur se déplacedans l’environnement, en prenant des photographies de la zone d’intérêt depuis le plus possible d’endroits et de points de vue. Un logicielest ensuite utilisé pour reconstituer la géométrie des scènes. Les résultats des exemples d’applications de la technique à l’art rupestre, auxchantiers archéologiques et à l’architecture sont présentés. De telles données sont précieuses pour l’inventaire du patrimoine archéologiquesur des terrains difficiles et éloignés. Pour conclure, la production de SfM est directement comparée à celle obtenue à partir de la documentationarchéologique classique.