Recent studies show that, in the 3rd millennium BC, the highlands in the basin of the upper reaches of the Khovd (Kobdo) River constituted a ritual zone, which was of particular importance for the population inhabiting the western foothills of the Mongolian Altai Mountains. Its cultural singularity was due to the so-called Chemurchek cultural phenomenon — a set of characteristics of West European origin, which appeared there no later than 2700–2600 BC. Three large-scale ritual complexes-‘shrines’ attributed to this period were discovered in the area of Lake Dayan Nuur. Excavations conducted by the expedition of A.A. Kovalev and Ch. Munkhbayar revealed that these structures constituted fences consisting of vertical stone slabs, decorated all-over on the outside with the images of fantastic anthropomorphic creatures and animals. The excavation of Hulagash 1 (one of these sanctu-aries), radiocarbon dated to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, revealed a single grave in the centre of t...

During the last decade Mongolian archaeology had been marked by the discovery and/or introduction of several archaeological cultures that belong to the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. Especially western areas of the country, namely the Mongolian Altai region, which was still untouched by extensive archaeological investigations, were extremely productive in terms of the discovery of new types of archaeological monuments. Despite major achievements in Bronze age archaeology, we are constantly encountering challenges, including terminology and naming of new types of archaeological monuments. The author tries to reconsider the name of a recently introduced archaeological culture in Mongolian ancient history research, namely the “Khemcek” culture which dates to the Early Bronze Age. Until now, the name of this culture has been written with at least seven different spellings: ke’ermuqi, kemuqi, chemurchek, shamirshak, kermuqi, kermuqy, and khemcek, which is certain to cause confusion in future publications on this subject. The author was wondering about this embarrassing situation of terminology and tried to identify the sources of this rather unusual diversity of spellings with the study of ancient and modern geographical maps of the 17th to 20th centuries. Additionally, the author paid a special trip to the very place of discovery of this culture in Altai prefecture of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the PRC in August 2012. With the hope of finding the original name of the place which gave this archaeological culture its designation, the author made a cartographic research taking in account the major historical maps of the region, including the Renat Maps of 1734 (in todo Mongol and Latin script), the Qianlong Map of 1760 (in Manchu and Chinese characters), a US War and Naval Department map of 1942, the Xinjiang Uyghur Atlas of 1966 (in Uyghur Latin script), and some more travel reports from the 19th century. All these first hand sources give unanimously “Khemcek” as the original name of the place, which was corroborated by my interviews of local Mongol people in Altai city and its vicinity. The discoverer of this culture, Chinese archaeologist Li Zheng, called the place “Ke’ermuqi” written in Chinese characters, which is a very regular Chinese transcription of the Mongolian word “Khemcek”. Only in the 1980s during the state campaign of unification and renovation of local toponyms the initial name was modified in an inappropriate way into “Chemurchek”, based on the contemporary Kazakh spelling of the place name. In respect of 1) the initial name given by Chinese archaeologists and 2) the original name of the place we suggest to use the version “Khemcek” for future references to this culture.

In year 2015 joint Russian-Mongolian expedition headed by A.Kovalev (Institute of Archaeology RAN) and Ch. Munkhbayar (Khovd University) firstly excavated outstanding ritual complex of Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) kulture ca.100 km from centre of this culture (from the Qiemuerqieke village to this site is mountain trail), at an attitude of 2600 m above sea level. The construction represents a rectangular stone platform measuring 25 by 35 m, the walls of which are composed of vertical slabs. From eastern side the massive stela was erected and large ritual corridor was built. In ancient times, slabs in fence were decorated from the outside with peculiar images of deities, demons (ancestors?), animals, different signs. More than 300 slabs and slab’ fragments with images were discovered. All stones with images were copied and were transferred to Khovd University museum. Some compositions of figures were preserved by soil or restored by investigators. In the centre of the fence some large massive flat stones were opened, each of which was decorated by scenes from the life of mythical personages. These compositions were exposed inside ritual area like in art gallery. During the excavation "treasure" of 79 engraved and not-engraved miniature stone plaques was found. Entgraved plaques have anthropomorphic features with geometric ornamentation. This ritual complex by now is only one investigated from the similar structures: two similar fences were discovered by expedition nearby. Similar (not so large) rectangular fences of ritual purposes without pictures but with stone stelae were excavated by A.Kovalev, D.Erdenebaatar and Ch. Munkhbayar in this region in 2004. Same images of deities and demons were found in neighbouring rock art complexes: Shatar chuluu, Baga oigor and Shiveet khairkhan. Compact spreading of these images and ritual fences in montanious region in the vicinity of Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) valley show that this region used as ritual area of Chemurchek culture people. Some images are similar to megalithic art in France, a series of images are similar to the petroglyphs of Kazakhstan and the Altai Mountains. The closest analogies of engraved stone plaques are engraved anthropomorphic plaques from megalithic monuments of the Iberian Peninsula (31-27 c. BC.), as well as statues-menhirs of Sion-Aosta type (29-27 c. BC.). The repertoire of images allows us to trace the broad connections of Chemurchek (Qiemuerqieke) kulture and reinforces the idea of the origin of this culture from Western Europe.

Рассматриваются краниологические материалы из могильника тюркского времени Кудыргэ в Горном Алтае. На основании результатов статистического сопоставления серии с характеристиками синхронного и хронологически предшествующего населения Горного Алтая, Минусинской котловины, Новосибирского Приобья делается вывод о неоднородности населения Горного Алтая в тюркское время и присутствии в его составе мигрантного субстрата восточного происхождения. Последний доминирует в составе серии из Кудыргэ, тогда как у тюрок катандинского типа представлен также автохтонный компонент, восходящий к пазырыкским группам. The article considers craniological materials from Kudyirge burial ground of Turkic time in Gorny Altai. Basing on results of a statistical correlation of the given series with characteristics of simultaneous and chronologically prior population from Gorny Altai, Minusinsk Depression, and Novosibirsk Low Ob basin, the authors come to a conclusion on heterogeneity of the population from Gorny Altai in Turkic time, and presence of migrant substrate of the east origin in its composition. The latter dominates within series from Kudyirge, while the Turks of Katanda type are also represented with autochthonous component, running back to Pazyryk groups.

The paper features the results of an intragroup and intergroup analysis of all presently available craniological materials on nomads from the Altai Mountains of the Hun-Sarmatian period (Bulan-Koby archaeological culture, 2nd century B.C. – 5th century A.D.). A craniometric analysis of 75 male and 38 female skulls indicates a general Europeoid character of the physical appearance of the Bulan-Koby community at all stages of its development. Its composition is mainly represented by the Caucasian morphological component with traces of Mongoloid elements: meso-brachicranial with a wide moderately profiled face of an average height in combination with an average nose protrusion angle. A comparative intergroup analysis involving male craniological series from the territory of Southern Siberia and Central Asia of the Early Iron Age revealed two primary vectors of probable genetic relations of the nomads from the Altai Mountains of the Hun-Sarmatian period. The first vector is associated with the preceding local (Pazyryk) population. The second vector featuring a wide range of nomadic groups from the Eurasian steppes at the turn of the centuries is mainly represented by carriers of the Caucasian meso-brachicranial morphotype with various degrees of Mongoloid traces.

I tried to gather and recapitulate all the available data on Chemurchek-type sites and finds in Xinjang, even short and deficient publications of Chinese scholars and desultory information from popular books and documentaries. Such work I had to hold recently on Chemurchek sculptures (Kovalev, 2012); partial results of the study sites in this former book reflected in the presented article. Because the distribution center of Chemurchek cultural phenomenon located in Xinjiang that should define special attention to Dzhungarian finds. In presented article was given the most reliable information from a variety of sources: scientific publications, albums, popular publications, documentaries and personal observations of the author. Vessels and other objects, the parameters of which were known to me, are in the same scale (1: 2) on all figures. Most of the drawings is specially done for this article. Numerous 14C dates, obtained from the samples from excavated Chemurchek mounds in Mongolia , gave us an evidence that these monuments were synchronous in general and belonged to the period from the middle of the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. Artifacts discovered by us were similar with findings from “Ke’ermuqi burial site” and from other analogous sites of Xinjiang, which belonged to the same period. Also similarities have been revealed in the architecture of sepulchers, in the burial rite, in the style of ochre drawings and stone sculptures. That is why all these sites should be considered as belonged to a single cultural area. These burial monuments suddenly appeared in the foothills of Mongol Altai from Zaisan Lake to the Tien Shan not later than in the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. and showing a number of specific features which distinguish them from all the other known monuments of the Early Bronze Age of Asia and Eastern Europe. This cultural complex have been called “The Chemurchek Cultural Phenomenon”. We can suppose that firstly there was one source of all these innovations, but later people of a single culture spread over the Altai and preserved separate and different combinations of features of the burial rite traditions. It emerges that this situation is found in Western and Southern France. Besides the abovementioned analogies in the construction of burial mounds, we can find in this distant region similarity in the form and ornamentation of vessels, in red ochre paintings and in the decoration of stone sculptures (Kovalev 2011). Unique ceramic/stone vessels tradition is characterized by spheroid, ellipsoid jars, and also flat bottom pots, slightly narrowing to the mouth and base; vessels do not have any emphasized neck or flared mouth, the mouths of all vessels being slightly contracted. The most usual type of decoration looks like a horizontal line with triangular scallops stretched under a vessel’s rim. Pottery of such shapes, almost without decoration, is characteristic of the Late and Final Neolithic in the West, South and East France, in Western Switzerland and also in Spain. Stone statues chiseled by “Chemurchek people” are an absolutely peculiar phenomenon in the territory of Asian steppes in the 3rd millennium BCE. Only some statues-menhirs from Southern France in the same way are characterized by the protruding contour of the perimeter of a face, connected with a straight nose, with the eyes shown by protruding circles or disks, the shoulder-blades marked by two curls, and one or several girdles decorating the neck. In Chemurchek burials we discovered drawings made with red ochre looking like rows of triangular scallops, which can be compared with ochre drawings and gravures in Spain, France, Switzerland and North Italy. All the analogies from Western Europe were dated from the period preceding the appearance of Chemurchek monuments in the Altai. Nothing like those kinds of burial construction and pottery has been ever found among the monuments of the 3rd millennium BCE at the territory between France and Altai. This is why some suppose that part of the population of South-Western Europe migrated to the Altai at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BCE.

The paper analyzes the anthropological materials of Tankeevka burial ground (9th–10th centuries A.D.) obtained throughout the entire study period. A total of 61 male and 56 female skulls were studied on the basis of the craniological program. In terms of craniometry, the male and female skulls are generally characterized by the meso brachicranal shape of the head, the mesomorphic type of the face with moderate profiling at all levels, and by the average nose protrusion angle. In terms of anthropology, the series is Caucasian, but features an inclusion of a minor fraction of the Mongoloid component. An intragroup analysis of the series revealed several craniocomplexes in its composition mainly varying by the shape of the cranium and the manifestation degree of Caucasian features. A comparative intergroup analysis of the male series dating back to the turn of epochs and the early Middle Ages demonstrated that the formation of anthropological features of the Tankeevka population could have been established with the involvement of the “local” groups of the Volga-Ural genesis, as well as the “alien” groups of the Southern and South-Western origin.