Sungir
Sungir is an Upper Paleolithic site on the outskirts of Vladimir, on which people lived more than 30 thousand years ago. Sungir was not permanently populated. It was a basic parking lot where people lived for some time a year, and then returned again, for example, after a year or several years. A large number of deer bones and horn products were found in the parking lot: in all likelihood, hunters of large animals, mainly reindeer, periodically came here.
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Main article: Paleolithic in Russia
Discovery and Study
The Upper Paleolithic site Sungir was found accidentally during the construction of a brick factory. In 1955, on the outskirts of Vladimir, at the confluence of the Sungir stream into the Klyazma River, a clay quarry was developed.
Once an excavator noticed unusual bones in the ground. Archaeologists quickly determined that the bones belong to the mammoth. The development of the career was stopped, and students of the Department of Archeology of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, led by Professor Otto Bader, took up the matter, who revealed traces of an ancient parking lot.
Field work in different years, along with Bader, was led by other archaeologists, graduates of Moscow State University. In the mid-2010s, excavations were carried out at the Sungir parking lot by Konstantin Gavrilov and Sergey Lev. So accidentally found during the construction of the plant, the bone led to the discovery of the famous monument of Upper Paleolithic culture, the study of which is still being conducted by the[1].
Finds
At first, the parking was not of much interest, but after almost ten years six skeletons, one skull and two poorly preserved femurs were found here.
The very first skeleton found belongs to a tall man of 40-50 years old. Nearby discovered the skeletons of two children 10-14 years old. They were buried with their heads to each other. Skeletons numbered:
- man - Sungir-1,
- children - Sungir-2 and Sungir-3,
- the male femur lying next to them is Sungir-4.
All finds are actively studied at Moscow State University by specialists from different fields of science.
The discovery of skeletons caused a lot of questions from scientists. On the costumes of buried people - a huge number of jewelry, only about 80 thousand. It can be said with confidence that as of April 2018, among all the Eurasian burials of the Upper Paleolithic, the largest number of jewelry comes from Sungir. Now these amazing finds can be seen in the state Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve.
Why are there so many decorations in this parking lot? Who are each other's children and a man buried nearby? How did these people live, what did they eat, and why did they die? What is the age of the children, did they live at the same time as a man, or do they share hundreds of years? To answer all these questions, scientists comprehensively approached the study of finds: they determined the age, gender, degree of kinship of the Sungirs, analyzed toys and jewelry.
When did the Sungirians live?
The age of the parking is still definitely unknown, although it was determined many times by the radiocarbon method on the bones of man and large fauna. The radiocarbon method is based on the analysis of the ratio of stable carbon isotopes and its unstable C14 isotope. The fact is that some unstable carbon isotope is constantly formed in the atmosphere, which decays over time. Living organisms receive carbon from the atmosphere or from other living organisms. Therefore, the ratios of stable and unstable isotopes in the atmosphere and in living organisms are approximately equal. But after the death of the body, C14 begins to disintegrate, and the new one does not act, as the body ceases to interact with the outside world. The amount of radioactive isotope decreases by half every 5730 ± 40 years - this period is called the half-life. For this reason, it is almost impossible to date samples older than 40 thousand years using the radiocarbon method.
Previously, the time of existence of parking was often determined by dating on the bones of a mammoth. The radiocarbon method usually requires a large piece of sample, and it is just very easy to obtain from large mammoth bone.
However, ancient people could take mammoth bones for economic use from mammoth cemeteries, where the bones have been lying for some time. Thus, it was possible to determine the time of death of a mammoth, but not the time of life of people who used its bone.
It would seem that if you conduct dating on the bones of other animals, it will be accurate. However, there are some reservations. Radiocarbon estimates are based on the assumption that the ratio of isotopes in the atmosphere is constant, but this is not the case. Fluctuations of the heavy carbon isotope are associated with solar activity and are quite natural. To avoid errors obtained by the radiocarbon method, the data are aligned according to dendrochronology. Dendrochronology implies calculating the age by the annual rings of trees. Its chain was brought up to about 8,000 years BC. If the age of the same sample is determined by radiocarbon and dendrochronological methods, the discrepancy will become obvious. Therefore, radiocarbon estimates are calibrated according to dendrochronology.
Due to such difficulties, it is not possible to date the Sungir burial with an accuracy of at least a millennium. According to various estimates, it was made from 25 to 35 thousand years ago. Comparison of archaeological materials and the results of radiocarbon dating allows narrowing the time of existence of the parking lot to 30/32 - 35 thousand years ago.
It is difficult to determine the cultural affiliation of Sungir's products, they were influenced by different cultures, for example, the Oriñac, as well as the oldest Upper Paleolithic cultures of the Russian Plain (sites in Kostenki) and the early stages of the Gravettian cultures of Moravia (Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov). The collection of objects also has its own features. For example, anthropomorphic figures of the "Paleolithic Venus" were not found here, but there are images of a horse or saiga, bison and mammoth.
Some stone products are generally made using Neanderthal technology. That is, if no organics were preserved, an assumption would arise about the mixing of materials of two cultural layers - traces of the life activities of Neanderthals and humans of modern species. At the same time, people living in the parking lot did not hybridize with Neanderthals. And the Neanderthals themselves by 30 thousand years ago were almost extinct - either because they lived in small groups, which led to closely related marriages, or because of their predominantly meat diet, or for some other reason. Where does the Neanderthal technology for making stone products come from in Sungira? For 2018, this remains a secret.
What did they look like?
Scientists tried to restore the appearance of the Sungiri for a long time. With the help of a huge number of jewelry, costumes were almost completely restored. Sculptural reconstructions of children and men are stored in the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve.
Later, 3D VR animations of Sungir children were also created.
What did the Sungirians eat?
In addition to the cause of death, Sungir residents managed to determine the type of nutrition using a detailed study of the isotopic composition of proteins. The ratio of stable light to heavy isotopes of some elements, such as nitrogen, is largely determined by the food absorbed. According to the results of a comprehensive analysis, it was found that the adult man and the youngest of the children (Sungir-3) ate well: there was a lot of meat food in their diet, there were no prolonged periods of hunger. But the diet of the eldest child (Sungir-2) was closer to vegetarian - it was mostly invertebrates, fish and plant food.
Scientists also analyzed the male bone found near the burial to determine what its owner ate. This bone was used as a container for red paint. She looks so atypical that at first she was almost mistaken for Neanderthal; however, then it turned out that this is the same Homo sapiens as everyone else, just with some developmental disorders. She could belong to the "great-grandfather" of one of the teenagers. According to the results of the analyses, it was found that its owner also almost did not consume meat.
How could children who lived at the same time eat so differently?
There is a hypothesis that the eldest of the adolescents (Sungir-2) and the male host of the femur (Sungir-4) belonged to a special social group, whose representatives had severe restrictions on the type of food consumed.
Who are each other's Sungirs?
The children of Sungir-2 and Sungir-3 were originally considered a boy and a girl. Then the sex was determined by the skulls of children, and, unlike adult skulls, it is inaccurate, so the possibility of error is very high. However, an article published in Science refutes this conclusion. In the isolated DNA of all Sungir individuals there were fragments of the Y chromosome - which means that both children were male.
How close were the children among themselves? They are buried simultaneously and were previously considered close relatives, because they have the same rare mutation in mitochondrial DNA.
However, according to the results of a more accurate analysis, it turned out that all Sungirans are not close relatives to each other, although both children actually belong to the same line on mitochondrial DNA.
Whom the Sungir teenagers were a man and in what time intervals they lived had to be established by indirect methods. According to DNA analysis, we can only say that they were clearly not close relatives. They lived at the same time or at different times, it is also not clear, since the radiocarbon method gives a spread of several thousand years. Archaeologist Vladislav Zhitenev carefully studied the jewelry and figurines found in the burials. Studies have shown that the style of making all jewelry is the same. Therefore, it can be assumed that they are divided among themselves by no more than several generations. Most likely, jewelry for the grave of men and children was made by members of the same family.
Why did the Sungirians die?
First of all, it was possible to establish the cause of death of a man (Sungir-1). The skeletons of the Sungirs were carefully studied by Alexander Buzhilova, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of Anthropology and the Museum of Anthropology of Moscow State University. In a man, she noticed a strange damage to the first thoracic vertebra. It was most likely the result of a strong blow that damaged the cervical artery. Such a blow would cause immediate death even in a young healthy man, and the Sungierz was almost an old man for his time. Perhaps his death was the result of an accident or he was killed as a result of an intra-group conflict.
To determine the death of the eldest child (Sungir-2), it was necessary to carefully consider his pelvic bone. It turned out that there was a trace on its inner surface, as if from a blow. This place was studied in detail using microfocus radiography and microtomography, which made it possible to confirm the guess. Apparently, the eldest child died from a severe blow of an acute object (for example, a spear) in the stomach.
The death of the youngest child (Sungir-3) remains a mystery. All that can be said on his bones is that the child clearly had developmental defects. His femurs are too short and curved, which may well have been the result of a developmental disorder before birth. Judging by tooth defects, the youngest child (Sungir-3) experienced developmental delays, unlike the eldest, which developed normally. It is unclear whether delays in the development of the youngest child are associated with abnormally curved femurs. Perhaps both are associated with the same disease that the child suffered. However, judging by the skeleton, he could walk normally, actively used his right hand, as evidenced by asymmetrically developed humerus, and in general was a full-fledged member of the group of hunter-gatherers of the early Upper Paleolithic.
Where are there so many jewelry in the burial?
In the burial of children, over 10 thousand beads and other tusk jewelry were found, and in the grave of a man - several hundred. Pendants of sand fangs also served as decorations.
In addition to jewelry, there are other objects in the burial, for example, darts and spears from mammoth tusks. To make copies, the tusks were straightened using a special technology. And not just straightened, but left straight for centuries. As experiments conducted in our time have proved, in order to achieve straightening of the mammoth tusk, it is necessary to first remove a relatively thin rod from it, then soak it in water for a long time (at least a week), gradually straightening it, and then dry it in direct form.
In addition to copies, bracelets, "rods" with holes, round carved discs were also made from mammoth tusks. The purpose of the "rods" remains unclear. Previously, their symbolic use was assumed, but most likely, these are devices for making ropes.
As the studies of Vladislav Zhitenev show, many jewelry were made specifically for burial - they left traces of cutting, roughness, irregularity. Moreover, not only experienced masters participated in their manufacture. For example, one of the tusk discs, which was found in the burial of children, is clearly inept and inept. This is all the more clear if you compare it with the rest of the disks. Most likely, it was made by a child who did not have the skills to cut from the bone. But he still took part in the burial and left his touching gift to the dead.
Jewelry was made in the immediate vicinity of the burial - this is evidenced by the large number of jewelry found near the burials. But some have been found elsewhere. Almost all the nameplates (pointed objects used to sew suits) found in the parking lot are also concentrated around the graves. Probably, before the burial near the grave, it was not long, but in large numbers they made various jewelry and sewed a suit, and then this territory was not used for household purposes for a long time.
The found jewelry was either made specifically for burial, or has traces of severe wear. That is, people simply removed some of these jewelry. What made them do that? And why are there so many jewelry in the grave of children? There is a version that the burial of children is a kind of sacrifice designed to save from some kind of trouble (for example, mora or hunger).
Notes
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