Introduction
In the course of excavations of necropolises of the second and third quarters of the second millennium AD in the contact zone of the northern taiga and southern Turkic-speaking nomadic population in the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, a group of archaeological sites was investigated, the peculiar structure of which allows us to speak of them as an independent type of archaeological sites. Structures of this kind were first discovered in the north of the forest-steppe and in the south of the forest belt in the 1970s (Sobolev, 1978). However, at that time it was not possible to identify them as an independent type of monument due to the rare nature of such finds, which had pronounced traces of external damage. Moreover, they were perceived as looted burials made according to the cremation rite, or as cenotaphs [Ibid.]. Subsequent excavations of a complex of multi-time necropolises in the Sopka tract at the confluence of the Om and Tartas rivers allowed us to clarify information about the internal structure of a number of such objects, determine their cult character and link them with traces of actions performed at the final stage of parting with the ytterma-a temporary receptacle of one of the souls of a deceased person, which was made in the form of an anthropomorphic statue or doll. The obtained data made it possible to raise the question of identifying the Southern Khanty (Kyshtovo) archaeological culture in the Ob-Irtysh forerunner (Molodin, 1990) and,together with finds from other sites, to identify its characteristic stable ceramic tradition, which has been traced in the region for the second millennium and is well correlated with data on the Ugric belonging of various objects at different times (Molodin, 1990). Sobolev and Solov'ev, 1990, pp. 173-175]. In the course of further research, on the southern periphery of the forest belt of the Ob-Irtysh interfluve, the Ust-Izes-1 funerary and ritual complex was identified (Fig. 1), which is culturally related
Fig ...
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