Maoqinggou culture formation data (North China)

There is a major problem in modern archeology of Siberia and adjacent territories of early Iron Age. As a rule, the origins of scythoid cultures of the VI-V centuries BC formation were not fixed. A rare exception is the Maoqinggou culture in North China which materials are the base of the present study. The three burial grounds materials excavated in the Daihai Lake area - Xiaoshuang burial ground (excavations of 1996, 15 graves), Xindianzi burial ground (excavations of 1999, 56 graves), Xinzhouyaozi burial ground (excavations of 2003, 69 graves), were published recently. The burial grounds analysis from this place became the starting point of the study. The authors found out that all these burial grounds like Maoqinggou are located on gentle slopes, the graves are latitudinal, the burials are singulative, the dead lay on their backs, head eastward with a deviation to the north, and in the heads or on the side there are altars with skulls of animals. On this basis they can be attributed to the Maotsinguo culture. However, some burials have well-marked Shajing culture features (lateral "cave", northeast orientation) and yanglan cultures (niches in the heads). The specific features of Yuhuangmiao culture (oriental oration, animal skulls position in the line of the side of deceased, etc.) are arise. A similar pattern can be seen for inventory. In general, it is characteristic of Mao's culture. However, on these burial grounds there were found much more products typical for Shajing and Yuhuangmiao than on Maoqinggow burial ground. These features are of particular interest for Northern China ethnocultural interactions and their chronology understanding. During the work it has been established that in the Daihai Lake area groups of Yuhuangmiao culture people lived in the 7th century BC. Consequently, the Maoqinggou culture was not formed simultaneous as a result of Yuhuangmiao culture-bearers' one-time migration from the East. One can draw a conclusion that the Yuhuangmiao type culture population inhabited in Daihai Lake area at an early stage of this culture. It was they who could form the part of the mysterious "northern" nomads with whom the Yuhuangmiao residents maintained contacts until the end of stage № 3. According to the available materials, the Maoqinggou culture was formed in Daihai Lake area not only due to migrants from the East and South but on the basis of the already existing Yuhuangmiao type culture population. The reason is the favorable and relatively stable natural and climatic conditions and the relative isolation of the region. In comparison with them, the cultures of South Siberia located on the passages and in a more severe natural environment with the exception of the Tagarskaya in the Minusinsk Basin look like mosaic, rather heterogeneous and relatively unstable formations that existed for a short time (1-3 centuries).

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