Special features of decline and transformation of the early Scythian cultures in the sixth century B.C. in the East of Eurasia (defining the problem)

In the 1950s-1960s most archaeologists viewed all the monuments of the 7 -3 centuries B.C. in Kazakhstan, the Upper Ob, Altai and Tuva within the framework of separate, gradually transforming cultures of the early nomads. After accumulating materials and specifying the sites' chronology the sites were divided in the Early Scythian (the 8-7 centuries B.C.) and the Scythian (second half of the 6-3 centuries B.C.) periods. Early Scythian cultures disappeared "suddenly" at a height their development left no transitional sites. The drastic change of cultures in the 6 century B.C. in the Mountain Altai was supposed to have happened during several decades as a result of arriving new population from Turkey or China that drove out or assimilated the local tribes. That supposition cannot be applied to such a vast territory from Kazakhstan to Tuva. In those regions one can find only differently-directed migrations of small groups of population which was not able to oust the local peoples, wipe out the traces of developed culture, settle on the territory and during several decades create a large number of original outstanding cultures, such as the Kamenskaya on the Upper Ob, Pazyryk in the Mountain Altai, Uyuksko-Saglynskskaya in Tuva. Most of them are thought to have been formed in the late 6th century B.C. on the local basis but a number of questions arises of the reasons of "sudden" appearance of numerous innovations among local population and of "sudden" disappearance of characteristic features of the Early Scythian culture. A solution of the problem is complicated by lack of knowledge about a form (gradually or abruptly) of transformation of the Early Scythian complex and by absence of reliable absolute chronology for the sites of 6 century B.C. An ideal field for solving all those interconnected problems would be large one-culture burial grounds functioning continuously from the 7 to 5 centuries B.C., their materials showing all the special features of the changes in burial rituals, arts and thing complexes. However, the ones of the kind haven't been found on the territory of Kazakhstan, Altai and Tuva. Xinjiang is of greatest interest in this respect. In its northern part, including Tien Shan, there are one-culture Scythian-like burial grounds (Chauhu culture) which had been functioning from the 8 -7 to 5 centuries B.C. Unfortunately, in the 6 century B.C. population was sharply reduced there as well, and even on the fully studied burial ground Chauhugou-4 out of 248 studied tombs less than ten are dated the 6 -5 centuries B.C. An opportunity to follow in detail the changes of the Early Scythian inventory complex of the 6 century B.C. has appeared quite recently after publication of the materials on nomadic burial grounds of Yuhuangmiao located near Beijing. On the largest of them, the Yuhuangmiao burial ground, 400 burials were studied dating within late 7 -6 centuries B.C. A large number of inventory was found including around 18 thousand of bronze items, such as Chinese vessels, weapons from the middle of the Huang He, a large number of horse equipment details (Fig. 1) and belt accessories. A considerable part of the inventory has analogues on the territory from the Urals and Kazakhstan to the Minusinsk Basin and Transbaikalia. But the main characteristic of the Yuhuangmiao burial ground is different - according to the stratigraphy of loessial soi the Chinese scientists have proved that the burials were conducted successively in one direction. It's difficult to overestimate the importance of these materials as they allow for the first time to follow the inventory evolution during the whole 6 century B.C. as well as synchronize nomadic monuments with the dated Chinese ones. The following observation is paramount for this research: in Yuhuangmiao numerous transitional changes in inventory, arts and burial ritual were likely to happen gradually during the whole century (Fig. 1/ A). Proceeding from the assumption of synchronous changes in Scythian-like cultures of the steppe zone in Eurasia one can suppose that in Kazakhstan, the Upper Ob, Altai and Tuva the time gap between the monuments of the Early Scythian and Scythian periods was also around a hundred years. Fig. 1: A - evolution of bronze bridle bits from the Yuhuangmiao burial grounds from around the late 7 to the late 6 centuries B.C. B - evolution of bronze bridle bits in the Minusinsk Basin since the Late Bronze Age up to the 5 century B.C. (acc. to [3])

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