The ground burial of the Timiryazevo-1 burial mound with complexes of miniature objects

The article is devoted to a unique burial of the Upper Ob culture which was excavated in the Timiryazevo-1 burial mound in 2014. For the first time in the history of the study of this site, the excavations were conducted at continuous areas. The method proved the existence of underground burials, whereas it was previously believed that all burials were made with building mounds over the graves. The article introduces into the scientific discourse new data of one of the investigated underground burials which present new possibilities for interpreting the most interesting feature of the burial ritual of the Timiryazevo-1 burial ground - the burying of complexes of miniature objects at a shallow depth. About 30 such complexes of miniature objects have been discovered on the territory of the burial ground in total. Most often they contain miniature ceramic vessels, miniature iron knives, adzes, buckles and arrows. The remains of two children were found in the investigated burial. The burial did not have any visual markers in the modern relief: there was no mound over the grave and no grave depression. Arrowheads and a ceramic vessel of standard sizes were found in the grave. At the bottom of the grave, near the south-eastern wall, on the same level with other goods there was a compact set of objects including a bronze mask, a bronze miniature image of an animal's head, a bronze pendant shaped as a buckle and an indefinable miniature iron tool. The second complex of miniature objects was found at the southwestern upper edge of the grave pit. The objects were probably placed next to the grave on the level of the ancient surface. The set included a miniature bronze mask, a miniature knife in the holder, a plate of an obscure purpose and a miniature iron buckle. A hypothesis is put forward about the burial with the children of two miniature dolls, whose faces were made of bronze. The use of small dolls with metal masks, which served as their "faces", is well known in the ritual practice of Siberian peoples. These dolls were the ritual doubles of the deceased persons. Taking into account the archaeological context of the detection of bronze masks, a special burial of these dolls with their sets of grave goods (mostly miniature models of things) was reconstructed in the Timiryazevo-1 burial ground. It is assumed that other types of dolls, completely made of organic materials, which were not preserved at the time of excavation, were also buried at the burial ground site. The pendant shaped as a buckle allowed to identify the date of the burial. Similar objects were found in the archaeological complexes of the Upper and Middle Ob region, Southern Siberia and the Angara River region. Based on the analogies considered, the burial is dated to the 7th-8th centuries, which demonstrates the long existence of the traditions of miniature objects in the culture of the Tomsk Ob region inhabitants in the second half of the first millennium AD.

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