Description
This book is dedicated to kurgans with a “mustache” that have been discussed more than 20 years. Then we spoke out that the period of 4th –7th centuries AD in the Ural-Kazakhstan steppes was a “troubled time” we, in fact, have known almost nothing of, and it’s dificult to learn or discover something new here, and the mounds with a “mustache” as awhole were hardly considered as early medieval complexes. However, at a certain point it was noticed that something seemed incorrect about thekurgans with a “mustache”, not because of someoneelse’s misconceptions, but because they are archaeologically very poor sites (figuratively speaking,«ungrateful»). We need to keep in mind that labo-rious excavations of such a complex usually yield nothing but the animal bones and a pot of roughmodeling (sometimes without a pot at all). Thus, they are very complex, very incomprehensible sites and it was necessary a certain time to pass since mycolleagues I. I. Lyubchansky and A. D. Tairov and Iintroduced these sites into the arsenal of early medieval history.
However, a better justifcation wasnecessary at the next stage, since not all colleagueshad found this suffcient. For example, our Kazakhstani colleagues either defend the “ancient” dateof the kurgans with a “mustache”, or stretch their existence from the Early Saka to the early medie-val era, implying almost a thousand-year history. In order to clearly typologize, prove, and thoroughly and all the arguments that exist in the chronology, typology, and ethnocultural interpretation of thesemonuments, a great deal of work was needed, andit seems to me, I. V. Grudochko successfully copedwith the challenges.
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