Pages: 115-127

The article presents a reconstruction of historical, cultural and ethno-social processes that took place in Altai in the middle of the I millennium AD. The author concerns analysis of a significant amount of materials from the sites of the Syanbi-Rouran time and the Early Turkic period. It was established that by the time of the legendary resettlement of the “Ashina families” the local population, which constituted one of the components of the new community, was at a fairly high level of organization, but was not consolidated. The question of the origin of another group of the population that possessed an advanced complex of weapons and horse equipment and appeared in Altai no earlier than the middle of the 5th century AD, remains open. Available sources also do not allow specifying the circumstances and causes of the “unknown” migration. At the same time, an analysis of the excavation materials of the early Turkic sites of Altai became the basis for determining the complex features of the funerary rituals and identifying the categories of the subject complex that are characteristic for “newcomers”. The results obtained allow us to consider the processes of adding a new community and the initial stages of the history of the Turks at a new level. Prospects for further research are related to conducting targeted field research in various parts of the Central Asian region and, above all, in Xinjiang.

Keywords: Altai, Early Middle Ages, Syanbi-Rouran time, Turks, migration, archaeological sites, written sources

Information about author:

Nikolai Seregin (Barnaul, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Altai State University. Lenin Ave., 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]