No abstract

The paper is concerned with the results of the study of a hoard of bronze sickles discovered in 1970 in Bai-maksky District of Bashkortostan. Originally, it comprised 13 items, but as of today three of them have got lost, and the collection numbers to only 10 sickles reposited in the National Museum of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It stands out that the items are lacking clear traces of use. Over the past 50 years, materials of the complex have not received sufficient coverage in the scientific literature, despite the rarity of this category of finds for the South Urals region in general, and for the territory of Bashkortostan in particular. This paper constitutes the first publica-tion which combines and refines information about the hoard available in the scientific literature; it also provides a description of each item with updated and further detailed data on their parameters (length, width, thickness, bending height, etc.). In addition, the paper introduces in the scientific discourse photographic images of the bronze objects of the complex, which have been absent until now, instead of rather schematic drawings. Revisi-ting the materials of the hoard allowed it to observe that the data which was available in the literature had some inaccuracies, associated primarily with the parameters of the objects, the study of which helped clarify and extend the information on the description of the sickles remaining to date. The analysis of the material shows that the considered set of reaping tools has some analogies originating from the Bronze Age sites of the Trans-Urals, both from similar hoards and from settlements, cultural identity of which is determined quite clearly and is attributed by researchers to the Alakul antiquities. For this reason, the origins of the Abzakovo hoard are also associated with the representatives of traditions of the Alakul archaeological culture.

The article considers the possibilities of the ‘envelope’ and geometric morphometry methods exemplified by the analysis of 47 whole forms of vessels from the Nikolayevskiy burial ground of Srubnaya culture from Bashkir Fore-Urals. Purpose. The purpose of this work is to reveal the morphological characteristics of the ceramic complex of the necropolis with the isolation of the reference forms of vessels using the ‘envelope’ method and methods of geometric morphometry. Consideration of their possibilities will allow for the further construction of a general typology of the vessels of Srubnaya culture of the Urals. The authors are convinced that only the publication of the results of the study of the morphology of the vessels of individual complexes, processed according to a unified technique, will make it possible to proceed with the study of ceramics of the Late Bronze Age cultures of the entire Southern Urals. The use of the ‘envelope’ method proposed by Clive Orton made it possible to highlight the leading forms of the considered collection. The obtained classification scheme includes six groups of pot-shaped vessels and four groups of jar-shaped vessels. Results. The results of the principal component analysis allow for the conclusion that the majority of the sample vessels are similar to each other in general proportions. A small group of vessels of Srubnaya culture low in heigh and a number of vessels with a foreign cultural component, in particular those with features characteristic of Alakul culture, stand out from the rest. There is no clear connection between the distribution of pottery groups among burials and mounds. Only two points stand out. The finds of vessels of the first group of pots prevail in the embankment of mound 1, while pots of the second group appear only in burials of mounds 3 and 5. In mound 3, the finds of these vessels are concentrated in the burials of the northwestern sector, which probably reflects a certain stage in the functioning of the burial ground. Conclusion. The studied variations of pot forms in the analyzed collection, the presence of vessels with the so-called early-Srubnaya signs, and their mutual occurrence with the vessels of the Srubno-Alakul appearance, reflect the processes of the influence of the Alakul pottery stereotypes on the dominant Srubnaya component of the Urals.