We describe a representative series of Chinese coins found during the excavations at Gorny-10, carried out by expeditions from Altai State University in 2000–2003. The coins were found in eight burials (No. 6, 18, 44–46, 48, 62, 66). Because of its composition and diversity, the sample is unusual for North and Inner Asia. It includes 29 specimens, relating to various groups. Apart from coins of the Wǔ-zhū and Kāi-yuán Tōng-bǎo types, which are rather common outside China, there are very rare ones belonging to the Cháng-píng Wǔ-zhū and Wǔ-xíng Dà-bù categories. A numismatic analysis allowed us to date separate burials and the entire cemetery. The lower date of most burials (No. 6, 45, 46, 48, 62, 66) cannot be earlier than AD 581, as evidenced by Sui coins of the Wǔ-zhū type. Burials 18 and 41, where Kāi-yuán Tōng-bǎo coins were found, are later than the 630s. In view of additional data (absence of late issues of Kāi-yuán Tōng-bǎo coins, and results of radiocarbon analysis), burials at Gorny-10 date to late 6th and 7th centuries. Notably, coins were found only in burials of women and children. Their locations suggest that they had been used as head ornaments and parts of belt sets, as well as pendants and amulets.

The article is dedicated to the publication of a unique find that is a coin-shaped indication from the early medieval burial complex in Tuekta (Central Altai) and an attempt of its comprehensive analysis. Excavations of the archaeological site were carried out in the 1930s during the work of the Sayan-Altai expedition led by S.V. Kiselev, however, since then, the metioned find has not attracted the attention of researchers. The article presents a detailed description of the coin-shaped indication and the analysis of the applied images, it is there also given the characteristic of the archaeological context of the discovery of the object and discuss the possibility of reading fixed signs. As a result, it is presented an attempt to interpret the product in a specific historical and cultural context taking into account the materials received over the past decades. It should be noted the absence of identical archaeological finds in the numismatic collections. At the same time, an analysis of the details of the image on the coin-shaped indication made it possible to outline a wide range of analogies demonstrating the complex processes of cultural contacts in large territories of Eurasia over a long chronological period. The authors came to the conclusion that the analysed product, as well as other like finds from the archaeological sites of the Türks of Inner Asia, to be a kind of “social markers”, demonstrating their owners’ belonging to the elite strata of the nomadic society and, possibly, reflect their specific authority. The proposed interpretation of such things, given their scarcity, as well as the context of discovery not being obvious, seems debatable and, of course, requires the emergence of new data as a result of further archaeological research

This article discusses the form of the Ancient Turks family in the context of original source data. The conclusions of the Marxist scholars were mostly artificial and speculative, while in the rest of the scientific world the problem received little attention. Through consideration of the issues under discussion, involving original source data, the author points to a nuclear form of the Ancient Turks family, which is typical of nomadic societies in general.

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