Transformation of Tagar Culture Burial Traditions

In the middle of the I millennium BC, a significant moistening of the steppes is recorded in contrast with the previous dry and cold period. The bioproductivity of the steppe and forest-steppe territories at this time became very high, which led to a significant increase in the population of the Minusinsk basins and stimulated the settling of the vast forest-steppe spaces of Southern Siberia by the Tagars. The expansion of the Tagar settlement area to the north led to the completion of the isolated “hothouse” incubation of early Tagar traditions (including burial traditions), the dynamics of transformation of which was largely determined by both external factors and internal development processes of Tagar society. A significant role in this was played by the different geomorphologic conditions of the new territories in the forest-steppe for the Tagar culture which were different compared to the Minusinsk basin, as well as the crisis of overpopulation. A fundamental change in the burial ceremonies was the spread of the collective gburials, i.e., vaults, sometimes containing several dozens to hundreds of buried in several layers. These were large square burial chambers with log cabins with a log overhead covers. In many later complexes, noted an increase of burials where cremation was used. Migration processes should be viewed as crucial in the process of cultural genesis of the population of the steppes and forest-steppes of Southern Siberia in the Iron Age. They are the driving factor in the cultural genesis of successive societies, starting from the palaeometal era of the Minusinsk basins.