Lyudmila N. Mylnikova^1,*, Vyacheslav I. Molodin^1,**, Ekaterina V. Parkhomchuk^2,***, Petr N. Menshanov^2,****, Dmitry A. Nenakhov^1,*****, Ksenia A. Babina^1,******, and Olesya V. Ershova^1,*******

^1,Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
^2,Novosibirsk State University, Russia

*E-mail: L.mylnikova@yandex.ru
**E-mail: Molodin@archaeology.nsc.ru
***E-mail: evparkhom@yandex.ru
****E-mail: menshanov@nsu.ru
*****E-mail: nenaxoffsurgut@mail.ru
******E-mail: sashkina_kseniya@mail.ru
*******E-mail: ersholesya198q@gmail.com

Keywords: Early Iron Age, Sargat culture, Baraba forest-steppe, sacrificial complex, radiocarbon dating.

The article presents the results of radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis of objects of the sacrificial complex from the Early Iron Age burial mound in the Baraba forest-steppe. An altar was found in the earthwork of mound 7 at the Tartas-2 burial ground. It is represented by the remains of six people, the skulls of 33 horses, three sheep, and two cows. The bones of humans and animals are associated with an earthen structure – an embankment; they were found at the level of excavation horizons 2 and 3. The bones were located near the inner perimeter of the ditch, within the mound at its edge, their position repeating its slope line. The final layer of earth covered the bones. Radiocarbon analysis suggests that the event occurred simultaneously between 650–550 BC (p=0.0009). Collagen samples from the bones of buried humans and animals have average values of isotopic shifts, δ13C and δ15N, characteristic of mammals with predominantly terrestrial food. Such an altar is the first one recorded for the burial rite of the population in the eastern region of presumably the Sargat culture area.