Excavatons of crypts at the burial ground of Shestakovo-II and issues of the chronology of the shestakov culture

The article publishes and investigates the materials of the excavations of 1976 and 1980 at the Shestakovo-II burial mound in the Chebulinsky district of the Kemerovo region. The burial monument is located in the Achinsko-Mariinsky forest-steppe on the second floodplain terrace of the Kia River near the village of Shestakovo, next to other archaeological sites investigated (the Shestakovo-I settlement, the Shestakovo-II settlement and the Shestakovo i burial mound), which belong to the final stage of the early Iron Age and form a single archaeological cultural and chronological complex Excavation materials are systematized at the level of elements of burial structures, memorial funeral rite, burial method and burial equipment. A comparative analysis of published materials with sources from neighboring territories and the valley of the middle reaches of the Kii River is carried out. It is concluded that the published sources are close to the excavation materials of the objects of the third and fourth stages of the Shestakovo i burial mound, which is a reference site for the Shestakovo archaeological culture of the transitional Tagaro-Tashtyk time in the Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe in 1979. Based on the statement that the Tesin archaeological culture of the 3rd century BC is the middle of the 3rd century in the steppes of the Middle Yenisei is a synchronous Shestakov archaeological culture of the Achinsk- Mariinsky forest-steppe and, taking into account the observations made by various authors about the late creation of similar processes in this region, we model a cultural and chronological development scheme. This suggests that the Shestakov archaeological culture could have function from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century. This model and the analogies given to the materials from the Shestakovo II burial mound allow us to date this monument to the 3rd — 4th centuries and attribute it to the final stage of the development of the Shestakovo archaeological culture. Key words: Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe, finale of the early Iron Age, Shestakovo-II burial ground, Shestakovo archaeological culture