Chlachula J.  

Mounted People of the Iron Age: Altai Landscapes Reflections

The territory of the Altai is a homeland of the early Iron-Age civilizations that fostered the major social-economic and cultural development in the SW Siberian parkland steppes during the late prehistoric and early historical times. The archaeological records evidenced by opulent burial mounds dug in permafrost provide witness of a social complexity and an artisanal mastership of the nomadic ethnics. The ancient monuments along with the unearthed votive items deliver direct insights on the past natural habitats and adaptations of the early populations to the high mountain ecosystems that persist in modified forms until present. This geographically marginal, yet highly fascinating and mysterious region of Inner Asia experienced rather dramatic past geomorphic processes and major environmental transformations. The indices of this regional development are seen in the preserved relic landscapes of the high mountains, the upland plateaus and the open steppes that formed the contextual background and the principal settlement surroundings during the post-glacial peopling of these mosaic settings. Elevated terraces formed during the last glacial cataclysmic glacial lake releases in the main Katun’, Chuya, Argut and Bukhtarma valleys became the landforms most intensively