The article summarizes the results of approximately thirty years of studying the problem of reconstructing the foundations of the economy and lifestyle of the population of the steppe province of the Trans-Ural community of Eneolithic cultures of geometric ceramics. Researchers in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Western Europe have obtained a wide range of information that suggests that the mainstay of the population's economy was the breeding of cattle and horses, while hunting for animals such as saiga and kulan played a secondary role in economic terms; settlements were seasonal in nature, but they were not pastoral camps, but had a large number of local communities. a significant number of inhabitants; the level of development of the tool complex excluded the possibility of harvesting animal feed in winter, livestock maintenance was possible only if it was grazed all year round. Thus, societies that have left behind Tersek and Botai antiquities should be recognized as nomadic.

Keywords: Eneolithic, nomadism, cattle breeding, domestication, Tersek, Botai and Surtandy antiquities.

Introduction

Traditionally, Russian historiography has focused on studying all aspects of nomadism. In particular, ethnographers and archaeologists developed a coherent and logical concept of the formation of a nomadic lifestyle among the population of the Eurasian steppes at the beginning of the first millennium BC (Akishev, 1972; Moshkova, 1992; Khazanov, 2000, pp. 185-187). At the same time, since the late 50s-early 60s of the XX century, the concept of a significantly earlier (approximately 2 thousand years) formation of a nomadic lifestyle among the inhabitants of the Eastern European steppes was also developed. The development of this direction began with the statement by B. A. Latynin and N. Ya. Merpert of the question of the presence of a producing farm among the carriers of the yamnaya culture (see: [Shilov, 1975, p. 8]). Somewhat later, a number of researchers speak about the mobile and even nomadic economy and lifestyle of the Yamnik people (Shilov, 1970, 1975; Merpert, 1974, pp. 110-118). At present, the idea of the nomadic lifestyle of the Yamnaya culture carriers is firmly established [Shishlina and Bulatov, 2000; Ryndina and Degtyareva, 2002, p.107; Morgunova and Turetsky, 2004]. With regard to the Asian steppes, the prevailing view is that "pastoralists developed the Asian steppe much later than the Eastern European one" [Kol, 2005, p. 65].

In the Asian steppes, the synchronous pit culture of antiquity was studied sporadically for a long time. One of the first acts of this process, perhaps, can be considered the publication by A. A. Formozov of information about the sites of Tersek-Karagai and Kol, based on the materials of which he raised the question of the allocation of the Tersek-Karagai culture [1946, 1951]. Then there was a long period when no one was studying Tersek antiquities. It was resumed in 1978 by excavations of the Salt Lake-1 settlement (Logvin, 1979). Since 1980, in parallel with our work, V. F. Seibert began to study the Botai settlement on the Iman-Burluk River, which is close to the Tersek settlement (Seibert, 1981). The Botai culture, which is related to Tersek, was mainly identified on his materials [Seibert,

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1993]. Among the synchronous antiquities of the adjacent territories, the Surtandin-Kysykul antiquities in the Southern Trans-Urals are most closely related to the Botai and Tersek antiquities (Krizhevskaya, 1977; Matyushin, 1982). These three groups of antiquities (Tersek, Botai, and Surtandy-Kysykul) represent the southern steppe province of the vast Trans - Ural community of Eneolithic geometric ceramics cultures (Kalieva, 1990, p.16; Chairkina, 1995, p. 18-20). The great proximity of the material culture of the population of this province and the unity of the geographical environment (steppe) suggest a similar type of economic and household activity in basic terms. Therefore, it is natural that, considering the problem presented in the title of the article mainly on Tersek materials, we used information obtained by researchers of the Botai and Surtandy-Kysykul cultures.

L. Ya. Krizhevskaya, having very limited osteological material at her disposal, was inclined to consider hunting and fishing as the main economic activities of the Kysykul population [1977, p. 105]. G. N. Matyushin spoke about cattle breeding as the basis of the Surtandin economy and did not exclude the presence of groups of "nomadic population" among them [1982, p. 283 - 294]. V. F. Seibert reconstructs the model of a special "Botai KHKT (economic and cultural type. - S. K., V. L.)", which is defined "as a settled multi-industry with a dominant horse breeding (early)" [1993, pp. 168-169]. They understand settlement in a peculiar way:"...if within the habitat zone seasonal mobile groups of pastoralists solve the problems of life support of the community within the annual cycle, then such a population can be considered settled", while the habitat zone can reach "tens of thousands of square kilometers" [Seibert, 2009, pp. 293-295].

Archaeozoologists have radically diverged in their opinions. L. A. Makarova and T. N. Nurumov, based on the size characteristics of the bones, consider the horse of Botai and the Tersek settlements of Salt Lake-1, Yevgenyevka-2, and Livanovka to be domestic, and the bull to be wild [Akhinzhanov, Makarova, and Nurumov, 1992, pp. 31-39, 159-166]. Studying the skulls and limb bones of the Botai horse, I. E. Kuzmina also came to the conclusion that they belong to domestic animals [1993]. In contrast, N. M. Ermolova and P. A. Kosintsev talk about the wild horse of Botai (Ermolova, 1993; Kosintsev, 2007, p. 148). M. Levin, not excluding the possibility of using tamed horses by Botai people, believes that the bulk of horse bones on Botai belong to individuals obtained during hunting (Levine, 1999, p. 63-74]. The wild Botai horse is also mentioned by N. Benecke and A. von den Driesch, based on the approach and argumentation of M. Levin [Benecke and Driesch, 2003]. D. Anthony and D. Brown, based on the presence of teeth with bit marks, tend to consider the Botai horse as a domestic one, but they do not exclude the possibility that only some individuals on Botai live in the wild. individuals were "bridled and saddled" by wild horse hunters (Anthony, 2007, p. 220).

Our position, formed together with L. L. Gaiduchenko, is to recognize the Tersek society, and more broadly, all those who left monuments of the southern steppe province of the community of Eneolithic cultures of geometric ceramics, as nomadic in its semi-nomadic version [Logvin, Kalieva, Gaiduchenko, 1989; Gaiduchenko, Kalieva, Logvin, 1989; Kalieva, Logvin, 1997, p. 100-123; Gaiduchenko, 1998a]. Unfortunately, the publications in which our argument was presented, apparently, turned out to be inaccessible to researchers, especially foreign ones. In the latter case, language problems are also layered together. As a result, even referring to our works, researchers cite only numerical data on archaeozoological definitions (Benecke and Driesch, 2003). Publication in this issue will hopefully change the situation.

Facts and points of view

Since the terms "nomads" and "nomadism" often have completely different meanings, it should be noted that we adhere to the position of A.M. Khazanov. He defines the distinctive features of nomadism as follows: "1) cattle breeding as the predominant type of economic activity; 2) the extensive nature of the economy, associated with year-round non-fat content of livestock on pasture; 3) periodic seasonal mobility within a certain pasture area; 4) participation in migrations of the majority of the population (as opposed to driving-pasture cattle breeding); 5) the predominance of natural forms of farming (in contrast to the modern capitalist ranch)" [Khazanov, 1984, p. 16; Khazanov, 2000, pp. 84-85]. Let's look at the correspondence of our materials to these attributes in order.

1. Cattle breeding as the predominant type of economic activity. Among all the animals whose bones are represented in the collections of Tersek settlements, only the bull and horse can claim the status of domestic animals (Kalieva and Logvin, 1997, p. 100-101). Let's start with the bull, whose bones are quite numerous on a number of Tersek monuments: on Kumkeshu-1 they make up 53.6% of all osteological materials, on Salt Lake-1 - 36.7, on Kaindy-3-24.1, on Kozhai-1-2.1%.

As you know, when determining fossil bone remains by archaeozoologists, the main indicator is,

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what distinguishes domestic animals from wild ones is the large size of the latter (naturally and bones). Obviously, however, this trait cannot work in the early stages of domestication. The Tersek bull was quite large, as evidenced by the height at the withers calculated from the talus bones using the method of V. I. Tsalkin [1970, pp. 162-164]. For Kumkeshu-1, this indicator varies in the range of 128-161 cm, for Kozhai-1 - 137 - 167, for Kainda-3 - 143 - 146 See [Gaiduchenko, 1998a, p. 250]. The tur has a height at the withers of 139-174 cm, the gray steppe bull of folk selection-126-150 and even 175 cm. These data clearly show how large the transgression of the size characteristics of wild and domestic bulls is.

Since standard morphometric indicators cannot give an unambiguous answer to the question of whether the bones found on the Tersek monuments belonged to a domestic or wild bull, we had to look for other criteria. According to L. L. Gaiduchenko, one of the reasons to consider the Tersek bull as a domestic animal is the fact that in the region under study, the most recent undisputed bone remains of the Tura were found in deposits of the first half of the Pleistocene [Ibid., p. 248]. All later finds are doubtful due to either the uncertainty of their stratigraphic location or the conventionality of definitions (such as" Bovinac gen. indet"," Bos aut Bison"," Bos sp.", etc.). Therefore, there is a high probability that Tur did not inhabit this area later than the early Holocene. Then it should be considered improbable "the appearance of a species that has been missing for thousands of years" [Ibid.].

One of the indicators characteristic of domestic animals is a high degree of trait variability, which can go beyond "not only specific, but also generic features" [Shvartz, 1972, p. 12]. Some Tersek bull bone remains show a high degree of variability. The origin of cattle in Northern Eurasia from the Tura (Bos) is generally recognized. The Bison did not seem to take part in this process. Although there is no strict ban on hybridization of bison and turk (and cattle), breeders faced such serious difficulties in creating hybrids that they found it inappropriate. This makes not only natural hybridization, but also human-induced hybridization unlikely in the past. Therefore, there should be no signs of bison on the bones of cattle. However, this is not the case in practice. Studying the bones of Eneolithic Tersek and modern cattle, L. L. Gaiduchenko found that some of them in both samples show signs of both bison and turk (Gaiduchenko, Kalieva, and Logvin, 1989, pp. 28-31). If the sample is large enough, these bones (for example, M3) can be arranged in such a way that a series is formed in which a smooth transition from bison traits to tur traits can be traced (Gaiduchenko, 1998b, Fig. 1). At the same time, "there are no teeth with only bison signs in the collection. Mixed teeth from Kozhai - 66.7%, Kumkeshu-58.8%, Kainda-66.7%." The same ratio is noted for the Bronze Age: "on average-64%". "In review cattle (cattle - S. K., V. L.), this indicator is 53%" [Ibid., pp. 177-178]. Taking into account the above-mentioned difficulties in hybridization involving bison and tur, these facts should be considered as a naturally occurring variability in the environment of domestic animals.

Such a feature as the lumpiness of Tersek cattle is also in good agreement with the above data. Criteria for determining this trait based on bone remains were once developed by V. I. Tsalkin, who drew attention to the fact that on Scythian and ancient monuments left by the population that raised cattle, horn rods make up from 0.23 to 0.88% of all cattle bones. In the collections of forest settlements of the same time, this indicator rises to 1.35% or higher (Tsalkin, 1966, pp. 11-13). On the three Tersek sites that have produced the most representative osteological collections, it ranges from 0.27 to 0.53% (Kozhai-1-0.27%, Kaindy-3-0.47%, Kumkeshu-1 - 0.53%)*. There are quite a lot of saiga bone remains on these monuments, including horn rods. According to L. L. Gaiduchenko's oral report, their density is comparable to that of cattle horn rods. On Kozhai-1, saiga antler rods make up 1.1% of all animal bones of this species, on Kainda-3-3.59%, on Kumkeshu-1 - 8.29%. The difference in this indicator from the collections of cattle bones is significant, which does not allow explaining the small percentage of bull horn rods with preservation features. Since the wild lumpy bull is unknown to science, it is necessary to recognize Tersek cattle as domestic, despite its large size.

One more observation can be cited, which indicates the maintenance of domestic animals by the Tersek population. According to the results of carbon deposits analysis on vessels from the Kumkeshu-1 settlement, more than 13% of samples indicate the presence of milk [Gaiduchenko, 2000, p. 157]. In principle, it could have been obtained from a domestic horse, but taking into account historically known experience, the assumption that the inhabitants of Kumkeshu-1 use cow's milk rather than mare's milk for cooking boiled food is preferable.

* The difference with previously published information is explained by the clarification of L. L. Gaiduchenko [Gaiduchenko, Kalieva, and Logvin, 1989, p. 32; Kalieva and Logvin, 1997, p. 104; Gaiduchenko, 1998b, p. 176].

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The most heated debate revolved around the interpretation of horse bone remains. L. A. Makarova and T. N. Nurumov made a rather detailed comparison of the morphometric characteristics of horse bones from the settlements of Saline Lake-1 and Botay and the bone remains of Neoeneolithic horses known by that time, as well as horse bones from the Bronze Age monuments of Kazakhstan. As a result, they came to the conclusion that "the horse of the Eneolithic or Early Bronze Age of Kazakhstan did not differ in any way from these animals of the Late Bronze Age..."[Akhinzhanov, Makarov, Nurumov, 1992, pp. 31-38, 160]. Even if we agree that there are no diagnostic signs of domestication in primitive horses and that it is impossible to attribute them to a wild or domestic form with confidence based on morphobiometric data, these data do not exclude the possibility of domestication of the Tersek horse.

To date, among the researchers who deny the presence of a domestic horse in the steppe population of the community of Eneolithic cultures of geometric ceramics, the most detailed argumentation of their position was given by M. Levin based on the analysis of bones from the Botai settlement. She worked out the principles of determining the criteria for domestication even before referring to the Botai material, studying osteological collections from the sites of" hunter-gatherers " of the Pleistocene and from the Eneolithic settlement of Dereivka of the Srednestogovskaya culture [Levine, 1983, 1990]. M. Levine drew attention to the fact that hunting prey at different Pleistocene sites significantly differed in sex and age structure. She suggested that this is due to differences in the methods of hunting animals, and considered several possible models of hunting organization, which, in her opinion, resulted in the formation of bone collections with different combinations of sex and age characteristics (Levine, 1983, p. 29-31).

M. Levin analyzed the osteological collection from site 31 of the Botay settlement. This site was excavated in 1992 by A. M. Kislenko and N. S. Tatarintseva with the participation of M. Levine specifically to solve the last problem [Levine, 1999, p. 30-32]. More than half of the horses represented in the analyzed collection were slaughtered at the age of 3 - 7 years, and more than a third-4-6 years. The peak occurs at the age of 6 years. Very old animal bones are scarce. M. Levin considers the ratio of young and old individuals to be close to natural. The ratio of males to females is set as 1: 1 [Ibid., p. 72, fi g. 24]. Based on these data, M. Levin believes that the Botai horse was wild and obtained in the course of indiscriminate hunting. Since by that time D. Anthony and D. Brown had established the presence of horse teeth on the Botai with traces of bit use, it did not exclude the possibility of riders participating in the hunt [Ibid., p.67-73].

Based on the materials of the Kozhai-1 settlement, a similar age structure is reconstructed. About 42% of horses were slaughtered at the age of 4-6 years. The bones of older individuals are also sparse. Stallions account for approximately 60% of slaughtered animals [Gaiduchenko, 1998a, pp. 245-247]. According to the logic of M. Levin, the bulk of Kozhaya-1 horses should also have been obtained in the course of indiscriminate hunting. However, it seems that its initial assumptions are very vulnerable.

Comparison with ethnographic information plays an important role in M. Levin's concept. After interviewing two Kazakhs and two Mongols about the situation at the beginning of the 20th century, she concluded that traditional horse breeders - Mongols and Kazakhs - prefer to slaughter two or three-year-old horses for meat as food. If the horse was intended for other purposes, then, according to M. Levin, individuals aged 16 or more years should be slaughtered. Since the age structure of the Botai settlement horses does not correspond to these provisions, it considers them wild (Levine, 1990, p. 738; 1999, p. 41-52, 73). This use of ethnographic information cannot be considered correct. Kazakh and Mongolian societies in the early 20th century they have already been included in the system of market relations. In this system, in the case of the meat direction of horse breeding, it is really profitable to intensively fatten young animals and send them to slaughter as soon as the growth rate of meat mass begins to decrease. In a market economy, this is dictated by the requirements of profitability of production.

As for the non-clear direction, M. Levine herself provides interesting data on the Roman monuments of Kesteren and Thornhill, where, in her opinion, horses were used for transport purposes [Levine, 1999, p. 52-55]. At the first stage, the number of slaughtered animals decreases sharply from the age of 10 years, and at the second - from 13 years. It can also be noted that on Kesteren, as well as on Botai, the peak of horse slaughter occurs at the age of 6 years [Ibid., p. 55, fig. 5]. D. Anthony drew the attention of researchers to the fact that the curves of the age of horse slaughter for Kesteren and Derek are almost identical [Anthony, 2007, p. 205, 206, fig. 10.4]. However, the similarity of the age structure of slaughtered horses on this Eneolithic settlement and on the Paleolithic monument was the reason for M. Levine's attribution of most of the horse bones from the Dereiv collection to wild animals (Levine, 1990, p. 737-739). Apparently, we should agree with D. According to Anthony, such a feature as gender and age structure does not work when considering the problem of horse domestication [Anthony, 2007, p. 205].

It seems to us that the age structure of slaughtered domestic horses in the Botai and Kozhai-1 settlements is quite logical. Speaking about the level of development of the society that left these monuments in the first approx-

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Therefore, we can assume that it was at a late generic stage, at most, at the initial stage of decomposition of the generic society. It used the levers not of a market economy, but of a prestigious one, in which cattle are always very important. In this case, there is no reason to slaughter young animals, but there is also no point in keeping them until the limit of the reproductive period, when the value of the animal drops sharply. We should also keep in mind the comments of L. L. Gaiduchenko about some of the reasons for the formation of the age structure of slaughtered horses recorded on Kozhai-1. Data on modern horses show that the maturity of the skeleton occurs in them by 4.5-5 years, riding horses acquire the ability to carry a full load at about 4 years. By approximately 3.5 years of age, the Kazakh horse jabe shows "the greatest weight and the highest slaughter yield" when kept in a herd. In 5 - 6 years, stallions try to form their own shoals. Thus, at the age of 4-6 years, the Tersek horse "is most intensively involved in the circle of events determined by both biological causes and economic needs... this naturally led to a high level of injuries among individuals of this age, which probably led to the necessity of slaughter in some cases" [Gaiduchenko, 1998a, p.246]. According to L. L. Gaiduchenko, forced slaughter is indicated by the presence of distal limb bones at Kozhai-1, which preserve anatomical order, but with broken metapods (mainly in the middle). Thus, M. Levine's observation that the presence of undivided skeletal parts on a Botai indicates an irrational (predatory) type of hunting (Levine, 1999, p. 69) can be challenged. At least some of these findings can be explained by the forced slaughter of sick animals.

Of particular interest is the information obtained from morphobiometric data on the growth of horses and the degree of their thin-legged state. These indicators are within the range of variations of the domestic horse. According to L. L. Gaiduchenko, on Kozhai-1, the height ranged from 129 to 146 cm and averaged 139 cm. Kozhai horses were semi-thin-legged, medium-legged, semi-thick-legged and thick-legged. On Kumkeshu-1, the horses were about the same height (128 - 146 cm, average 139.4 cm) and were mostly medium-legged and semi-thick-legged. On Kainda-3, the calculated height values are slightly lower (128-143 cm, on average 135 cm), which may be explained by a significantly smaller sample size. Here, the bones of semi-stout-legged horses predominate (Gaiduchenko, 1998a, p. 241). The height of the Botai horse ranged from 128 cm to 152 cm (Seibert, 2009, p. 412).

L. L. Gaiduchenko made an attempt to study the horse known from the materials of the Kozhai-1 settlement "at the organizational level in two directions, revealing the structure of the population in relation to the constitution of its individuals and the direction of breeding work" [Gaiduchenko, 1998a, p. 234]. The structural analysis was based on the horse type, determined by the ratio of growth and thin-legged indicators (Gaiduchenko, 1998a, 2002). L. L. Gaiduchenko notes that in the territory of modern Kazakhstan during the Pleistocene and Holocene, up to and including the Neolithic era, horses were medium and tall, and evolution was in the direction of increasing thin-legged. In the first half of the Pleistocene, thick - legged and semi - thick-legged horses are recorded, in the second half-medium-legged and semi-thin-legged horses, in the Holocene (Neolithic) - thin-legged horses. In Tersek time, judging by the Kozhaya-1 collection, the situation changed dramatically. Along with medium and tall horses, short horses appeared. All varieties from thick-legged to semi-thin-legged have been found, but there are no thin-legged ones. It seems that in the steppes of Kazakhstan by the third millennium BC, the natural course of events in the evolution of the horse was disrupted. Perhaps we can agree with L. L. Gaiduchenko believes that it is most realistic to explain the changes that have occurred under the influence of domestication processes, when a horse develops under human care, acquiring unprofitable qualities from the standpoint of natural selection [1998a, p. 243].

In 1992, D. Anthony and D. Brown examined a sample of 19 intact lower pre-root teeth of adult Botai specimens. Five of them had undisputed traces of bit action, which is 26% of the sample. Later, N. Benecke and A. von den Driesch pointed out the possibility of similar tooth wear in wild animals with malocclusion [Benecke and Driesch, 2003, p. 78, 79]. In this regard, D. Anthony tried to determine the frequency of occurrence of this trait in wild (including Pleistocene) horses and came to the conclusion that it is less than 1% [Anthony, 2007, p. 211-213, tabl. 10.1]. Of the 12 intact teeth from the Kozhai-1 settlement, two (16.6% of the sample) also showed clear signs of alignment [Ibid., p.218]. Another tooth with traces from the impact of bits from the Botai collection is reported by A. Outram and his colleagues [Outram et al., 2009]. It is interesting to note that in the modern herd horse breeding of meat direction for 200 - 250 heads there are two or four herdsmen. If each herder has spare horses, 16-40 (1.6 - 4.0% of the herd) trained animals are needed to graze a herd of 1,000 heads (Gaiduchenko, 1998a, p. 245). Consequently, Tersek and Botai horse breeders were provided with trained horses no worse than historically known nomads.

Of interest is also the fact that large undifferentiated rocks were found on the site of 31 Botai.-

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three horse skeletons. According to S. Olsen, who studied them, this is possible only if the animals were slaughtered in the settlement or parts of the carcasses were delivered with the help of a horse. In any case, it should be about pets [Olsen, 2003, p. 86, 96].

All the facts presented in favor of domestication of the horse by carriers of Botai and Tersek cultures are very important, but they do not allow us to answer the question of whether we are dealing with the bone remains of individual domesticated individuals, or whether the bulk of the bones found belong to domestic animals. At Kozhai-1 and Kumkeshu-1 settlements, we obtained data confirming the second assumption. We have noticed the fact that there is undoubtedly a different attitude to the horse and bull, on the one hand, to kulan and saiga, on the other. On Kozhai-1 by 3.5 times, and on Kumkesh u-1 by 2.5 times, young kulans (determined by epiphysis increment) were slaughtered more often than young horses. For saiga and bull, this indicator is 2.3 and 1.3 times higher, respectively [Kalieva and Logvin, 1997, p. 107]. The inhabitants of both settlements preferred to slaughter adult horses that had already fully formed their skeletons. As for saiga and kulan, they didn't seem to care much whether they were slaughtering young or adult animals. On Kumkeshu-1, the ribs in the collections of horse and bull bones make up 9.5 and 8.1%, respectively, while those of kulan and saiga are 2.4 and 1.3%. The situation with the shoulder blade is exactly the opposite. In the collection of horse and bull bones, they make up 1.1 and 3.7%, and kulan and saiga-17.9 and 12.0% [Kalieva and Shevnina, 2007, p. 102]. Obviously, kulan and saiga were not slaughtered in the settlement, which is why most of the ribs, as opposed to the shoulder blade, were left at the hunting site. As for the horse and bull, the problem of delivering their carcasses to the settlements, apparently, did not exist. Saiga and kulan, of course, are wild animals, and if we fix the diametrically opposite, in comparison with the horse and bull, the attitude of people towards them, then the principle of antithesis suggests that the latter were domestic. Kulan and the horse in the wild (last and in the wild) they lead almost the same lifestyle. The methods of hunting both are the same, and if the horse is considered wild, then we should expect the same representation of young and adult individuals of the kulan and the horse in the hunting prey, which we do not observe in reality. These direct facts of the special (and one-order) attitude of people to the horse and bull (the latter cannot be considered wild already due to comolarity) indicate the domestication of the bulk of horses represented in osteological collections, which, of course, does not exclude the possibility of the presence in them of some proportion of bone remains of wild or feral individuals obtained in the past. the result of the hunt.

The domestication of the Tersek horse is also supported by the fact that no one disputes the breeding of domestic horses by western neighbors - the population that left the monuments of the Yamnaya culture [Tsalkin, 1970, pp. 183-204; Merpert, 1974; Shilov, 1975; Petrenko, 1984, pp. 69-70; Kosintsev, 2007]. The Yamnaya, Surtandy, Tersek, and Botai antiquities are generally synchronous. The inhabitants of the western part of the Asian steppes could not fail to know about the domestic horses of the carriers of the yamnaya culture. The border between the Asian and European steppes is conditional; it has never been an insurmountable barrier between the European and Asian steppe populations (Merpert, 1974). The horse is too valuable an animal for the steppe people to learn about the practice of breeding domestic horses and not try to learn from this experience.

All evidence points to the leading role of cattle breeding in the economy of Tersek society. In the meat diet of the population, hunting products were clearly of secondary importance. The yield of the eaten mass of wild animals on Kaindy-3 is 26.81% of all meat products, on Kozhai-1-13.04%, on Kumkesh-1 - 6.36% [Gaiduchenko and Zdanovich, 2000, pp. 45-66]*. In addition to meat, milk was also used in the diet. On Kumkeshu-1, dairy takes a prominent place in the composition of cooked food (more than 13%). Since milk can also be consumed raw, it should be assumed that it is important in the nutrition of the Tersek population [Gaiduchenko, 2000, pp. 156-157]. There is little evidence of fishing. Bones of two pike and one crucian carp were found on Kozhai-1, and two ide and one pike were found on Kumkeshu-1. However, the presence of a fragment of a ceramic sinker on Kumkeshu-1 and the results of isotope analysis of a fragment of a human skull from the Botai settlement may indicate a rather important role of fish in the diet [Kalieva and Shevnina, 2007; O'Connell et al., 2003, tabl. 16.2].

There is no direct data on agriculture, but the Tersek population had the technical capacity to engage in it. For example, some large axe-shaped tools have obvious traces of their use as earth-moving tools (hoes). The disks could serve as weights for digging sticks. Large abrasive stones could be used for grinding plant food. In addition, according to the results of the analysis of prigara on vessels from the Kumkeshu-1 settlement, approximately 6% of the analyzed samples indicate the use of some kind of millet-like cereal in cooked food. However, all these signs are not strictly related to agriculture. Even cereals could be obtained during con-

* The relatively high share of hunting products on Kainda-3 is explained by the specific nature of the monument, which, in our opinion, is a shepherd's camp (summer retreat) [Logvin, 1992].

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tact levels with southern neighbors. Although the question of agriculture among the Tersek population remains open, it is clear that it could not have played a more important role than was recorded among the nomads of this region in historical times. At the same time, we should note the presence of quite intensive gathering, since non - grain vegetation was used in the preparation of cooked food not much less often (33%) than meat (43%) [Gaiduchenko, 2000, pp. 156-157]. Thus, all of the above suggests that in the system of integrated management of the Tersek population, cattle breeding played a leading role, was the economic basis for the functioning of society.

2. Extensive nature of the farm, associated with year-round non-fat content of livestock on pasture. Intensive farming of the inhabitants of the Tersek settlements could not be for two reasons. First of all, it is necessary to have a sufficiently developed agriculture, and secondly, the tools that the Tersekians had at their disposal did not allow them to prepare food for such a mass of animals. Consequently, Tersek cattle were necessarily kept for grazing.

3. Periodic seasonal mobility within a certain pasture area. A large number of livestock in the absence of the possibility of foraging determines the need to change pastures. Confirmation of this can be found in the features of the construction of dwellings and the composition of osteological collections. At the Kozhai-1 and Kumkeshu-1 settlements, the dwellings were semi-underground, but the ground part of them, judging by the remains of burnt structures, was built of talc, which also suggests a relatively light roof, which could have been made using reeds, grass, animal skins, but not turf [Kalieva, Gaiduchenko, Logvin, 1989]. In winter, in such a dwelling, the fire in the hearth must be maintained almost constantly. Hence, if we assume year-round habitation in the Kozhai-1 and Kumkeshu-1 settlements, we should expect the presence of powerful foci and ash pits, but we do not find them. Only in dwellings 1 and 14 Kozhaya-1 were found the remains of more or less intensively used hearths. They were traced as spots with a diameter of 0.6 m, in which the soil is calcined to a depth of 0.1 m. It is possible that some of the ash pits located inside the structures also fix bonfires, although most of them are most likely just places of the last storage of ash. All of them are low-power, with a diameter of 0.4 to 1.0 m, with a thickness of ash deposits up to 0.1 m. The excavated part of the monument contains only up to a dozen such ash pits (Kalieva, 1998, pp. 7-9). This somehow does not fit in with the large saturation of the cultural layer with finds - on average, about 300 per 1 m2 of excavation. The only reasonable explanation for this combination of features is that Kozhaya-1 is recognized as a long-term, but seasonal (summer) settlement. We have approximately the same situation on Kumkeshu-1. Only in dwelling 6, a small (0.2 m in diameter) puncture spot with a thickness of 0.05 m was recorded. It is located in the central part at the bottom of the pit. There are no ash pits as such, but in many dwellings sand lenses with a diameter of up to 1 m and a thickness of 0.15 - 0.20 m with abundant carbonaceous inclusions were found. Only in two cases (dwellings 1 and 9) do these lenses reach 2 m in diameter at a power of 0.2-0.3 m. It seems that, despite the lightness of the structures of the dwellings, the inhabitants of Kozhai-1 and Kumkeshu-1 did not feel the need for constant heating, which is possible only in the warm period of the year. The large saturation of the cultural layer with finds is due to the annual return to the habitable summer habitat. Osteological collections confirm this assumption. They contain bones of animals that do not live in these places in winter. On Kozhai-1, Kumkeshu-1 and Kaindah-3 it is saiga. In addition to them, the bones of a swan, crane, gray goose, teal, marsh harrier, as well as a frog and groundhog were found on Kozhai-1, and on Kumkeshu-1 and Kainda-3 - zurman and jerboa, which lie dormant for the winter. This clearly indicates that the settlements were inhabited in the summer.

An analysis of the growth layers of cement of the molar part of the teeth of animals from Kozhaya-1 and Kumkeshu-1, conducted by L. L. Gaiduchenko according to the method of G. A. Klevezal [1988], showed that animals were slaughtered in the warm period of the year (spring, summer, autumn) [Kalieva and Logvin, 1997, pp. 115-116]. The results of palynological studies on Kozhai-1 lead to a similar conclusion. Samples taken at the settlement gave a typical range of plants for human habitats with a sharp predominance of haze. Unexpected was the absence of willow. Willow pollen was not recorded either in the cultural layer or in the overlying soil, although talc grows in the floodplain of the river now and probably grew in the past, since its macro-aggregates (embers) are found in the cultural layer (Kalieva, 1998, p. 233)*. The origins of this paradox lie in the particular location of the monument. The settlement occupies a hollow between the hills adjacent to the river and a rocky ledge in the floodplain. In winter, snow naturally accumulated in it. Willow begins to bloom with the appearance of the first thawing areas [Flora of Kazakhstan, 1960, p. 20, 26, 29], the duration of flowering is five to ten days [ Minkov, 1974, p. 114]. At this time, there was still snow in the hollow, and willow pollen settled on its surface, and then was carried into the river as the snow melted. The inhabitants of Kozhai-1 appeared on the settlement after the willow faded and the hollow was cleared of snow. In pro-

* R. A. Tereshchenko, who performed the analyses, excludes the possibility of erroneous interpretation of willow pollen.

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Otherwise, humans and their accompanying animals would have introduced pollen into the cultural layer.

From all this, it follows that Kumkeshu-1 and Kozhai-1 were inhabited only during the summer period, but then there must be winter settlements. Perhaps this is the Salt Lake-1. The dwelling here was of a completely different design. In the central part of its pit, pillars were arranged in a circle, which, apparently, were the support of the entire structure, which was able to withstand significantly greater loads than the frame of Kozhaya-1 and Kumkeshu-1 dwellings. The roof and walls in this case could be significantly heavier, and therefore, the dwelling is warmer. In the bottom part of the pit, three rather thick lenses of sand with carbonaceous inclusions are recorded. Probably, these are the remains of a bonfire that did not have a fixed location. Taking into account the relatively small area of the settlement, it seems that the inhabitants of Salt Lake-1 experienced a greater need for heating their homes than on Kozhai-1 and Kumkeshu-1. In the osteological collection of Salt Lake-1, there are no bones of animals that live in these areas only in summer. Hunting objects are represented by wild boar. Since the monument is located on the edge of a relict forest surrounded by lakes, the absence of bones of the summer inhabitants of the forest is most likely attributed to the fact that in the summer there were no people on the settlement. This place is very convenient for wintering cattle breeders. The forest protected them from the strong wind. The steppe expanses provided fodder for horses capable of shivering in a significant snow cover. A system of lakes with large areas of reed beds provided fodder for cattle when the snow cover increased. As a result, there are slightly fewer reasons to consider Salt Lake-1 as a seasonal winter settlement than Kumkeshu-1 and Kozhai-1 as summer settlements.

4. Participation in migrations of the majority of the population (as opposed to pastoral farming). The assumption of pastoral herding, when the main population remained in a stationary settlement, and the flocks were driven and grazed by shepherds, does not stand up to criticism already because of the richness of finds of the cultural layer, indicating a large number of inhabitants of settlements. Kozhai-1 accounts for about 300 finds per 1 m2, while Kumkesh-1 accounts for more than 60.

5. The predominance of natural forms of farming (in contrast to the modern capitalist ranch). Since the formation of market relations in the steppes in the third millennium BC was still far away, the economy of the Tersek population could only be natural, as it was in the steppes for a long time after it.

Thus, all the signs of nomadism identified by A. M. Khazanov are reflected in the materials under consideration. Consequently, the societies that left the Tersek and Botai antiquities should also be recognized as nomadic.

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