Imendyashevo Antiquities from the Southern Ural Forest-Steppe: Cultural Attribution, Economic Specifics, External Links

The history of the identification of Imendyashevo antiquities, which were classified by different researchers as either a distinct type of site or a separate archaeological culture, is considered. Comparative analysis demonstrates that Imendyashevo ceramics acts as a marker of the late stage of the Kara-Abyz culture and as an evolutionary continuation of the Ubalar type within this culture. The Ubalar type was formed no later than the mid 4th – the turn of the 4th– 3rd centuries BC. The bearers of these traditions gradually incorporated nomadic Late Sauromatian (Philipovka), Early Sarmatian (Prokhorovka), Trans-Ural forest-steppe (Itkul), Late Sarmatian, and Mazunino components. Judging by various types of mixed pottery, the latest Kara-Abyz population groups were completely assimilated by the Turbasly and Mazunino population at the beginning – first half of the 5th century AD. According to available data, the territory occupied by the population of the late (Imendyashevo) stage of the Kara-Abyz culture was mainly confined to the right bank of the Belaya River and was limited in the north by the low-mountain taiga Ufa Plateau, in the east by the edge of the mountains of the Southern Urals, extended southward to the latitude of modern sity Salavat. The maximum size of this area was about 250×70 km, but the main part of the sites is concentrated in the Belaya-Ufa-Sim interfluve, occupying the northern part of the area.