Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2021 number

The research objective is to study features of the Guntuling culture in northeastern China during the Iron Age, territorial and chronological boundaries, specificity in the material culture development, and identification of common and original peculiarities compared with neighboring cultures - the Wanyanhe cultural type and Poltse culture. Among the main problems of studying this culture is the question of its origins, cultural proximity to the above cultures, absence or presence of a common basis to form and develop all three cultures, and relations between them. The long-term study of the Guntuling culture has generated a large array of data on it. It became possible to outline the main distribution area, the southwestern regions of the Sanjiang plain and the chronological framework (II century BC - II century) during the course of the research. However, the available radiocarbon data for coal have shown the first half of the IV century AD. The study reveals that its sites are represented in the absolute majority by settlements including mountain fortified settlements. The most important feature of the structure of spreading sites is their large amount, exceeding several times the number of sites of all neighboring synchronous cultures. Burials investigations give a definite idea of the funeral rite - primary corpses with a very small set of burial items. The main dwelling type is represented by a semi-dugout with a frame-and-pillar structure. When examining the Guntuling culture inventory, a small number of items made of metal and stone and predominance of items made of ceramics and bone are marked as a distinctive feature. The research finds that dwellings and household implements have a certain similarity with similar elements of the Wanyanhe cultural type and Poltse culture. At the same time, among the Chinese researchers at present there is still no single point of view on the origin of the Guntuling culture, while there are elements of similarity and active contacts with neighboring cultures.