Néolithique du Tourgaï : sites, artefacts, paléoéconomie et liens transculturels

Abstract

This paper presents the Neolithic period in the Turgay region (Northern Kazakhstan). The main population of the Turgay region during the Neolithic period was represented by human groups with the Mahanjar culture. The study of this culture allowed to reconstruct the daily life of the Neolithic population from the Turgay region (economy, manufacture of lithic tools, pottery production, etc.). Many data from isotopic, petrographic and binocular microscopy analyses, as well as palaeozoological study, were also used for this purpose. The paper raises many questions about the origins of the Mahanjar culture, the dispersal routes of the people with this culture, and their contacts with Neolithic populations from the territories beyond the Urals. The Turgay depression once represented a kind of “corridor” between Central Asia and the Urals, Siberia, in other words, the contact zone between human populations, and an important crossroad in the migration processes of Eurasia.