Traces of Mahanjar culture in the forest-steppe Tobol region

The paper summarizes all currently known source data on the Neolithic Mahanjar culture in the forest-steppe Tobol region. Both scattered archival data – materials from Ubagan 2,3,5, Ust-Suerka 4 and several others – and the results of new archaeological works on such settlements as Kochegarovo 1 and Tashkovo 1 are published, which allows a significant expansion of the periphery of the Mahanjar culture to the north boundaries of the forest-steppe zone of the Tobol region. The western boundary of the periphery requires further work. The author traced geographical dependence in the distribution of materials in the composition of monuments with other Neolithic cultures. Based on the available absolute dates and the fixation of some facts of ceramics stratification, conclusions are drawn about the coexistence of Mahanjar complexes in the Tobol region with carriers of early Neolithic – Kozlovskaya and Koshkinskaya – and Late Neolithic – Poludenskaya and Boborykinskaya ceramic traditions from the end of early Neolithic to the mid of late Neolithic. It is assumed that the spread of the Mahanjar culture in the forest-steppe zone proceeded by including its carriers among the local inhabitants through social ties. The inclusion of the Mahanjar antiquities of the forest-steppe Tobol region in the corpus of sources allows us to expand our understanding of cultural genesis and migrations at the end of the early Neolithic.