Archaeological evidence for Domozhirov's campaign of 1595 at the Nadezhdinka IV burial ground in the Tara-Irtysh basin

Abstract

The study deals with the events that took place in the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia, in the Tara-Irtysh basin, in the spring of 1595, associated with the campaign of the Tara detachment led by B. Domozhirov to the middle reaches of the Tara River and to the Baraba forest-steppe. During this campaign, the fortress of Tunus was taken by storm. The aim of the work is to trace, with the example of the burials of the Nadezhdinka IV burial ground, the fate of the defenders of the town and, in general, of the Tatar population living in the Tara-Irtysh basin. The capture of the fortress is described in detail in the memo-randum report of the Tara vaivode. The archaeological investigations confirmed the information of the written source. The article is based on the materials from the Nadezhdinka IV burial ground excavated by the author in 2004–2006. In particular, a series of graves were investigated, in which the defenders transferred from the fortress were buried. The analysis of the burials allows the reconstruction of individual elements of the funeral rite, and exposition of the accompanying grave goods. The result of the study was the assessment of the situation developed at the end of the 16th c. in the Irtysh basin and the reasons for the retreat of the Russians to the north to the fortress of Tara. In the result of this campaign, Tatar settlements of this volost were plun-dered and this region of the Tara basin was appreciably depopulated. By the end of the 16th c., the Russians occupied the lands up to the river Om from its mouth to the middle course. However, the migration of the Kalmyks from the east to Western Siberia forced the Russians to abandon this territory and retreat essentially down to Tara. The reason for that was the lack of human resources both in the town of Tara as well as in the local population. Only towards the end of the 17th c. the Russians began to move southwards — this was the price of the cruel treatment of the Siberian Tatars in the spring of 1595. The burnt fortress of Tunus and the graves of its defenders at the Nadezhdinka IV burial ground have become a testimony of the ill-thought policy of the Tara vaivodes. The local Tatars, after waiting a certain time following the departure of the Tara detachment, visited the for-tress and buried the remains of the defenders on the cliff of the Tara River. After that, most of them left the Irtysh basin and went to their historical homeland in the Southern Trans-Urals.