Tomsk Region was discovered and settled by the Russians in the late 16th and in the 17 century. The oldest city of region is Narym, firstly founded as a settlement in 1596. The city of Tomsk was founded in 1604. But these people didn’t even know such a great civilization was situated there. It was before their time.

Mysterious Kulayskaya taiga civilization was flourishing on the territory of contemporary Tomsk Region from the mid-1st millennium B.C. till mid-1st millennium A.D. Kulai taiga civilization, famous with its specific screwy bronze artifacts was discovered by chance in 1922. A buried treasure, consisting of a bronze kettle, full of tiny artifacts made of silver and bronze was found on the Kulaika Mountain in the Chainskiy District of the Tomsk region.

The archaeological culture was also called Kulayskaya after the place of the first find because of the lack of the sources. This civilization itself was nonliterate and it was very far from the European civilizations of that time, so it was unknown for them.

Archaeology demonstrates that the people of Kulayskaya culture lived in the huts near the numerous lakes. They were hunters and fishers. The earliest settlements were very small and consisted of 2-3 houses, later they became bigger (about 10 houses) and some protective works appeared around them, e.g. graffs.

Anthropologically, the people of Kulayskaya culture were half-casts; white and asian races were amalgamated there. What about their beliefs, one can only suppose. According to the assumptions based on the artifacts, these people divided the universe into three parts: the upper world, where the birds and souls live, the middle world, the world of the people and animals, and the lower one, where the dead souls set out.

It is ridiculous, that these hunters and fishers possessed very sophisticated technologies in ferrous metallurgy and metallurgy of non-ferrous metals. They produced weapons, tools and bronze images of the animals, people, myths and birds. These images are recognizable, expressive and very aesthetic. Their style is graphic and laconic, but the artist demonstrates also details, which cannot be seen (some internal parts of body or even embryo). Sometimes such vehicle is called skeleton style.

The people of Kulayskaya culture traded with the peoples living in the steppe southwards from them. They didn’t compete with each other because of the different types of hunting. They had nothing to quarrel over. On the contrary, the neighboring families of the Kulayskaya culture used to conflict sometimes.

The bronze artifacts of Kulayskaya culture are exhibited in the Tomsk Regional local history museum.