Sibir (Siberia) Khanate
Name of Sibir and the Ancient History of Siberia
The first fossils of humans pertaining to the period 40 thousand years ago that had remained from the Palaeolithic era have been found within the environs of Obi and Yenisey Rivers and the Lake Baikal. The remains of the Neolithic era have been found in all the regions of Siberia. Around 3 thousand years BC, there were some tribes that were the members of the European race that bred animals and performed mine processing works in the skirts off Sayan and Altay Mountains. This period is called as Afanasyev culture. The people of the Andronov culture pertaining to 2 thousand years BC had been occupied with stockbreeding, agriculture and mining in the regions extending from Ural to Baikal. These tribes are supposed to have been the ancestors of Huns.
At the end of 2 thousand years BC, it has been observed that the Mongoloid race coming from the south-east had become influential in these regions and the iron mining was started at the end of 1st thousand years. There are rich Tumulus-tombs pertaining to the period of the second half of this era (Pazirik and animal style).
In the historical resources, the word of "Sibir" (afterwards, "Siberia") was firstly used since the century XIII. It must have been a name of "Sabir" Turks that had played an important role in the history of Asia and Eastern Europe in the 1st and 2nd centuries DC. Sabir people had come down to the region near to the Caspian Sea along Idyll River in the century V. Some of them surmounted the Caucasus and expanded towards Anatolia. The name of this Turkish tribe must have also been adopted and maintained by the Finno-Ugrian people that lived between Obi and Ural Rivers. The name of "Sibir" has been used since the year of 1483 in the Russian resources. In the beginning, only the middle and lower sections of Obi River were meant with the name of "Sibir". When the Russian domination diffused and expanded towards the banks of Irtish and the Lake Baikal, this name also included them; finally, the entire Northern Asia extending towards Kamchatka was called as "Sibir".