Kardash O.V.

Key words: Northwestern Siberia, Salekhard, Poluy River, Ob River, Obdorsk principality, Samoyedic people, Ostyak people, chessboard games.
The article tells of chessboard games in the everyday life of the indigenous peoples of northwestern Siberia. It publishes a group of items from the excavations at Poluysky (Obdorsky) Gorodok (end of the 16th – the 17th cc.) which was the residence of the chieftains of the Obdorsk princes. The author uses archaeological and ethnographic sources to analyze the emergence and existence of the games within the cultures of the North Siberian peoples, from the late 16th to the 20th cc. The article concludes that the pieces from Poluysky Gorodok comprised a set for a game analogous to the game of tepek (tep), which is known from ethnographical data. The indigenous peoples of the North started using such games at the end of the 16th c. at the earliest, in the course of active colonization of Siberia by the principality of Muscovy.