scholarly journals Archaeological Complexes from Catacomb of South Kazakhstan in the Context of Sarmatian Themes

2021 ◽  
pp. 263-271
Author(s):  
Alexandr Podushkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Partial Similarity ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Bronze Mirrors ◽  
Grave Goods

The article is devoted to archaeological research of new discovered burial structures in the form of catacomb at the Kylyshzhar cemetery (1st century BC – 3rd century AD), in which artifacts were found similar to the monuments of the Sarmatian appearance. They include a number of ritual actions and burial implements close to the burial practice of the Sarmatians: range and blade weapons (iron tang daggers with a stone pommel, arrowheads), horse tack (iron girth buckles), bronze mirrors, household items and ritual objects (iron buckles, chalk amulets), jewelry (Egyptian faience ribbed beads). The characteristics of the grave goods from the catacombs of the Kylyshzhar cemetery, chronological calculations and ethno cultural interpretations indicate partial similarity between mentioned burials and the Sarmatian monuments of the 1st century BC – 3rd century AD despite major differences in such significant details of the funeral rite as the construction of burial pits and the orientation of the buried ones.

scholarly journals World view and traditions of the population of the Andronovo historical and cultural community (according to the funeral rites)

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
I. A. Kukushkin
Keyword(s):  
World View ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Funeral Rites ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Ancient Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
The Military

Purpose. We aimed at studying the traditions and world views of the Andronovo population of the steppe bronze. Due to the absence of direct written sources and zoo-anthropomorphic pictorial tradition on the subject, the burial practice of the Andronovo population, whose detailing presupposes the existence of extensive mythological ritual knowledge concentrated in the worldview sphere, is the foreground of research as the main informative base. Results. The earliest evidence that specifies certain aspects of the worldview of the ancient society appears at the dawn of the Andronovo era. The finds of stone and bronze maces are curious, which, obviously, marked the patrimonial military aristocracy, closely connected with the cult of the military deity. Of great interest are paired and double burials in which a man and woman were buried. It can be assumed that such a burial rite is a practical realization of the sacred marriage, the participants of which are heterosexual twins, close in content to Yama-Yami or Yima-Yimak. Regular reproduction in the funeral practice of the ritual of twin burials indicates that the heterosexual twins were given a significant place in the religious and mythological system of the ancient society. A certain place in the system of religious priorities was occupied by twins of the same sex, in particular males, such as, for example, the Vedic Ashvins. Double burials of the deceased of the same sex in specially prepared burial chambers, where skeletons of different sexes are usually located, are excluded, which excludes their marriage relations and makes us see in the ritual contemplated a twin, possibly, a ritual burial. There was another, more complex and rare rite of the triple burial, which includes a woman occupying the central place and two men located on each side. Such triple burials symbolize the triune image of the goddess and two twins, obviously the elder and younger, widespread in Indo-European mythology. Conclusion. Based on the well-known mythology of the funeral rite reproduced in the ritual, a whole series of sacred actions are observed pointing to the developed cults of various deities close to the Indo-Iranian pantheon and playing a fundamental role in the religious mythological representations of the ancient society. However, it should be borne in mind that the polytheism of antiquity is a dynamically changing system rather than a static, «petrified» structure, which visually demonstrates the successive stages of the social and economic development of the society itself.

About One Detail of the Funeral Rite of Ancient Qabala

2021 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Jeyhun T. Eminli
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Body ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Specific Detail ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Funeral Ceremony ◽  
Grave Goods

This article is devoted to the consideration and interpretation of a peculiar detail of the funeral rite observed at the cemeteries of ancient period in the historical region of Qabala - the capital of Caucasian Albania. Attention is focused on ceramic vessels with intentionally made holes, which were revealed in the burials among the grave goods. The vessels with holes were found in the ground burials of Uzuntala and Gushlar cemeteries of the 1st century BCE – 1st century CE, along with skeletons in a contracted position on their sides; as well as in the catacomb burial of Salbir, dating to the I-III centuries CE. In burials nos. 3–7 of Uzuntala, vessels of this type had holes in the center of their bases, and were placed upside down in the grave. In the catacomb burial of Salbir, 1st – 3rd centuries CE, two vases of the same type had large holes on the side of the body. The specific detail of the funeral rite, which is of a particular nature, has been episodically traced in the territory of Azerbaijan since the Bronze Age and continued to exist until the Late Antique period. It allows us to talk of the existence of a ritual that was carried out during the funeral ceremony and reflected some religious ideas associated with the funeral ideology. The authors of the paper suppose that these vessels should, according to prevailing beliefs, symbolize the “exodus of the soul” of the deceased and have no connection with the custom of damage to the inventory.

Insights Regarding an Early Medieval Grave Discovered at Dudeștii Vechi, Timiș County, Romania

Transilvania ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 10-15
Author(s):  
Bogdan Alin Craiovan
Keyword(s):  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The Village ◽  
Grave Goods

The present paper aims to bring forward new insights regarding the early medieval age in the Banat region of Romania. The main subject of our paper revolves around a grave discovered during the 2016 archaeological research of the “Cociohatu Mic” site located near the village of Dudeștii Vechi, Timiș County, Romania. The grave, as well as the grave goods were poorly preserved, still a few competent conclusions could still be drawn after analyzing the funerary inventory.

scholarly journals Barrows with stone lining in Belarus and Ukraine

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 131-152
Author(s):  
Edvard Zajkoŭski
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
The South ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
The North ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Tribal Areas ◽  
Burial Grounds ◽  
Grave Goods

The range of Medieval burial structures on the territory of Belarus includes barrows with stone lining. Commonly, one layer of stones encircled a barrow, but two layers’ lining could also be met. Funeral rite can be described as inhumation at the horizon level or in a pit with western orientation of the dead. Individual burials are most characteristic though double burials were practiced too. Not every burial mound contains grave goods. The items are represented by ornaments, amulets and pots of mostly Slavic type. The finds date back to the 11th – early 12th or 12th – 13th century. The same burial ground could also contain barrows composed entirely of earth, ones including stones interspersed or in the form of thin pavement at the horizon. Barrows of this kind are spread both in central Belarus and farther to the north, covering partly the Dzvina Basin, or more often to the south-west – in the Middle Buh Basin including Polish and Belarusian parts. In Ukraine barrows with stone construction were studied in Zhytomyr Polissya Region where almost 20 burial grounds of this type are known. Such barrows can be found in some other places too: in the Ros’ Basin, in Bukovyna (two barrows with stone lining dated back to the 12th – mid 13th century have been excavated there), in Podilia (burial sites in Zhnyborody I, Sokilets’, Hlybochok). In archaeological studies, there’s a tendency to assign all the barrows with stone constructions to the range of so called stone barrows which are considered to be burial sites of the Jaćviahi. Though in the eastern part of Mazur Lake region and in the basin of the Chornaya Hancha river where the Jatvingians have been located according to the evidence from chronicles there’s no barrows dated back to the 10th – 13th centuries at all. At the same time, in the first millennium AD barrows with stone lining were spread in the range of the Eastern Balts tribes: on the territory of Latvia (tribal areas of Latgaly, Siely, Ziemgaly) and Lithuania (the area of the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture) where they dominated between the 4th and 7th centuries and still could be met in the 7th – 10th centuries. However, we know Eastern Balts’ barrows with stone lining of the eleventh century in the south of Lithuania and bordering part of Belarus, which are chronologically close to the barrows with stone constructions in the rest part of Belarus and in the Middle Dnipro region. The emergence of these kind sites in Bukovyna and Podillia became possible in the result of the union of Volhynian and Galician principalities, i.e. after 1199. Key words: barrows with stone lining, grave goods, Middle Buh region, Zhytomyr Polissya region, Bukovyna, Podillia, Jatvingians, the Eastern Lithuanian Barrows Culture.

scholarly journals Reconstruction of the burial № 2 destruction process at the Chernyakhiv culture cemetery Komariv-1

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 117-130
Author(s):  
Mariana Avramenko
Keyword(s):  
Soft Tissues ◽  
The Body ◽  
Destruction Process ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Order Part ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Food Offering ◽  
Individual Human ◽  
Grave Goods

The article is devoted to the analysis of burial 2 from the Chernyakhiv culture cemetery Komariv-1 (Kelmentsy district, Chernivtsi region). The northern burial, destroyed in ancient time, belonged to a woman. The text provides a description of the archaeological complex, the reconstruction of the original appearance and the gradual reconstruction of the destruction process. Based on the known data about the costume of the bearers of the Chernyakhiv culture, the peculiarities of the funeral rite, the peculiarities of the placement of the grave goods, it was possible to reconstruct the original appearance of the completely destroyed burial. Thanks to anthropological determinations of the position of individual human bones in the burial, it was possible to determine the sequence of destruction of the skeleton and grave goods. After entering the grave pit, the skull was separated. The skull was then placed face down in the center of the grave. After that, the chest was destroyed. The bones of the legs were inserted in a certain sequence (crossed bones, inverted bones, mirror-embedded bones). The last stage of the destruction of the burial was the destruction of the skeleton of the sheep (food-offering) and turning over and breaking the utensils in the burial. After the burial was destroyed, the burial pit remained open. According to the information received, the burial was destroyed after the decomposition of the soft tissues of the body, but before the decomposition of the leather elements of the suit. According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were made: • Even a completely destroyed burial can be reconstructed to its original appearance. • Different areas of the skeleton were subjected to different manipulations. The thorax is destroyed, the skull and bones of the legs are re-inserted in a certain (non-anatomical) order. • Part of the inventory (at least one silver fibula) was removed from the burial, but the main purpose was not looting but the destruction of the burial. • Burial occurred between the decomposition of the soft tissues of the body and the leather elements of the suit. Key words: Chernyakhiv culture, funeral rite, destroyed burials, reconstruction of funeral rite, post-funeral rite.

The 2016–2018 excavation of the cemetery at the Sunjiagang site, Lixian County, Hunan

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Clear Pattern ◽  
Local Variant ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Grave Goods ◽  
Cultural Relics

Abstract Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated at the site of Sunjiagang during 2016–2018 after 33 earthen pit tombs were uncovered in 1991. It yielded 192 pit tombs and one urn burial along with a number of pottery vessels and jade artifacts. The whole cemetery was laid out with a clear pattern of spatial arrangement, organized in an orderly style. A unique burial practice prevailed in the cemetery, for which the deceased was laid upon a layer of grave goods. According to the typology of unearthed pottery vessels and jade artifacts, the cemetery at the Sunjiagang site dates sometime from 2200 to 1800 BCE. It represents a new local variant of the Xiaojiawuji culture, and thus can be named the Sunjiagang type culture.

scholarly journals SYMBOLIC MEANING OF METAL CAULDRON IN SCYTHIAN BURIAL PRACTICE FROM ETHNOANALOGY PERSPECTIVE

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-277
Author(s):  
O. A. Bielopolska
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
General Context ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Strongly Connected ◽  
Burial Practice ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
High Social Status ◽  
Grave Goods

As historiography shows, sociocultural aspect is the main perspective commonly analyzed in the interpretation of symbolic meaning of Scythian bronze cauldrons. The deposition of such vessels is typical to burials: average barrows of ordinary members of society as well as unique wealthy graves of Scythians with high social status. The hypothesis of sacral symbolic meaning of a cauldron in social perspective is primarily based on some passages by Herodotus (IV, 61 and IV, 81). These written sources merge with general context of archaeological findings — cauldrons are associated with rich grave goods. Number of scholars made some successful attempts to calculate the size of Scythian cauldrons, correlate it with a reconstructed nomadic food-value and archaeological context (such as high of the mound and grave goods). Therefore, the cauldrons became a definite marker in Scythian society stratification study. But such viewpoint does not explain the urgent need to deposit Scythian bronze vessels during the burial ritual. The article introduces ethnoanalogy as a method, vital for interpretation of spiritual and ideological nature of artifacts. It is underlined that the approach in choosing analogies in ethnography should be structured and calibrated in order to escape scholar’s personal influence on results and to broaden the range of possible meanings. Earlier researches failed to find constant features of the cauldron agency in Scythian burial practice and thus to interpret them. The author states that a cauldron possesses certain characteristic features in every case of Scythian burial practice. Such peculiarities include the disposition (namely the main chamber, dromos and household premises), quantity in one grave, quality of a vessel. Strictly correlated with archaeological data, ethnoanalogy reveals that cauldron’s agency in Scythian burial practice is strongly connected with the Otherworld (votive offerings, border guard), and this symbolic meaning is realized in the concrete context of depositions.

scholarly journals Early Bronze Age barrow in Jawczyce, site 1, Wieliczka Foothills, Lesser Poland

2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paweł Jarosz ◽  
Jerzy Libera
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Grave Goods

Barrow 11 at site 1 in Jawczyce is the first burial mound in the Wieliczka Foothills, and also in the whole of Lesser Poland, dated to the 19th and 18th centuries BC and associated with the late phase of the Mierzanowice culture. The grave under the mound had a wooden construction, and within it were found faience beads as well as four flint arrowheads. The interment was not preserved. The radiocarbon date acquired from charcoal is 3580±35 BP (Poz-101091), which is 1974-1888 BC after calibration. This dating can be correlated with the beginnings of the late phase of the Mierzanowice culture. The mound in Jawczyce combines older Final Neolithic traditions (the barrow) with Early Bronze ones (the grave goods, arrangement of the deceased). Therefore, it significantly supplements current knowledge of the funeral rite of the Mierzanowice culture.

scholarly journals Research by S. M. Sergeev at the burial complex near the village Maima-Chergachak

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 132-137
Author(s):  
S. S. Radovsky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Burial Ground ◽  
The West ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Village ◽  
Burial Grounds ◽  
Grave Goods

The article presents the results of the work of S. M. Sergeev at the burial complex near the village. Maima. In 1934, after being transferred to the Oirot Regional Museum, the researcher unearthed two mounds of the Scythian-Saka period at this burial ground. According to the characteristics of the funeral rite and grave goods, the necropolis under consideration, with a high degree of probability, belongs to the Bystryan culture of the northern foothills of Altai. Currently, on the right bank of the Katun, in the vicinity of the designated village, three burial grounds of the community under consideration(Maima VI, VII, XIX) are known, however, all of them are located east of the Chuisky tract,while the indicated monument is located to the west of it. Perhaps S. M. Sergeev recorded another burial ground of the Bystryanskaya culture, which is now not preserved, located on the territory of the Maiminsky archaeological complex.

The Early Visigothic Presence in Southeastern Hispania

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Vizcaíno Sánchez ◽  
Luis Alberto García Blánquez
Keyword(s):  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Rural Settlement ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Grave Goods

This chapter analyses some aspects of the late antique occupation of ‘Senda de Granada’, a rural settlement in Murcia. In the late fifth century, after they arrived in Hispania, the Visigoths attempted to assimilate Roman culture. Archaeological research has revealed the possibility of a religious building, with a well-defined funerary enclosure. Grave goods, mainly dress accessories, from the burial and a nearby dump, are decorated with the cloisonné technique. The presence of such items was previously unknown in southeastern Carthaginiensis. These finds and, more widely, the resulting settlement pattern, are evaluated and will be used as a blueprint for the examination of early Visigothic presence in the region.

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