Burials with Signs of the Muslim Rite Among the Nomads of the Golden Horde

The article presents the typological characteristics of the nomadic burials of the Golden Horde, interpreted as Muslim. The burial grounds located in the depths of the Steppe at a distance from the urban centers of the Golden Horde were taken as a source base. This approach allows the authors to consider the genesis and evolution of the Islamic funeral rite among nomads without taking into account the influence of urban Islam on this process or through the prism of its minimal impact. On the example of the Linevsky burial mound in the Southern Cis-Urals, it is shown that the signs of the Islamic rite, characteristic of urban and suburban burial grounds, are present among the nomads, but mainly in the form of separate reminiscences.

«Upper Rutha» / «Kunbulta» is the largest ancient funerary monument of the koban archaeological culture in the Digor gorge of the Central Caucasus.

В статье рассматриваются археологические материалы, обряд захо- ронения, погребальные сооружения Верхнерутхинского / Кумбултского некрополя ко- банской археологической культуры, расположенного в высокогорной части Ирафско- го района РСО-А, приводятся новые данные по элементам погребальной обрядности населения, оставившего этот памятник. The article examines archaeological materials, burial rite, burial structures of the Verkhnerutkhinsky / Kumbult necropolis of the Koban archaeological culture, located in the mountainous part of the Irafsky district of the RSO - Alania, provides new data on the elements of the funeral rite of the population who left this monument.

Iron Cones in the Burials of Ulus Jochi: Aspects of Ethnocultural Identification

Cone-shaped objects, rolled from iron and bronze sheets, are found in the Golden Horde burials of the late 13th – early 15th centuries. The authors collected information on more than 100 burials with iron and bronze cones located in the territory of Ulus Jochi. This article is examines material from 78 iron cone burials. Specific features of the topographic location of these complexes, use of stones in rituals, construction of log cabins around graves is similar to archaeological and ethnographic monuments of Central Asia associated with ethnic Mongols. As a rule, human remains buried in graves are oriented north or northeast with their heads, which is also a feature of the Mongol funeral rite. Accompaniment of the burial with whole or stuffed horses remains in the complexes with cones is not common, but these features are also known in Mongolian cemeteries in Central Asia. The placement of a sheep tibia at the head of the buried occasionally in vertical position is considered a main ethnic feature of the Mongol culture. In general, the sample of the Ulus Jochi burials, united by the iron cones presence in the burial inventory, is characterized by an increased concentration of rather specific ritual signs typical of the Mongols of Central Asia. This allows us to conclude that the considered monuments belong to the same ethnocultural group of population. Moreover, the available anthropological data testify to the Central Asian (Mongolian) origin of the representatives of this group of nomads of Ulus Jochi Burials with iron cones. The authors observe manifestations of pagan shamanic and Buddhist rituals judging by the dominant features of funeral rituals left by the bearers of Mongolian ethnic and cultural traditions.

Christian burials with vessels in Moscow State: to the status of the issue

The article considers Christian burials with vessels of the late 14th – mid-17th centuries. During this period, burial vessels became an important part of the funeral rite of Muscovy. The volume of material sufficient for statistical processing made it possible to reveal the most characteristic features of the funeral ritual with a vessel in the grave. The following signs were selected for study: areas where such burials occur, persons who were buried this way the locations in which a vessel was placed in the grave. Archaeological evidence has confirmed the emergence of this burial tradition primarily in Moscow and the surrounding area. This burial rite was more common in monasteries and elite necropolises. Vessel was not a required object. They are more often found in male burials than in female ones. The results of the study indicate that in performing the funeral ritual people tried to adhere to a certain single tradition while clear canonical rules were lacking. Thus, it was the priest conducting the ceremony who decided whom with and where to place a vessel in the grave.

Funeral Rite and Morphology of a Buried Man from Kurgan of Tau Cemetery (Western Kazakhstan)

Introduction. The paper presents results of the funeral rite and material culture study of the Sauromat time Tau cemetery located on the territory of Western Kazakhstan, and also provides anthropological analysis of the skull discovered there. Methods and materials. An interdisciplinary approach was applied in the course of the study with inclusion of typological, analog and cross-dating methods regarding the funeral rite and material culture examination, methods for studying craniometrical and cranioscopic signs, as well as methods of skull pathology evaluation. The source of the study material as well as the male skull discovery site is burial 1 of kurgan 1 of Tau cemetery. Discussion and results. The funeral rite and clothing inventory data confirms that the burial belongs to Sauromat archaeological culture and, within the chronological framework, could be dated back late 6th – early 5th centuries BC. Furthermore, the funeral rite and weaponry features, including a quiver set with a short sword, attribute this burial to this epoch. Historical and archaeological source analysis suggests that there must have been a cult of the Hand in the Sauromat-Sarmatian society; consequently, the separate interment of the right hand in the examined burial reveals its military trophy origin. The male skull possesses Caucasian features with a weakened horizontal facial profile. The morphological features of the skull from the Tau cemetery have analogies in the synchronous population of Western Kazakhstan, Southern Urals and Lower Volga regions. The skull pathology analysis showed the presence of periodontitis, intravital trauma to the frontal bone, as well as some acute sinusitis signs.

Kurgan-Cemeteries of Central and Eastern Regions of North Caucasus 3rd Century BC – Early 2nd Century AD (Monuments Chegem-Manaskent Type)

The article is devoted to analysis of materials from kurgan-cemeteries of the foothill zone of Central and Eastern North Caucasus regions (from Kabardino-Balkaria to Caspian Dagestan) dating back to the 3rd century BC – early (first half) 2nd century AD. These sites were earlier referred to as the Chegem-Manaskent type. Main diagnostic features of these sites are similar traditions of the funeral rite and the ceramic complex. The formation of the Chegem-Manaskent cultural monuments includes the material culture, determined by traditions of the North Caucasian sedentary population, and the funeral rite based on customs of the nomadic population of the North Caucasian steppes of the early Sarmatian period. The original territory of Chegem-Manaskent culture of monuments formation was the area from the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic to the western part of the Chechen Republic. The kurgan cemeteries of the Caspian Dagestan were the result of the migration of Chegem-Manaskent culture carriers in this direction. The cultural traditions of the population formed a specific basis of the early Alanian culture of the North Caucasus (2nd–4th AD); their genetic connection is witnessed by similar funeral rite (burial in type I catacombs) and in the ceramic complex. So, the monuments of the Chegem-Manasket type underlie the formation of the monuments of the Podkumok-Khumara type, with which they are connected by the use of a catacomb burial rite with the repeated use of chamber for new graves and a ceramic complex. In addition, the ceramic complex of monuments of the circle of the Andreiauli settlement largely goes back to the ceramic tradition of antiquities Chegem-Manasket circle, complicated by the morphological influences of the tradition of Caucasian Albania including the use of the transformed catacomb burial rite with multiple use of chamber graves and the ceramic complex.

COINS FROM THE BOSPORAN NECROPOLIS OF VOLNA 1 ON THE TAMAN PENINSULA

В статье публикуются нумизматические материалы из раскопок боспорского некрополя античного времени Волна 1 в 2014-2018 гг. Монеты являются важными хронологическими индикаторами как для датировки погребений, так и для периодизации истории некрополя в целом. За исключением единственного серебряного пантикапейского диобола (ок. 425-400 гг. до н. э.), все найденные монеты медные. Из 119 монет 117 отчеканены в Пантикапее, одна - в Фанагории, еще одна принадлежит чекану Левкона II. Позднейшая монета относится к митридатовскому времени и отчеканена после 95 г. до н. э. Все монеты использованы в качестве оболов Харона или дара, брошенного в могилу при засыпке участниками церемонии (нет ни одной, представляющей монисто), и являются важным свидетельством как погребального обряда, так и денежного обращения эпохи. The article publishes coins from the excavations of the Bosporan necropolis of «Volna 1» in 2014-2018. Coins are important chronological indicators for both the dating of burials and the periodization of the Volna 1 Necropolis' history as a whole. Except from a single silver Panticapaeum diobol of ca. 425-400 BC, all the remain coins are copper. Of the 119 coins, 117 were minted in Panticapaeum, one in Phanagoria, and another is the Leukon II's striking. The later coin belongs to the Mithradatic period and was minted after 95 BC. All coins were used as «obols of Charon» and provide an important evidence of both the funeral rite and the currency of the epoch.

«THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN». THE SKYTHIAN GRAVE IN THE BARROW NEAR KUSTORIVKA VILLAGE

In 2013 near Kustorivka village of Krasnokutsky district, Kharkov region the Scythian burial mound (5th—4th centuries BC.) was excavated. The inserted burial of a beheaded man has been discovered there. Fragments of horse bones, horse harness, numerous arrowheads, the spearhead and knife were unearthed in the grave. Funeral inventory dates the burial to the 2nd half or the end of 5th — the early 4th century BC. The grave goods allowed us to suggest that the man was a horseman and possessed a bow with arrows, javelin or lance. These assumptions have been confirmed by anthropological studies of the development of muscles relief, injuries and specific skeletal markers. The skeleton showed clear signs of a horseman’ and archer’ osteological complexes. The man died at the age of 20—25. The skull, first and second cervical vertebrae were absent in the undisturbed burial. The upper part of the left intervertebral condyle of the 3rd vertebra was cut off by the hit from left behind and below. These signs are evidence of decapitation. In addition, numerous cut marks made with a sharp blade were found on the anterior and lateral surfaces of the 3rd and 4th cervical vertebrae, as well as on the left femur above the knee. Thus could be the signs of the body cleaning of waste tissue for its transportation or in course of the preparation for the burial. Studies of the horse’s remains showed that it has deceased at the age of 10—12 years. The horse was decapitated as well by the hit directed between first and second cervical vertebra. The head was also cut in half and only one part of it was present in the burial. There were also some bones of the animal’s skeleton, which do not belong to the edible parts of the body. The severed head of the horse was located above the place where the man’s head was supposed to be, thus the horse harness was situated on the level of the human skeleton. Traces of the possible preparation of the human body for burial and the location of the remains of a horse over a lost human head along with other changes in the skeleton indicate a certain funeral rite, direct analogies of which have not yet been found in the North Pontic region.

D. T. BEREZOVETS AND NETAILIVKA BURIAL GROUND OF SALTIV CULTURE: DISCOVERY, MODERN RESEARCHES, RESULTS

Peculiarity of the Netailivka burial ground, noted by its discoverer D. T. Berezovets, is the total predominance of burials where the bones of the buried people are completely absent. At the same time the burials often contain grave goods located in the places when the bodies of the deceased should have been lied. This fact allowed D. T. Berezovets to suppose that initially the burial was performed on the surface of the earth where the body was exposed to natural factors and only after that it was re-buried into a pit. However, the researches of recent years show that burials were made in full accordance with the funeral rite of the Proto-Bulgarian population of the Saltiv culture. The absence of human remains in most of the burial pits should be associated with the specific hydrological conditions prevailing at the site of the necropolis in the post-Saltiv period. In a number of burials of the burial ground the later activity in the burial pits, associated with ritual actions performed in ancient times, were recorded. These actions testify the existence of the so-called «final ceremony» among the Netailivka people, the holding of which meant the end of mourning for the deceased person and made the death of a relative complete and final for the living. The study of the chronological markers of the site made it possible to attribute the time of the burial ground to the stage of the formation of the Saltiv culture in the region and to date the earliest burials of the necropolis to the 740—790 AD. The set of decorations and brooches from early burials shows that the original area of the migration of this population was the North-Eastern Caucasus (the territory of modern Chechnya and Dagestan). The location of the horse remains in the burials of the horsemen indicates the mixed Turkic-Ugric character of the population, which was part of the tribal union of the «Bulgars». The date of the burial ground and the probable area of residence of the population which made it, allows us to identify the «Netailivka» people with the representatives of the nomadic Bulgar union known from literary sources as «Sabirs / Savirs»

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON THE FUNERAL RITE OF ROMENSKA CULTURE

The study of the funeral rite of the Eastern Slavs and the dynamics of its development is important for the clarification of the religious, state-creating, ethno-cultural and social processes of the Old Rus formation. In the paper the author makes a new attempt of the comprehensive analysis of the burial sites of chronicle Severians who are identified with the bearers of Romenska archaeological culture. For this purpose, the most complete and reliable catalogue of these sites included 142 items has been created. Statistical calculations show at the main part of the Dnieper Left Bank in the 9th—10th centuries the dominance of cremation rites away from the burial, placing the urn in the upper levels of the mound. Burials of this type are at least 82 % of Romenska culture cremations. They are reflected in literary sources. Burials at the level of the horizon and in small holes should be considered only as a few deviations from the classical Romenski rite. Burials of these types are characterized by such specific elements as circular wooden fences and ritual hearths, and most of them do not contain the urns. Differences in the funeral rites of the Dnieper Left Bank can be explained by the reasons of both ethnographic and chronological nature. In the second half of the 10th century in the Severians area a few cremations are recorded at the places of burial. No Romenska culture pottery or ornaments were found in any of these complexes: they all contained exclusively the Old Rus materials. There is no doubt that the rite of cremation at the place was brought to the Dnieper Left Bank by settlers from the Middle Dnieper together with the establishment of the Kyiv Princes power. Radical changes in the Romenski funeral rite occur in the late 10th — early 11th centuries. The rite of inhumation at the level of the horizon becomes dominant, less often in the mound pits. Although a number of scholars link these changes to the socio-economic changes in society the author considers it possible to explain them only by the total Christianization of the newly acquired territories by Kyiv. It is likely that the cremation of the dead was strictly forbidden by the church.