Graves of the early medieval nomads from the eastern Azov region (original) (raw)
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Archaeology and Analogy. Papers from the Eighth Theoretical Seminar of the Baltic Archaeologists (BASE) Held at the University of Helsinki and Tvärminne Zoological Station, Hanko, Finland, November 30th–December 2nd, 2017. Interarchaeologia 6, 2020
This paper concerns Stone Age hunter-gatherer mortuary practices from the perspective of prone burials, i.e., the rare tradition of burying the deceased on their stomach. By using prone burials from the Neolithic hunter-gatherer site of Kubenino (northwestern Russia) as an example, the paper aims to understand whether the burials differ from the normative burial rituals of the respective period and region, by exploring how common the practice of prone burial was among the Mesolithic and Neolithic hunter-gatherer populations of the northern European boreal zone. Furthermore, by comparing the Stone Age prone burials to inhumations in other body positions, the paper will explore whether this practice can be defined as a deviant mortuary practice. As an additional tool of interpretation, we will also use ethnographic analogues from historical hunter-gatherer and pastoralist populations of northern Eurasia.
Kotova N. Burial clothing in Neolithic cemeteries of the Ukrainian steppe
Over 600 skeletons from numerous Neolithic cemeteries are known from the Pontic steppe. They came from the Lower Don, Azov-Dnieper and Surskaja cultures, with different sets of adornments on their burial clothing. The disposition of adornments provides valuable information on some items of burial clothing: caps, shirts with long sleeves, loincloths, and moccasins. IZVLE∞EK -Na podro≠ju Pontske stepe je na ∏tevilnih neolitskih grobi∏≠ih dokumentiranih ve≠ kot 600 skeletov. Nahajajo se na podro≠ju kulture Spodnji Don, Azov-Dnjeper in Surskaja. Ozna≠ujejo jih razli≠no okrasje na mrtva∏kih obla≠ilih. Lega okraja omogo≠a sklepati o posameznih delih teh obla-≠il: pokrivalih, tunikah z dolgimi rokavi, predpasnikih in mokasinih.
The article presents the experience of summarizing data on «symbolic» burials with early medieval Turks from Altai-and-Sayan region. Subject to a detailed description being a tradition of making cenotaphs, specifying variants of such objects. Particular types of «symbolic» burials include «ritual» mounds which basic characteristic was making a common mound with no burial chamber underneath, as well as certain stone enclosures. The concentration of these objects during the early development stages of the Turkic culture reflects a process of developing traditions in funeral rites with nomads in the late V — VI c. B.C. Keywords: Еarly Middle Ages Turks, Altai-and-Sayan region, «symbolic» burials, cenotaphs, «ritual» mounds, enclosures.
In the fifth to the eighth centuries, graves of well-armed men and their riding horses –or the ritual parts of horses– were spread throughout almost the entire mainland part of Lithuania and Latvia, or in the territory between the Nemunas and Daugava / Western Dvina Rivers. This was the northernmost part of Europe in which the custom had spread in the fifth to the eighth centuries. While the horsemen’s and horses’ burial customs varied in separate regions of the defined area, still everywhere the horseman and horse were interred in one grave pit, with the horse almost always to the person’s left. In their journey to the Afterlife, however, the bond between horseman and horse began to vary in the communities that lived in the more peripheral regions. The variety of burial customs was associated with differences in the communities’ social structure; these differences affected interment traditions and formed different burial rites. The custom that existed in the Roman Period on the littorals of Lithuania and Latvia to bury ritual horse parts (the head or head and legs) and spurs with armed men disappeared; here only bridle bits symbolized the horse in armed men’s graves in the fifth to the eighth centuries. Warriors’ graves with equestrian equipment spread throughout the entire region between the Nemunas and Daugava in the fifth to eighth centuries. With the change in burial customs (with the spread of cremation), and, apparently, in worldview, riding horse burials appeared that no longer could be associated with the concrete burials of people.