Early Christian Burials of the Mogilev’s cities near Dnieper and Sozh (original) (raw)

This article is dedicated to the first Christian burials, discovered in the archaeological researches of urban complexes at the territory of Mogilev near the rivers Dnieper and Sozh. In this region, the four early ground cemeteries were discovered and they date back approximately to the XII century. The authors note that the change in funeral rites in burial necropolises on the territory of Mogilev Dnieper and Sozh indicates the penetration of Christianity in this region at the end of X-beginning of XI century. At the same time, in the cities, the centers of the spread of a new religion, the ground of the cemetery is dated from not earlier the XII century. A likely explanation for this can be observed in the XI century tradition of burying the dead under the earthen embankment in nearby barrow cemeteries.