The Organization of the Mortuary Space in the Late Bronze Age: The Stary Sad Burial Ground, Baraba Forest-Steppe, Southern Siberia

The Organization of the Mortuary Space in the Late Bronze Age: The Stary Sad Burial Ground, Baraba Forest-Steppe, Southern Siberia

V.I. Molodin, L.N. Mylnikova, D.V. Selin, and A.V. Neskorov.

The study focuses on the burial rite of the eastern variant of the Pakhomovskaya culture, exemplifi ed by the Stary Sad burial ground in the Baraba forest-steppe. The eastern Pakhomovskaya people arranged their mortuary space in various ways including ditches, pits, bonfi res, and other features, which differ in number and shape within mounds. The mound was the key element of the rite. Unlike Pakhomovskaya people living in the Tobol-Ishim interfl uve, those of Baraba did not practice reburial. This might be due to the mixture of various traditions, with the eastern Pakhomovskaya groups borrowing several elements of the burial rite from the natives of Baraba while preserving the basic features of their own tradition.

Keywords: Archaeology, mortuary space, burial rite, Pakhomovskaya culture, Late Bronze Age, cultural contacts.