Scythian Age Barrows with Burials on the Ground Surface in the Southern Ural Steppes: Features of the Funerary Rite

Scythian Age Barrows with Burials
on the Ground Surface in the Southern Ural Steppes:
Features of the Funerary Rite

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.3.096-105

V.N. Myshkin
Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education, M. Gorkogo 65/67, Samara, 443099, Russia

This article describes burials on the buried soil horizon in the Southern Urals, associated with the culture of nomadic animal breeders. The database includes published data on 37 barrows. Instead of digging graves, the nomads built above-ground wooden or adobe structures. Sometimes bodies were placed on wooden floors or platforms. Weapons found in burials include swords, daggers, arrowheads, and items of horse harness. In female burials, small stone altars, adornments, mirrors, and utensils are found. Clay vessels are common. In the late 6th and 5th centuries BC, the tradition of placing bodies on the level of the ground surface was common in the eastern part of the southern Ural steppes. By approximately 400 BC, this tradition had virtually disappeared.

Keywords: Early Iron Age, nomads, Southern Urals, old ground surface burials, funerary rite, accompanying goods.