“Abandoned, Tied, Flexed”: An Anthropological Study of an Unusual Late Sarmatian Burial in the Southeastern Urals
“Abandoned, Tied, Flexed”: An Anthropological Study of an Unusual Late Sarmatian Burial in the Southeastern Urals
DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.4.140-148
V.K. Fedorov1, A.I. Nechvaloda2, and Y.V. Rafikova2 1Eastern Academy of Economics, Law and Humanities (VEGU Academy), Mendeleeva 215/4, Ufa, 450071, Russia 2Institute of History, Language and Literature, Ufa Scientifi c Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Oktyabrya 71, Ufa, 450054, Russia
We describe an unusual triple burial in southern Bashkiria, dating to 100-400 AD. Its peculiarity is that the two males had been buried on the step of the entrance pit in unusual postures—prone with their knees pulled to their chins. A woman buried in the niche lay in a normal (supine) posture. A prone position of the dead is quite rare at Late Sarmatian cemeteries, and flexed burials are exceptional. The anthropological examination revealed that the physical types of the buried persons were different: while all of them were narrow-faced Caucasoids, the features of one male, unlike those of other persons, indicate a Mongoloid admixture. All the individuals are similar to those buried at Pokrovka-10, a Late Sarmatian cemetery in the Orenburg Region. Graphical reconstructions of the appearance of one male and the woman were made. The postcranial skeletons of all the individuals reveal multiple pathologies. To explain the unusual burial rite, we discuss various possibilities, such as that the bodies of the males had been tied up to counter the evil that they might inflict; that they had been sacrificed; or that they all had died of a fulminant infectious disease. The uniqueness of the burial prevents us from selecting one of these options. The humble status of the males may illustrate the words of Ammianus Marcellinus about the maltreatment of the elderly among the Alans.
Keywords: Late Sarmatians, burial rite, craniology, paleopathology, flexed burials, sacrifice
