Open AccessAccompanying Burials of Horses in the Funeral Rite of the Population of the Bystryanka Culture of Altai in the Scythian-Saka Time
Author(s) -
Радовский Святослав Сергеевич,
Серегин Николай Николаевич
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
izvestiâ altajskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1561-9451
pISSN - 1561-9443
DOI - 10.14258/izvasu(2021)2-12
Subject(s) - foothills , rite , population , ancient history , archaeology , geography , key (lock) , history , demography , sociology , cartography , ecology , biology , philosophy , theology
The article presents the results of the study of one of the elements of the ritual practice of the population of the Bystryanka archaeological culture — the tradition of arranging accompanying burials of horses to a person's burial. The analysis of materials from excavations of all known necropolises of the northern foothills of Altai of the Scythian-Saka time with the involvement of information about the complexes of «early» nomads in adjacent territories is carried out. Despite the known limitations of the source base, including those associated with the robbery of most of the objects, the available data turned out to be sufficient to indicate the key characteristics of horse burials made by the population of the Bystryanka culture. It was found that one horse or several animals were in 59 objects studied at 18 burial grounds, which is about a third of the recorded complexes. As a rule, the horse was placed on the step to the right of the deceased person, parallel to it and was oriented in the same sector of the horizon as the deceased, most often in the western direction. The fixation of elements of equipment on horses probably reflects the key «transport» function of animals in the ritual practice of the ancient population.