DATING AND CULTURAL IDENTITY OF THE MILTY BARROW CEMETERY (MIADZIEL DISTRICT MINSK REGION)

The barrow cemetery Milty consists of two groups — Milty I and II. The research of the cemetery was carried out in 1992—1993 by archaeological expedition of the historical faculty of the Belarusian State University under the head of V. N. Rabcevič and A. M. Plavinski. In 1992, 5 barrows in group Milty I were investigated, in 1993 — 2 barrows in group Milty II. An analysis of the grave goods and rituals of the investigated burials suggests that the barrows in groups I and II of Milty cemetery can be dated to the second half of the 10th — first half of the 11th century, or somewhat more broadly, from the 10th to the first half of the 11th century. They belong to the final stage of the existence of the culture of the Smolensk-Polatsk Long Barrows culture on the western border of its area. At this time, glass beads, jewelry and household items of Old Rusian types appeared in noticeable quantities in the burials of the western regions of the settlement of the population of the Smolensk-Polatsk Long Barrows culture. In barrow 10 of group I, an inhumation burial was found. Such a burial in the necropolis of the Smolensk-Polatsk Long Barrows culture could have been performed not earlier than the end of the 10th — early 11th centuries and, obviously, may be associated with the beginning of the spread of the Christian burial tradition in the Belarusian Dzvina and adjacent territories. Accordingly, chronologically, it is one of the latest in the necropolis. Individual inhumations in the cemeteries of the culture of the Smolensk-Polatsk Long Barrows culture were repeatedly revealed in the western microregions of the distribution of monuments of this ethnocultural community and mark the final stage of the functioning of its necropolises.