Pagan Burial Grounds at the Headwater of Kirsanova Balka
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2024.3.278.289Keywords:
archaeology, Golden Horde, Azak, burial ground, paganism, ongons, nomadsAbstract
The article deals with the materials of the most unusual of the burial grounds of the Golden Horde Azak. It is located on the eastern border of the city's residential area and is part of the chain of the outer arc of necropolises that girdles it and emerged during the reign of Uzbek Khan. The burial ground is located on both sides of the headwaters of the Kirsanova Balka. 154 burials were investigated on 8 excavations. The burials are very shallow. The grave pits do not form rows, but are grouped in clusters. They include burials very different in rite and often cover each other. All possible variants of inhumation are found. The corpse position is equally variable – from stretched out on the back to severely bent over. Grave goods were found in 24% of the burials. Earrings, beads, rings, knuckle-bone, mirrors and their fragments, knives, fire lighter, scissors and ram's bones were found. Such elements of the ritual as the use of fire, copper ongons, ceramics, and fragmentation of mirrors were established. Some of the burials can be classified as Muslim. They do not form individual areas and are not the latest. Coins found in the burials and on the territory of the burial ground allow dating the necropolis to the first half of the XIV century. Only for some burials it is possible to determine the ethnic and cultural affiliation. The burial ground has no analogies among non-Muslim necropolises of large Golden Horde cities of the XIV century.
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