Bone items from burial No. 9 of the cemetery near the Berezovaya Mountain (traceological analysis and the search for analogies)

Abstract

In this article, we analyze bone products from the male burial No. 9 of the cemetery near the Berezovaya Mountain (Orenburg District of the Cis-Ural region) attributed to the Sintashta Culture (20th–18th centuries BC). The funerary complex is specifically interesting because it combines the ritual and inventory of representatives of the Seima-Turbino phenomenon and items belonging to chariot cultures. Furthermore, an item rare for the cultures of the chariot circle of the Ural region was placed in the burial — a disc-shaped bone buckle. The aim of this work is to find an analogy for this buckle and for other bone items of the complex using traceology data. The buckle was traceologically processed on 31st July 2002 in the campus of the Orenburg archaeological expedition two days after its discovery; at the same time its drawing was made. An astragalus and a fragment of the articular angle of the animal's scapula, both having been placed within the burial, were also analysed. Due to field conditions, a portable contact microscope “Mikko” was used. The main focus of this work is the buckle. The results of the traceological analysis are being introduced into the scientific discourse. Besides, for the first time this article presents the results of traceological study of a similar object from burial mound 27 near the city of Atkarsk. A total of 15 buckles with similar morphology have been analyzed, 11 of them have traceological definitions. A fragment of the product of the same type was only once identified in the Sintashta necropolis (grave 30 of the Sintashta burial ground); the majority of similar items derive from the sites of the Abashev Culture of the Volga-Don region. It has been revealed that the analyzed artifacts could have been used as both belt buckles and ornaments/amulets. The artifact from the burial ground near the Berezovaya Mountain is most likely a buckle, judging by its size and the size of the central hole. The discovery of a buckle typologically characteristic of the Don-Volga Abashevo Culture in the Sintashta Culture necropolis demonstrates the western connections of the population who left the site. The astragalus found in the burial could have been used as a fortune-telling/dice object. The functional purpose of the articular angle of the animal’s scapula has not been determined — no analogies have been found for it, though a possible circle of analogies has been outlined.

Keywords

• orenburg pre-urals
• sintashta culture
• don-volga abashev culture
• bone buckle
• trace analysis
• astragalus
• animal shoulder blade