Bronze Age Kurgan Kalinovsky II. Archaeological and Anthropological Study Perspectives

Abstract

The Paper presents publication and analysis of the burial materials from excavations of a detached kurgan Kalinovsky II located in the central part of the Volga-Don interfluve near the eastern outskirts of the Kalinovsky farm of the Frolovsky district of the Volgograd region. The kurgan under consideration is located on the southern Archeda steppe riverside terrace of the left confluent of the Medveditsa River belonging to the Don River basin. The excavations were carried out in 2022 by the expedition of the Volgograd State University. In the course of the excavations, it was found that the archeological site was a kurgan-cemetery which had functioned for a long time. It contained 20 burials of an extended chronological period from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. This study examines burial complexes of the Bronze Age from archaeological and anthropological perspectives and is based on the materials from 12 burials. The main burial No. 14 can be attributed to the late stage of the Early Bronze Age within the boundaries of the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. The Middle Bronze Age is represented by 9 inlet burials belonging to the Middle Don Catacomb culture. Two burials No. 2 and 19, located in the lateral part of the kurgan mound, were made in the Late Bronze Age in 19th-18th centuries BC. The paleoanthropological study data have shown that this kurgan is to be considered as a family cemetery for a group of individuals (mainly children) belonging to the Middle Don Catacomb culture. The signs of deliberate artificial deformation in most of the children may indicate selectivity and belonging of this complex to a particular group with a special social status. In all probability, most of the children buried in the kurgan died as a result of stress caused by a long period of hunger, possibly in winter or early spring seasons. For adults, regardless of cultural affiliation, the typical diet was based on viscous food rich in proteins, as indicated by a specific pathological complex (absence of caries and abscesses, presence of tartar, periodontal disease and interproximal grooves). Exostosis of the external auditory canal was identified in a Pokrovsk time individual from burial 19 which might have been caused by his professional activity associated with a long stay in a cold wind or water environment.

Keywords

• kurgan
• burial
• bronze age
• catacomb culture
• grave material
• paleopathology