Study of Bolshaya Tayaba Medieval Burial Ground in 2018

Abstract

The article is aimed at the publication of new materials from the Bolshaya Tayaba burial ground of the Bolgar archaeological culture of excavations in 2018, as well as the analysis of materials from the burial ground obtained at excavations in 1948 (A.P. Smirnov) and 1984 (V.F. Kakhovsky). The studied attributes suggest that the Muslim burial rite was predominant, but deviations from the orthodox Muslim posture, together with the absence of iron nails and staples for nail fastening, very characteristic of the Bolgars of the second half of the pre-Mongol period, allow to preliminarily narrow the dating of the necropolis to the 10th–11th centuries – the first half of the pre-Mongol period. A comparative analysis of the Bolshaya Tayaba series of skulls reflects the general aspects of the race genesis of the Volga Bolgars. It is based on wide miscegenation processes which occurred between the “local” Kama-Ural population (mainly carriers of the Sub-Ural type) and the Bolgarian or ethnically similar (mainly carriers of the broader-faced morphocomplex).

Keywords

• archaeology
• chuvash volga region
• middle ages
• bolshaya tayaba burial ground
• burial
• bolgar archaeological culture
• anthropological analysis
• craniometry