On a New Group of Post-Sarmatian Burials in the Middle Don Region
Abstract
The paper raises the question of a separate group of barrow burials following the classical Late Sarmatian culture in the Middle Don region. The recently excavated sites include a T-shaped catacomb discovered on the right bank of the Don River (Losevo). Most likely, it belonged to a Tanais Alan who survived the Hunnic massacre and moved off to the north, to remote areas of the Don region not affected by the Hunnic invasion. On the left bank of the Don River (Berezovka), we have studied undercut burials synchronous to the catacomb from Losevo, with the rite and grave goods continuing the Late Sarmatian traditions (type of burial structure, northward orientation of buried people, artificial skull deformation, remnants of sacrificial food in the form of sheep and goat bones, etc.). The ceramic complex of these burials includes Late Sarmatian and Central Caucasian moulded and pottery ware. A warrior’s burial in barrow 9 near the village of Berezovka contained not only typical Late Sarmatian ceramics, but also coarse moulded ware most likely connected with more northern traditions. It could belong to the settled population of the Middle Khoper region that left the sites of the Inyasevo type. Both groups of burials contain some indicators (metal parts of horse harness, belt buckles, a Chernyakhov-type fibula) dating them back to the second half of the 4th – early 5th centuries AD. But at the same time they do not contain any specific features of the Hunnic culture. According to the traditional periodization, the above-mentioned complexes can be qualified as belonging to the final stage of the Late Sarmatian culture. However, we think that it is better to use such a definition as the ‘post-Sarmatian age’ (or ‘post- Sarmatian horizon’). The analyzed barrow burials were immediately antecedent to the Hunnic-age burial grounds of the first half of the 5th century AD in the Upper Don region (Zhivotinnoye, Ksizovo, Mukhino, etc.).
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