Ablazovo Barrow (on the burial mounds of the Вalanovо culture)

Abstract

The article studies the results of the excavations of the Ablyazovo barrow (Kozlovka district, the Chuvash Republic) in 2011. The tilled mound covered a circular ditch, a fi replace, two deep graves with complex design and a ritual burial of a small cattle, which were carefully studied. The funerary rite and complexes of artefacts demonstrate a combination of the Balanovo and Atlykasy traditions and are dated by the fi nale of the Middle Bronze Age (late III Millennium BC). The syncretism of fi nds from the Ablyazovo barrow allows us to regard it as a transitional type: it has a mound, traces of fi re, funerary feast, specifi c ornament on vessels, yet at the same time it preserves the typical design of grave pits, crouched position and orientation of bones. Materials from this site enable us to take a new look at the problem of development of the Balanovo culture, and complement our general understanding of ethnocultural interaction in the Middle Volga region in the Bronze Age.

Keywords

• archaeology
• the Middle Volga area
• Chuvash Republic
• Middle Bronze Age
• barrow
• burial rites
• the Balanovо culture
• cultural genesis