Complex chronology and social interpretation of mound no. 34 of the Pazyryk culture from the Chinetа-II burial ground (Altai)

The research aim is to highlight the results of a comprehensive study and social interpretation of materials from the mound number 34 of the Chineta-II burial ground, located in the Krasnoshchekovsky district of the Altai territory. In connection with this goal, the following tasks were supposed to be solved: characterization of the burial rite and inventory from the investigated mound; conducting archaeological and radiocarbon dating and comparing the results obtained; social interpretation of the investigated burial. The methodological basis of the article is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and determinism, which imply a comprehensive critical analysis of historical processes. An important methodological basis of the research is the principles of Russian social archaeology, according to which the funerary monuments and accompanying inventory reflect the peculiarities of social relations in ancient societies. The source base of the research is the results of the author’s archaeological research of Scythian monuments in the North-Western Altai, as well as comparison with synchronous monuments of other regions of Altai and Central Asia. In the course of the research, the author came to the following conclusions. The features of the burial rite and inventory from the burial mound No. 34 of the Chineta-II burial ground have numerous analogies among the artifacts found during the study of the Pazyryk culture mounds both in the North-West (necropolis of the Inskaya Dol, Khankarinskaya Dol) so in other parts of Altai. Based on the study of artifacts and results of radiocarbon analysis, mound 34 was dated to the second half of the IV-III centuries BC. Special attention is paid to the study and reconstruction of the headdress-wig. The length of the headdress was 36 cm. Based on the location of the applique, fragments of foil, as well as spots of black paint under the skull of a woman from mound 34, it was detected that the headdress was a high structure, the basis of which was probably carbon-clay substance, hair, felt, fabric. A comparative-historical analysis of the headdress from barrow No. 34 of the Chinetа-П burial ground with similar finds from other monuments of the Pazyryk culture of the Altai was carried out. The presence of socially-diagnostic items of accompanying inventory (headdress-wig, bronze hryvnia, overlaid with gold foil), as well as the features of the funeral rite (accompanying burial of a horse), emphasize the higher social status of the woman buried in the burial mound number 34 of the Chinetа-П burial ground. In any case, her burial was different in relative scale and character of accompanying inventory from many monuments of Pazyryk culture of the North-Western Altai. The presence of these items and features of the funeral rite to a greater extent brought this burial closer to the objects in which were buried persons with a higher social status than ordinary tribesmen.

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