Cremations at the Oglakhty Burial Ground: Random Variability or Variation in Funerary Practices? | Sibirskie Istoricheskie Issledovaniia – Siberian Historical Research. 2023. № 3. DOI: 10.17223/2312461X/41/14

Cremations at the Oglakhty Burial Ground: Random Variability or Variation in Funerary Practices?

The article is dedicated to the results of studying cremated human remains from excavations at the Oglakhtinsky burial site, conducted in 1969, 2020, and 2021. The majority of these remains originate from collective burials, wherein unburned complete skeletons or scattered bones were found. In most cases where sex and age of the deceased could be determined, the cremated remains belonged to adult males, with one instance revealing the burial of an adolescent aged 11-18 years. The quantitative characteristics of the study divide the assemblages into two groups: 1. large assemblages, with a weight exceeding 800 g, approaching the lower boundary of the expected weight of a cremated adult human skeleton; 2. small assemblages (less than 400 g), indicating the interment of only a portion of the cremains. The large assemblages exhibit a lower relative proportion of identified cranial bones and a higher proportion of small (<5 mm) fragments, whereas the small assemblages are characterized by relatively larger fragment sizes with a high variability in the quality of incineration. The characteristics of the remains are consistent with the hypothesis that cremation was carried out shortly after death. However, certain bone fragments display signs of delayed cremation, indicating an extended period after death during which the remains were accessible to rodents and soft tissues were partially deteriorated. Among these indicators are bite marks on one of the metacarpal bones, as well as color variations in certain long bones and cranial vault bones: the inner plate shows traces of more intense charring compared to the outer plate. Overall, the results suggest a certain variability in cremation ritual practices among the Tashstyks, both in the initial stage spanning the time from death to cremation, and in the stage of placing the remains in the grave, possibly involving post-burial manipulations with the remains.

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Keywords

Southern Siberia, Oglakhty burial ground, Tashtyk culture, cremation, burial rite

Authors

Name	Organization	E-mail
Shirobokov Ivan G.	Tomsk State University; Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), RAS	ivansmith@bk.ru

Всего: 1

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