Burial No. 18 of the Firsovo-XI burial ground in the circle of "sit-down crouched" burials of the early Holocene of the central regions of Northern Eurasia

The Firsovo-XI ground burial ground is located on the right bank of the Ob River opposite the city of Barnaul on the low bedrock bank of the Ob River. In 1993 and 1996, a burial of a mature man in a sitting crouched position was examined at the Firsovo-XI burial ground in the Barnaul Ob region. The accompanying inventory is represented by one microlithic plate. For this burial No. 18, the AMS date GV-02889 was obtained - 9106±80 years BCE. According to the craniometric parameters, the anthropological appearance of the buried man corresponds to the intermediate Caucasoid-Mongoloid type, which characterizes the most ancient population of the central regions of Northern Eurasia. However, very large total dimensions of the skull distinguish it from the craniological materials of the Neolithic of this burial ground and of the plain-foothill Altai in general. The combination of chronological, ritual and anthropological specifics of the burial makes it necessary to compare it with materials not only from the south of Western Siberia, but also from more extensive regions of the central regions of Northern Eurasia. The analysis of published data allows us to establish that burials in the "sitting crouched" position are quite rare in Western Siberia and adjacent regions. They are often represented by burials without inventory. Most often, analogies comparable in terms of the features of the burial rite are recorded in the forest-steppe Ural-Volga region; however, the range of analogies is not limited to this region. There is an unconditional need for AMS dating of such burials. In the south of Western Siberia and adjacent territories, burials in the "sitting crouched" position are quite rare and are often represented by burials without inventory. Obtaining AMS dates for sites excavated in the 20th century led to a revision of previously made conclusions about the chronology, periodization and cultural affiliation of some "sitting" burials. An illustrative example is burial No. 2 of mound 4 of the Labazovsky burial mound. The burial of a woman over 45 years old, buried in a sitting position, was discovered in the buried soil under a mound of the Srubnaya culture, and was also attributed to this culture. The description and drawing of the burial allow us to conclude that this is a burial in the "sitting crouched" position. AMS dates performed in different laboratories showed that this burial dates back to the end of the 7th - beginning of the 6th millennium BCE. The burial from the barrow cemetery Malo-Kizilsky II (barrow 2/2) in the Southern Urals, in which four skeletons were found, abundantly sprinkled with ochre, in a sitting position in an antithetical orientation to each other in the NE-SW direction, also belongs to the Neolithic with a high degree of probability. The markers of the early age of "sitting crouched" burials are the stratigraphic conditions (burials in a layer of buried soil) and the presence of traces of ochre in the burial. There is a need for a thorough revision and AMS dating of burials without inventory in the "sitting" position in the territory of the south of Western Siberia and adjacent regions. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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