Features of the children's burial rite in the Stepushka-2 cemetery in Altai (preliminary information)

In this paper we made a generalization of materials from children's graves at the Stepushka-2 cemetery (Altai). The cemetery of Stepushka-2 belongs to the Bulan-Koba culture of the Hun-Sarmatian time. In 2010, this monument was fully explored. The burials date within the second half of the third - first half of the fourth centuries AD. A detailed study of the features of the objects and the grave goods allowed discovering the features of the children's burial rite. Most of the children's graves were single burials. They were located in the central part of the cemetery, and they were surrounded by the graves of adults. The above-ground constructions were stone mounds, or ring-fences along the perimeter. The burials were in shallow pits, some in stone boxes, in others structures inside graves were probably made from wood, therefore were not preserved. Some burial had quite a lot of grave goods (pendants, a toilet brush, beads, earrings, etc.), while others had none. Among the materials from the children's burials were things not typical of the rest of the graves: an armor plate and fragments of hand mill millstones. According to the authors, these two categories of things demonstrate the special attitude of the Altai population in the Hun-Sarmatian time to the child mortality. From ancient times, the image of a woman and a child was associated with the continuation of life. For successful reproduction of population special actions were necessary during the burial rite, which contributed to the placement of these two categories of things in children's tombs of the necropolis. This is confirmed by the findings of jewelry which performed protective functions. The authors also believe that for people who built this cemetery, the children's funeral ceremony did not have the meaning of the funeral only. Most likely, some rituals conducted at children's burials were aimed to the safe reproduction of the new posterity. The small proportion of children buried in the necropolis does not reflect the real level of child mortality of the period. This can be explained by the existence of specific infant and children's funeral rites which are not determined by archaeological methods (as presently constituted, the cemetery did not have a single burial of an infant). Currently, the imbalance of male and female burials is impossible to explain reasonably and convincingly; therefore, it is necessary to continue research in this area with the assistance of other materials from the fully investigated cemeteries of Altai of the Hun-Sarmatian time.

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