The tradition of burning corpses in Irmen funeral and memorial rites

The article studies the corpse burning ceremony of the ancient population of Irmen cultural-historical community that existed in the southern territory of Western Siberia during the Late Bronze Age. Specific features, the geographical range and sources of this ceremony in the cultures of the developed, Early and Late Bronze of Western Siberia are considered (Eluninskaya, Krotovskaya, Samus, Elovskaya). A conclusion that the ceremony of corpse burning is autochthonic for the territory of Western Siberia is drawn. In the territory of Tomsk and Narym Ob this tradition was quite steady and was preserved until the ethnographic modernity, which is confirmed by the research of G.I. Pelikh. Considering the significant number of the Irmen necropolises investigated so far (including rather large ones), the ceremony of corpse burning cannot be considered typical for Irmen ceremonialism. The ceremony is observed in all territories of the Irmen cultural-historical community, yet it is localized in a small number of burial grounds as a noticeable feature of burial and funeral rites. The ceremony is most characteristic for necropolises of areas where there was an ethnic and cultural interaction of the Irmen population and the population of the so-called andronoid cultures (Suzgunskaya, Elovskaya, Korchazhkin-skaya), or traditions of these cultures made a considerable impact on the Irmen cultural genesis. The analysis of burials with burnt corpses has shown that their absolute majority represents destroyed or so-called "secondary" burials. It is established that most part of such burials is found in barrows in which traces of various ritual and sacrificial actions are fixed (bones, skulls and teeth of animals, campfires, ceramic ware and bronze stock). At the same time, most part of these barrows contained more than three buried bodies. It is suggested that such funeral platforms functioned as sites for new burials for a considerable period of time. It is important to note that the available paleoanthropological definitions and rather conditional definitions by the accompanying stock show that burials with burnt corpses mainly belong to the female part of the Irmen people. However, what forced the Irmen people to conduct this ceremony with females is not clear yet. A hypothesis is suggested that the existence of such burials is the result of marriage contacts of the Irmen population with foreign culture groups, and it reflects the process of incorporation of their representatives in the Irmen community.

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