Children's burials at the Russian settlement Yarkova in the Tobolsk Irtysh region

The research is aimed at a comprehensive analysis of two burials of children found at the Russian settlement Yarkova. These burials were studied during archaeological research. Yarkova (early 12th c. - 1960s) is located in Tobolsk district of Tyumen Oblast on a floodplain terrace on the right bank of Lake Istok. The 50 sq m excavation was made right at the edge of the terrace, in the southwestern part of the settlement. Traces of permanent buildings were not found. Burial 1 is oriented perpendicular to the terrace. The grave is 74 x 41 cm, 47 cm deep to the current surface. The log is 58 x 10 x 9 cm in size. The child was laid flat on its back, with its head to the northwest, with its hands folded on the stomach. Some of the skeleton bones were shifted from their initial original positions. The child's shoulders, pelvis and legs were covered with fragments of binder made up from compressed natural strands of light-brown color (the child was wrapped in it). There was a knot on the binder which wrapped the legs. Burial 2 is 70 cm to the current surface; the burial was made in a log of 60 x 12-15 x 9 cm in size. Its inner space is of anatomical contour with a wider space for the shoulder area. The burial was placed along the line NNW - SEE. The child was laid flat on its back, with its head to the northwest, the right hand being on the chest and the left hand on the stomach. The child's legs were slightly bent at its knees, a bit turned to the right. The length of the backbone did not exceed 37 cm. There were fragments of manufactured tissue: natural black ones were found on the child's skull; silk fragments of brownish color with a red hue were found in the area of the child's chest. The body was entwined with a rope (the rope of brown color and of animal origin) that was crossed in the front: in the center of the chest, pelvis and legs. There was a knot on the rope on the child's legs. And though the knot was not untied at the burial, the rope was proved to be cut in the center along the body. In ethnographic literature there is no information found concerning ropes at buried bodies being cut. Burials date back to the middle of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Due to the lack of other nearby graves, as well as the lack of neighboring buildings traces, there is a conclusion that the researched burials are a kind of a "home" (family) cemetery for unbap-tized babies, located in the outskirts of a peasant house. Further studies of Russian settlement and burial monuments dated back to the late Middle Ages and to modern time are to reveal all the diversity of the material and spiritual culture of Russian Siberians.

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