About one funeral and memorial rite among the early Sakas

Abstract

The article analyzes a group of funerary monuments of the Early Iron Age in East Kazakhstan and in a number of adjacent territories (Kuruk-II, Kondratievka-XXI, Solonechnye belki/Topkaiyn, Mayemer, Gilevo-10, Mashenka-1, Chekanovsky log-10, etc.), which included mounds containing accompanying burials of horses, sheep (small cattle), and in one case additionally dogs. Some variation in the practice of implementing this rite of passage – animals in the same chamber with a person, sometimes in a separate pit, the presence of an underside chamber or a stone box is an indicator of local ethnographic diversity. Two areas of this phenomenon are distinguished: Kuruksky (Kuruksko-Kondratievsko-Gilevsky) and Verkhnebukhtarminsky. It is interesting that the elements of the funeral rites of the population of the region of the Early Saka period to some extent coincide with certain Vedic traditions associated with sacrifices in honor of the highest deities of the religious pantheon of various animals in a hierarchical sequence – horse – ram (goat) – dog. In the context of the analysis of the material, the author draws attention to the sacrificial pose of horses in accompanying burials, the contour of which repeats the curve of the grave pit, evoking associations with a coiled feline predator. In general, the elements of the funeral rite are interpreted by the author as a narrowly local cultural and chronological phenomenon.