BURIALS FROM BESINSHITOBЕ IN THE OTRAR OASIS

Abstract

The article publishes new materials from the excavations of hillfort Besinshitobe in the Otrar oasis. At the base of the monument lie the ruins of the architectural structure of the Kangyu epoch. These burials were made in the ruins of buildings. Its systematic study began in 2015 and continues to the present. During this time, about 50 burials were discovered here, 19 of them were discovered and opened in the 2018 field season. All of them are represented by inlet burials in simple pits without additional structures. It was not always possible to trace the shape of the grave pit, but in most cases it had a narrow oblong shape with rounded corners. According to the rite, these burials differ. Burials without accompanying inventory, burial in earthen vessels placed in grave pits and burials with inventory are distinguished. The earliest are burials with accompanying inventory. Orientation of the backbone head to the north-west and north-west with a slight deviation to the north, as well as the lack of accompanying equipment allows us to consider the burial of the first group as Muslim. Most of these graves date from the Karakhanid epoch, the rest are preliminary to the 9^th–12^th centuries A.D.