POPULATION OF THE LOWER KUBAN OF THE XIII-XIV CENTURIES ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL MATERIALS: CONTINUATION OF THE DISCUSSION

Abstract

Download PDF Abstract The article deals with results of the complex analysis of the archaeological and anthropological materials from a series of the 14th and 15th centuries necropolises localized in the lower Kuban River Region (Gostagayevsky, Zhukova, Psebeps-3, Bedrichka-3, Natukhayevsky-5). These necropolises are already attributed to be burial sites of the medieval Adyghe. The author pays special attention to a number of peculiar features such as the stone tombs of a special construction, the practice of burials occurring at different times in one grave, the presence of wooden coffi ns in stone tombs and other details which allocate this group of sites to synchronous burial grounds in the Northwest Caucasus and Northeast Black Sea Region. The author suggests the multiethnic nature of population which left the burial grounds under consideration. Analogies are shown to features of funeral complexes of the considered necropolises in medieval sites of the Taman peninsula, the Crimea and the Don River Region. A wide archaeological comment of results of the analysis of anthropological materials from these burial grounds is submitted. Keywords Medieval archaeology, anthropology, Lower Kuban River Region, burial grounds, stone boxes, the Circassians, Golden Horde.