Osteological collections of the Chernyakhovskaya archaeological culture in the funds of the Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Part 1)

Abstract

Introduction. The cycle of publications on the historical and archaeological characteristics of osteological collections from the funds of the Anuchin Research Institute and Museum of Anthropology of Lomonosov Moscow State University continues in the article. The purpose of this work is to create an information base for paleoanthropologists studying collections from the burial grounds of the Chernyakhovskaya archaeological culture dated III – beginning. V centuries AD.

Materials and methods. This section provides a general description of the collections from the burial grounds of the Chernyakhovskaya culture, stored in the museum's funds. The materials considered were unearthed during excavations by Soviet archaeologists of the 1950s-1960s (E.A. Simonovich, G.B. Fedorov) on the territory of modern Ukraine and Moldova. The work uses all available publications of the authors of the excavations, as well as subsequent summary and analytical studies.

Results. The main part of the work presents information on the burial grounds of the Chernyakhovkaya culture of Zhuravka, Chernyakhov, Malaeshty. The geographical characteristics of the sites, the history of their research, and basic information about the archaeological context for the presented anthropological materials from these necropolises are given. The most common, standard features of the funeral rite are shown and burials with unusual features that fall out of the general framework are indicated. A number of burials have been identified, which are marked in the accounting materials as belonging to the Chernyakhovskaya culture, but, in fact, are not related to it.

Conclusion. The analysis of information about the three burial grounds allows us to consider them, to some extent, reference, standard for the Chernyakhovskaya culture at the main stage of its existence. A large collection from Zhuravka –143 storage units, as well as fairly large ones, 21 storage units and 20 storage units, respectively, from the burial grounds of Chernyakhov and Malaeshty allows to apply a wide range of anthropological and molecular genetic techniques. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

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