WARRIOR CENOTAPHS WITH SPEARS OF THE BRONZE AGE (on the Materials of “Chariot” Cultures)
Abstract
The article considers military cenotaphs with spears of approximately one chronological horizon (Sintashta, Petrovsky, Pokrovsky, Abashevskie). The appeal to this period is due to the fact that the biggest changes occur here in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, when the chariot aristocracy entered the historical arena. The greatest interest is paid to cenotaphs with spears. It is suggested that cenotaphs with spears should not be unambiguously associated with the death of people. Perhaps they were huge hiding places, not in the understanding of modern man, but from the point of view of the ancient people who created them not to make information inaccessible, but to preserve information in the most understandable form for contemporaries and in the most significant places. Such hiding places were supposed to ensure the rights of the tribe to the territory and thereby exclude the claims of possible rivals. This assumption is supported by the desire of the ancient population to mark on the area the burial mounds with cenotaphs. Besides, these cenotaphs in a special way organized the space of the ritual complex itself. In addition, all the cenotaphs with spears were large pits with strong wooden ceiling, which sometimes had a rather complex design. Based on the information of ancient sources, the author comes to the conclusion that the finds of copies in the cenotaphs can also be interpreted as demonstrating the rights to occupied territory.
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