General and special characteristics of children's funeral rites of the northern altai population in the xianbei period (on the materials of the Karban-I complex)

Abstract

The article presents the materials of three children's burials of the Bulan-Koby archaeological culture, excavated as part of the Karban-I necropolis. The designated complex is one of the basic site of the Xianbei time (2nd — 1st half of the 4th centuries AD) in Northern Altai. The results of a comparative analysis of the results of excavations with data on other children's burials of the population of the considered region of the Xiongnu-Xianbei-Rouran period are presented. It was established that at the Karban-I site children were buried under small embankments with a ring crepe, in stone boxes (mounds № 13, 32) and a wooden block (mound № 19), according to the rite of single inhumation on the back, their heads were oriented to the north-west. In terms of the revealed features of the ritual, they do not differ from the graves of adults of this necropolis belonging to the Karban burial tradition. The fixed planigraphy of the complex demonstrates the placement of children's burials in chains next to men. With the child buried in the grave of mound № 19 an accompanying inventory was found, represented by a mane made of non-ferrous metal and four beads of a necklace. Dated analogies to this subject complex, recorded in the sites of the Bulan-Koby culture, testify to the chronology of the object within the Xianbei period. The rest of the individuals did not have things. The available materials serve as the basis for the assumption about the different lifetime social status of children, due to the belonging to certain family and clan groups of the ordinary population of the Bulan-Koby culture of Altai.