Diagonal burials as a marker of succession of Sarmatian cultures in the first centuries ad

The paper is devoted to studying diagonal funerary complexes as markers of Sarmatian cultures succession in the first centuries AD. The research is based on the analysis of the Middle Sarmatian and Late Sarmatian diagonal burial rite and on the anthropological materials. We have used 53 diagonal archaeological complexes of the Late Sarmatian time and the craniological series of 42 Middle Sarmatian sculls and 24 Late Sarmatian sculls. The research results have show that the problem of succession is connected with the preservation of the rite, and the transformation is connected with the modification of certain elements of material culture. The anthropological materials of the diagonal burials demonstrate the absence of a uniform craniological complex in this group. We can clearly distinguish the type of long-headed Caucasians that prevailed in the Late Sarmatian period and the brachicranian Caucasoid type with a weakened horizontal profiling of the facial structures that is characteristic of the Early Sarmatian population...