Study of the burial mound at the Katanda-2 site

An undisturbed burial mound of the Afanasievo culture was studied at the Katanda-2 site in Ust-Koksinsky District of the Altai Republic. A distinctive feature of this burial mound is the burial structure of a relatively large size, measuring 15.5 m in diameter and constituting a stone ring made of boulders and pebbles, and earthen mound in the center. A male burial was discovered in burial pit 1.08 m deep, which also contained two vessels. Small oval-shaped ring, also made of large boulders and pebbles, and measuring 3 x 4.80 m, was attached to the main ring on the northeast. The small ring contained an incense burner and miniature vessel. Large size of the stone ring, earthen embankment rising for about 90 cm above the level of the modern daytime surface, round-bottomed vessel and incense burner-rare finds for the Afanasievo burials in the Altai Mountains- suggest high social status of the buried man. His possible cause of death is associated with inflammatory process (odontogenic osteomyelitis) which had spread to the maxillary sinus after removal of the third upper molar. The complex of odontoscopic features in that person shows similarities to the western odontological trunk. The longitudinal size of his long bones is large; accordingly, his body length calculated from them belongs to the category of large-sized; it was 173.1 cm on average varying from 170.7 to 177.4 cm according to different calculation methods. The complex of morphological features for the bones of man's lower extremities suggests that the main type of movement in his everyday life was walking and running, which is typical of shepherding in mountainous areas.