The chronology of the funerary complexes of the Zmeyskiy catacomb cemetery revisited

When studying the late Alanic catacomb necropolises of the Central Caucasus, one of which is the Zmeiskiy catacomb cemetery, the issue of chronology is most important. The paper raises an issue of chronology of burial assemblages of the Zmeyskiy catacomb cemetery. To address this issue, samples of animal bones were taken for radiocarbon dating from burials at different areas of the burial ground. According to the analysis, the dating ranges from the end of the 10th century to the early 13th century. However, based on the dating of some individual finds, late 13th century should be considered the upper limit of this chronological span. The paper concludes that the cemetery had some several separate centers of growth, reducing the quantity of equipment in the graves that may be explained by religious factors, and the synchronicity of different types of burial constructions