Revisiting the origin of early Scythian "tent-roofed" funerary constructions in the North Caucasus

The paper reviews the origin of tent-roofed constructions placed over the tombs in the North Caucasus in the context of the Early Scythian culture origin. The author suggests their links with similar constructions of the Saka culture in the Aral region. Most likely, tent-roofed constructions did not reproduce a dwelling; instead, they served as a general model of the world that could be related with the idea of the World Tree and the Circle of the World.