The cemetery at the Transfiguration Church in Borovsk: archaeological and anthropological aspects

In 2021 a part of the cemetery was investigated in the graveyard at the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in the square in Borovsk (Kaluga region). Besides the fieldwork, the archaeological investigation included analysis of the assemblage of wooden funerary constructions discovered during the cemetery excavations. The analysis identified typological traits of the assemblage that are not typical for cemetery sites in the Upper Volga region regarding their status and chronology. The examination of the anthropological remnants from this cemetery also reveals some distinctive features characteristic of this series compared with contemporary series from the cemeteries in the Upper Volga region (Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod) and some other cities as well as the earlier sample (12th century) from Yaroslavl. While the values of mean age at death disregarding children and sex ratio are comparable with those estimated for other late medieval series, on the whole, the Borovsk series appears to be close to some high status series relating to such indicators as prevalence of stress markers both in the adult sample and the children sample as well as average reconstructed length of the body of adult males.