Completely preserved cremation from a jar burial in the early medieval Bervenets kurgan cemetery

Improved methods of analyzing cremated human remains provide more opportunities for obtaining new data on characteristics of buried individuals during their lifetime as well as specific features of funerary rites. Cremated remains from a grave attributed to the Pskov Long Kurgan culture (Bervenets 1, Peno district, Tver region) were preserved completely because the bones were located under a vessel turned upside down. Fragments of cremated bones of various size ranging from 9 cm to 0,5 cm with a total weight of 1142 g come from all parts of the skeleton and enable the authors to establish that a male of 40-49 years was buried under the vessel. The grave preserved parts of the skeleton characterizing body-built of the male and his health status. The X-ray fluorescence method was used to identify presence of metal elements in the funerary costume of the individual. The undisturbed burial reveals that the population ascribed to the long kurgans traditions practiced special technologies of high temperature cremation on a pyre; when this type of cremation was used, fragile large fragments of white color were preserved. Fragility of these fragments excludes their possible transportation, which means that they could be moved from the pyre located near the burial pit only once to be placed in the pit. The authors propose a reconstructed staged process of moving the remains into the grave pit based on the analysis of bone fragments localization, state of their preservation, color and completeness.