Cultural syncretism in the burial practice during the middle bronze age in the Kuban river steppes

The paper gives a brief overview of burials containing multicultural components which reflect contacts and their penetration into an alien cultural milieu in the Kuban steppes during the Middle Bronze Age. Such burials have been grouped into two chronological ranges, namely, the earlier chronological range synchronous with the Azov culture and the later chronological range synchronous with the Baturino culture. The earlier range includes the Yamnaya-Catacomb group and the Early North Caucasus Catacomb group. The later range includes the Manych group with turnip-shaped pottery from the Chelbas upstream areas, the Baturino group with turnip-shaped pottery from the Beisug River and the Kerpili River basins. Contacts between various cultural traditions led to cultural syncretism even in such conservative traditions as the funeral practice.