Methodological issues of identifying cremated burials: the case study of the 2012-2014 excavations at the Podbolotyevo cemetery

The medieval funerary rites of the Volga Finns are characterized as biritual. In addition to inhumation, cemeteries occasionally contain cremated burials,their share reaching 20 %. In most cases cremated burials were examined with the useof archaeological methods without any anthropological analyses. The paper deals withmethodological issues of cremated burial interpretation, the analysis of relationshipbetween archaeological characteristics and anthropological data and developmentof criteria for reliable determinations on the basis of archaeological investigationsof the Podbolotyevo cemetery carried out in 2012-2014. The analysis of the remains fromthe Muroma Podbolotyevo cemetery demonstrated consistency between archaeologicaland anthropological results in determining cremated burials in almost 50 % of cases.Regarding the early stage of the cemetery occupation (the 8th - early 10th centuries),the conclusions made on the basis of archaeological characteristics are not confirmed byanthropological analysis only in two cases out of 11. As for later burials (early 10th - 11thcenturies), there is major discordance between the results (up to 70 %). Such discordance isattributed to chronological changes of the funerary rite when the deceased were crematedin burial pits of smaller size compared to burials with inhumation, therefore children'sburials cannot be separated from adult burials based on pit size. The second distinctivefeature of the later stage of the cemetery occupation is an increased share of paired andgroup cremations which are difficult to be identified only on the basis of archaeologicaldata. At the same time, because of fragmented cremated bones, the sex of the deceasedmay often be determined only by archaeological data.