Disturbed burials of the Eluninskaya culture of the bronze age (based on the burial ground of Teleutskyi vzvoz I)

In this article we conducted a formalized analysis of the burials on the burial ground of Teleut Vzvoz I (Altay, Elunino culture, XXI–XIX BC), in which the anatomical integrity of the skeletons was disrupted. We typed the disturbed burial. We classified burials into three empiric types and attributed burials with minor damages to the first type. If after interruption of the burials, the skeletons were, for the most part or as a whole, intact or with small damages. In certain cases some bones could be displaced or absent. The burials with middle damages were attributed to the second type. It is characterized as burials with chaotically dispersed bones. Some bones are absent. The third type is characterized by considerable disruptions of skeletons. The majority of skeletons were removed from the burials, there were only single bones or some fragments of them. We have identified the characteristic features of the rite of interruption: a targeted disruption of the upper half of the remains, manipulation with heads or skulls. We found no signs of special treatment on certain parts of the postcranial skeleton. In some cases, we observed the removal of bones and also the deliberate damage of bones. In this article we focused on the problem of in differentiation in methodological practice between disrupted and secondary burials as well.