New evidence on the burial traditions among the ancestors of the Tara Tatars (based on the excavations at the Seitovo IV burial ground in 2019)

Rescue excavation works were carried out in 2019 at the Seitovo IV soil burial ground, located on the outskirts of the Seitovo village in Tarsky District of Omsk Region on the right bank of the Irtysh River in the southern taiga zone of Western Siberia. These works were done for saving the burial ground from destruction and studying the culture of the ancestors of the Tara Tatars in its early stages. The period of the 14th-16th centuries is still largely unknown in the history of Western Siberia. This article presents new evidence on the funeral rite of the ancestors of the Tara Tatars in that period. During the excavation, seven graves were explored; one of them was double. The graves contained poorly preserved human remains in the stretched position on the back with the heads towards the west with small deviation to the north, and various burial inventory: locally produced iron axe, elements of personal adornments of copper and bronze, beads of various sizes made of glass and bone, copper hollow pendants, bronze wire earrings, fragments of iron knives, and iron belt buckles. One of the buckles had an overlay made of bronze plaque from former horse harness belonging to the Early Iron Age in the form of three griffin necks and heads placed in the circle and one broken off. Grave 7 was partially cut by the burial of the front part of horse carcass, which did not disturb the remains of the human skull. The analysis of the evidence has shown that this area contained earlier burials of the ancestors of the Tara Tatars dated to the 15th-17th centuries, than the burials which had been discovered before.