Orientations of the dead in the Manych catacomb culture: the search for an interpretation model

Using statistical investigation of the orientation of burial structures inburial mounds and of the dead at sites of the Eastern Manych Culture, a reconstructionhas been made of the main features of the orientation system underlying the lay-outof the burial mounds. This article provides a description of the similarity between thisphenomenon and data drawn from the Indo-Aryan (or more widely - the Indo-Iranian)written tradition. The arrangement of space within burial mounds and grave structuresin accordance with the points of the compass and directions between the latter, the ten-dency for burials to be arranged in the eastern half of burial mounds, the importanceof the North-South axis for the orientation of grave structures and that of the dead, thebinary opposition of orientations used in two local variants of the Manych Culture,circular movement (with the sun and contrary to the sun) - all these features echo whatis found in the Vedas and later texts of Hinduism and, to a smaller extent, in the an-cient Iranian religious texts of the Avesta. It is assumed that a similar system existed inother Late Catacomb cultures. For a well-founded interpretation of this observation itis necessary to undertake systematic investigation of the spatial arrangement not onlyin catacomb sites, but also in earlier and later cultures for the general population withinthe steppe zone of Eurasia.