Palynological studies of artifacts from catacombs No. 97 and No. 98 from the Dargavs cemetery: analysis and interpretation

The Dargavs cemetery is one of the unique sites in the South of Russia that has preserved few but informative organic residue. In 2019 during the excavations of catacombs No. 97 (9th century) and No. 98 (second half of the 8th – first half of the 9th century the Terskiy team of the Institute of Archaeology, RAS, selected three samples for palynological analysis. Sample No. 1 is contents of a small leather bag (Catacomb No. 97); Sample No. 2 is a bead from animal droppings (catacomb No. 97) and Sample No. 3 – soil from a glass tumbler (catacomb No. 98). The palynological analysis established the contents of the leather bag (flour or grains) and the glass tumbler (a drink containing cultivated gramineous plants or some bread stuff placed over the glass tumbler), the origin of the bead made from droppings of goats or sheep. The season of the burial in catacomb No. 97 was determined as the first two summer months. Presence of the chelicerae of ticks in the bag and teliospores of blight in the tumbler suggests that the stored food was contaminated with pests and pathogenic fungi. The determination of wool in catacomb No. 97 suggests that the buried person wore an outer coat made from sheep skin. The examined finds are closely related with pre-Christian beliefs of the early medieval population that has left this cemetery concerning direct links between the world of the dead and fertility and harvest.