The grave in the church of the Kandalaksha monastery: revisiting the issue relating to topography of high status graves in the churches of the Russian north in the late middle ages

In 2013 excavations were carried out in the altar part in the Church of Nativity of Our Lady in the monastery located in the city of Kandalaksha (Murmansk region). The southern part of the excavation trench revealed an original double burial. It contained males aged 45-55 and 35-45, with one body lying on top of the other in one pit. The finds include an iron nail near the head and remains of lateral planks near the buried individual at the top. The analysis of the planigraphy of the skeleton positions, anatomic continuity of the skeletons that are complete as well as nature of pit fill suggests that the dead were not buried at the same time; there was no reburial of the bodies either. The paper reviews the practice of such interments in the Russian North during the Late Middle Ages. The grave is anonymous; however, presumably, the interred individuals were monks of the Kandalaksha monastery who had a high status in the local community. Probably, one of them was a locally venerated saint. The grave is dated to mid 17th century. The anthropological analysis shows that the craniometric measurements characteristic of the buried individuals are comparable with the anthropological series from Veliky Novgorod and Smolensk, whereas the dietary model demonstrates a mixed diet with a high content of the protein component.