Burials with metal items from ground cemeteries of timber-grave cultural historical entity

In the Timber-grave (Srubnaya) cultural historical entity kurgan and ground cemeteries functioned simultaneously. Of special interest is reconstruction of the burial rite practiced by the Srubnaya culture bearers. The present paper focuses on burials containing metal finds, which evidently occupied a special social position. Totally 19 associations of this kind from seven ground cemeteries are considered. Comparative analysis of burial rite of this selection and characteristics of over 300 burials from the database on ground cemeteries compiled by the authors is presented. This let determine the place of the burials in question against the general background of the Timber-grave antiquities. Classification of finds by basic classes of metal items is suggeted.