Early medieval burial with a horse from the Kuraika burial ground in the Southern Altai

This article presents results of archaeological excavations of object 412 at the Kuraika burial ground and gives a comprehensive interpretation of funeral rite and accompanying inventory from that site located in the northern part of the Kurai Depression on high terrace of the left bank of the Kuraika River (Kosh-Agach District of the Altai Republic). This burial mound contained an Early Medieval burial of a female and two horses. The human burial was almost completely destroyed by robbers, and items of the accompanying inventory (mainly horse equipment) were displaced. Despite almost complete destruction of the human burial, there is no doubt that the excavated burial site was a "classical ” burial with a horse of the Early Middle Ages in the Altai. This is confirmed by a number of features of the funeral rite, such as location of burial mound on the eastern side of the cemetery of the early nomads, structure of the mound, and particularly the presence of a crepidoma and stele placed on the eastern side, as well as arrangement of commemorative rings of stones on the eastern side of the burial mound. Orientation of horses to the west, that is, supposedly, in the opposite direction from the human, their position on the belly with legs tucked under the body and the head turned towards the buried person, also confirm this conclusion. There were practically no artifacts in the burial inventory (hobble buckle, horn girth buckle, horn cheekpieces, iron adze, etc.) which could provide a narrow date range. However, placement of a stele next to the mound and presence of saddle belt rings in the burial inventory suggest that the site can be dated to the 8th-9th centuries. It supplements the set of237Early Medieval burials in the Altai studied to date, most of which were burials with a horse.