Social stratification of the Chernyakhov - S^intana-de-Murec population

In the course of multiyear studies of the Chernyakhov - Sîntana-de-Mureffuneral rite, the scholars succeeded in identifying the groups of graves and interpretedthem as graves of slaves, common people with different levels of prosperity, communityelders and the nobility. Accumulation of new materials required clarification of someconcepts and reconciliation with the results obtained by the earlier researchers. Thispaper offers an adjusted variant of the reconstruction of the social stratification typicalof the population of the Chernyakhov - Sîntana-de-Mureç culture. The reconstructionwas based on the tested and proven methodology (Pustovalov, 2005). The study covereda group of inhumation burials with the north orientation. The following groups of graveswere singled out: graves without funeral offerings; graves without vessels with funeral offerings; graves with vessels containing funeral offerings of various archaeological andsociological types.