Burial inventory as marker of gender-age and social stratification in population of the Kurai Basin (based on excavations at the Kuraika cemetery, Altai Mountains)

Archaeological excavations at the Kuraika burial ground of the Bulan-Kobin culture, III-V centuries A.D. (Altai Mountains, Kosh-Agach District), which had been conducted intermittently since 1994, were completed in 2024. Excavations were carried out at twelve objects including ten tombs in different spatial groups. New original data on the burial rites and material culture of the Kurai Basin nomads were collected. The uncovered artifacts include the overlays of a compound bow, a whip ornamented bone handle, and remains of children’s clothing. To date, 66 burials (21 male, 16 female, the rest are burials of children including infants under one year old) have been excavated at the cemetery. Various types of surface constructions (stone- earthen and stone mounds, tiered subrectangular crepidas) and intra-burial structures (coffins, log cabins; wooden frames, stone boxes, larch boards) were found. It has been revealed that the type of intraburial construction depends neither on the sex, or age of the buried person. Thus, men, women and children were buried in coffins. In general, children funerary structures imitate adult ones. The dead were placed in tombs in the supine, stretched position, with the north (NW/W/NE) orientation of the head towards sunrise and sunset, which indirectly indicated the time of the funeral either in the late autumn- early winter, or early spring. A significant time break between the end of the funeral and the final stage of the construction of the ground structure was recognized. The mutual occurrence of various intra-burial constructions, traces of ritual and other actions, and categories of grave goods was analyzed. It was found that the main categories of grave inventory were standard for all types offunerary structures and showed predominantly gender specificity. It was hypothesized that on this necropolis the burial inventory did not indicate either social, age or professional differentiation of society.