“Deviant” Burials of the Early Nomads in the Southern Urals (Second Half of 6th – 4th Centuries BC)

Abstract

Burials that are different in a number of ways from the traditional funeral rite for any society under consideration are typically referred to as “deviant”, “non-standard”, “extraordinary” or “atypical”. The article discusses ‘deviant’ burials of the Early nomads in the Southern Urals during the second half of the 6th and 4th centuries BC. This paper has two purposes: the first is to study these burials by analyzing their context and the second goal is to identify and interpret the reasons of their construction. The features of the “non-standard” funeral rite of the nomads have been distinguished by contextual analysis. The main result of the study is the identification of the main types of “deviant” burials found in the burial sites of the Early nomads, the appearance of which could have been influenced by many reasons related both to the system of beliefs and worldviews of the society under consideration, as well as by personal circumstances of life or death. Possible reasons for building “deviant” burials could have been the following: special social status of the buried individual, fear of the dead in the community, various rituals associated with human sacrifices or burials of “strangers’. It is also possible that the “deviant” burials could be associated with some external factors that led to refusal of the community to bury the dead using traditional practices and normative rites., it is necessary use a number of additional sources for further comprehensive study in order to identify the reasons for designing the “deviant” burials.