Continuity and Innovations in the Middle Sarmatian and Late Sarmatian Cultures (Based on the Materials of Staritsa Burial Mound)

Abstract

This article considers the issues of continuity and innovations in the middle and late Sarmatian cultures on the materials of Staritsa burial mound. The burial mound was dug out in the 60s of the 20th century by archaeological expedition under the leadership of V.P. Shilov. To solve this problem the main features of burial complexes and anthropological materials of the 1st – 3rd centuries A.D. were analyzed. The source base of the research includes materials of 30 burial complexes and cranial measurements of 22 skulls. To highlight transition periods the authors used the method of determining sign’s weight during its allocation to the antecedent or subsequent culture, as well as its chronological range. Digital information on anthropological series obtained in the process of measuring skulls was processed by the simple and multivariate statistics methods to identify the population continuity, similarities and differences. As a result of the study, the authors have identified and substantiated partial continuity of the two cultural traditions at the stage of their interaction, which apparently began near the middle of the 2nd century AD, when late Sarmatian culture representatives appeared in the Lower Volga region. The transformation of such middle Sarmatian culture signs as diagonal burials and the appearance of late Sarmatian culture signs such as northern orientation of a buried, cubic incense burners, skulls with traces of artificial deformation may indicate the influence of a new culture on traditions of local people, who continued to dwell in this area and use the burial mound. As for the anthropological material, it shows that in this region the population of the middle and late Sarmatian time partially retains the appearance of its predecessors, the population of the early Sarmatian time. New components, such as long-headed Caucasoid and mixed Caucasoid-Mongoloid, identified on the basis of intragroup analysis, allow to reveal the type of migrants.