Ossuary Burials of the Sultan-uiz-dag. Some Considerations on the Relation between Archaeology and Vendīdād

Abstract The archaeological exploration of the only mountain range of Karakalpakstan, the barren Sultan-uiz-dag/Sultan-uvais, resumed in 2017 after a hiatus of decades since its first archaeological valuation during Soviet times. This paper presents the preliminary results of the first fieldwork season, which focused on the south-eastern spur of the range. The presence of numerous ossuary burials on its summits reveals that the area was used as an extended burial ground for a prolonged period of time. Although most of the ossuaries recorded consist of scattered fragments that had lost their content, an intact cluster of such burials was discovered and excavated (Site 01). The archaeological and osteological evidence gathered from both the survey and the excavation of Site 01 seems to confirm what until now could only be assumed: the Chorasmians strictly followed the ritual and the funerary prescriptions contained in the Avestan Vendīdād (or Vidēvdād ). Until the major discovery of the Akchakhan-kala’s Avestan gods, the capacity to archaeologically trace Zoroastrianism was questioned. With due caution, this paper tries to find an answer to the problem regarding the presence of resilient Zoroastrianism in Chorasmia, a polity which entered the “Avestan sphere” apparently in parallel to the Achaemenid conquest.