Female Elite Burial from the Upper Don Hunnic Time Settlement of Mukhino 2: A Bioarcheological Reconstruction

The article examines female burial 1, discovered at the multiple-layered settlement of Mukhino 2 (Zadonskii raion of Lipetsk oblast) on the left bank of the Snova River not far from where it flows into the Don River. Anthropological research of the skeletal remains has shown that they belong to a woman twenty to twenty-nine years of age. Burial 1 from the Mukhino 2 settlement is accompanied by grave goods typical of burials of the “barbarian” nobility in the Hunnic period, indicating a high social rank of the buried woman. Her attire is analogous to cultural traditions of the sedentary population of the Late Antique centers of the northern Black Sea region. Based on the grave goods, the Mukhino entombment can be dated to the end of the D2 period through the beginning of the D2/D3 in the “barbarian” European chronology, approximately the years 430–50. Morphological characterization of the postcranial skeleton suggests her refinement. Comparison with previously examined Sarmatian and Alanic female samples from the “elite rafts” of the Klin-Iar complex helps to identify certain similar features. It has been established from isotopic and elemental analysis data that animal proteins did not predominate in the buried woman's dietary structure, while plants of the C4 photosynthesis type (millet?) comprised a considerable portion, indicating a sedentary lifestyle. This assumption finds additional corroboration in the results of paleobotanical research on regional finds. Skeletal remains reveal a complex of features pointing to a possible southern origin for the buried woman.