Elite Burial of the Golden Horde Era in the Samara Volga Region: Man, Horses and Ritual Complex

In: Stratum plus: archeologija i kulʹturnaja antropologija = Stratum plus : archaeology and cultural anthropology, Heft 5, S. 309-333

Abstract

The article presents some preliminary results of a comprehensive study of a unique archaeological site of the Golden Horde time — a single burial mound Svetloe Pole III, excavated in the Samara region in 2020. In the only burial, despite the destruction, extraordinary objects have been preserved: a massive (gilded) bronze belt overlay with the image of a dragon, a horn pommel depicting a bird of prey gnawing at a large bird — possibly a bustard; gold earrings and stripes into clothes, coins, iron arrowheads (some of them gilded), etc. The sub-kurgan area was surrounded by a wooden ring structure 15 m in diameter, on the eastern side of which there was a sacrificial complex with 14 skulls of horses without lower jaws. The anthropological study showed that the buried man, 50—60 years old, of the Mongoloid anthropological type, had numerous pathologies. Interesting paleozoological observations were made when analyzing bone remains of the animals found not only on the sacrificial site, but also in the filling of the mound.