Barbarian chief’s “secret” burials in the forest-steppe zone of Eastern Europe
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-02-12

By the beginning of the Great Migration period Chernyakhov archaeological culture (its last stage) was spread in the left bank of the Dnieper in forest-steppe zone. At the same time (periods D1 and D2 European chronology -- 360 / 370-440 / 450’s. AD) on the same area occur several extremely rich sumptuous complexes consisting of prestigious gold objects (brooches, bracelets, neck-rings), the Byzantine silverware production, gold-embroidered garments, ceremonial weapons and horse harness. Findings of individual objects belonging to a prestigious culture of the time are known too. These complexes are not associated with burial grounds of Chernyakhov culture. They were found by chance and were considered hoards. Only one of them (Bol’shoy Kamenetz) was published by L.A. Matsulevich in 1934. The study how complexes have been discovered reveals that they are the burials. In Bol’shoy Kamenetz burial was in a stone crypt, built at the base of a high bank of a creek, which flows into the river Sudzha. Mapping of all finds indicates their exclusive relationship with the sources of large creeks flowing in deep canyons and at the same time associated with the watersheds of river systems. Discussed sumptuous complexes are very different from the burials of the Chernyakhov culture, even at it’s highest level examples. There are simple common explanations for this difference:1.”Chronological”, when the sumptuous burials attributed to later Hun period (the period D3, ie, 450-470 / 480’s AD), when the Chernyakhov culture no longer exists. 2.”Ethnic.”Both of these explanations are not satisfactory: 1. Late burials at Chernyakhov cemeteries in the area between the Dnieper and Don rivers dated to stages D1 and D2 of European chronology. The presence of glass cups (as set for the feast) is a feature that distinguishes prestigious burial of odinary cemeteries. 2. There are no grounds for attributing elite single burials to the Hun’s neither by ritual, nor by the inventory. Prestigious items belong to a common in Hunnic time polychrome decorations. Rather we can speak about a direct links with the Late Antique Bosporus whence come the closest analogues of prestigious weapons, harness and silver vessels.Discussed finds belong to the common European horizon of burials of the nobility, the leaders of the barbarian kingdoms, which arose at the beginning of the Great Migration period on the periphery of the ancient world. Often death caught up with kings and military leaders of the Great Migrations in the territory and the environment in which they had no historical roots, nor stable relations. Their tombs and grave structures are unlikely to be perceived as a place of worship and a landmark of the traditional movement. Perhaps this explains the absence of grave structures and the great efforts spent on to hide the burials of high-level persons, moving it beyond the ordinary general cemetery in protected, perhaps a sacred place. The exceptional volume and value of inventory corresponds to the rank of the deceased in his lifetime. The concept of “center of power” is applicapable to the single “princes” and “military chiefs” burials.

Author - Doctor Shcheglova, Olga, Insitute for the History of the Material Culture, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (Presenting author)
Co-author(s) - Radush, Oleg, Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation