The unique richness of the burial of a young woman bronze age scientists found during an expedition in Kabardino-Balkaria, according to the Institute of archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Age burial sites found in the mound group “Kancelarska I” is more than 4.5 thousand years. “This is a burial in the number and range of things first of its kind: standard complexes of the North Caucasian culture have a much smaller number and variety of finds” – are contained in the message the words of the leader of the expedition of Alexander kleschenko.
Barrow group “Kancelarska I was discovered by scientists in the 1930-ies, in preparation for the construction of the Baksan hydroelectric power station, but now virtually not been studied. In 2014, the Institute of archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Institute of archaeology of the Caucasus investigated a group of five mounds. Research has identified 73 burial Dating back to the early and middle bronze age (mid IV – first half of the III Millennium BC).
Excavations 2014 has revealed a number of funerary complexes containing a unique set of tools and ornaments. In the burial No. 9 barrow 423 were found the remains of women aged from 18 to 30 years. Her costume consisted of 550 items, which in itself is an unprecedented case for the burial complexes of the middle bronze age,” says kleschenko.
In particular, the heads were discovered eight bronze and silver temporal pendants on my chest was a necklace, consisting of seven varieties of bronze and faience ornaments. The total number exceeds 150 pieces. Right wrist was buried wrapped bracelet from the original bronze pendants, accurate analogies which are not yet known.
The most prominent details of the funeral suit were two so-called belt set, consisting of several hundred items. They had primarily religious purpose. At this point the most expressive objects of the complex: two bronze pins, which was kind of amulets, religious fetishes middle bronze age, two hemispherical metal plates with solar ornament, as well as two miniature bronze models of vessels. “The discovery of this rich assortment of jewelry in the same complex you can take all the questions about the synchronicity of the existence of these types of products of the middle bronze age on the territory of the North Caucasus,” he says.
At the same time, archaeologists have yet to come to conclusions about the social status of the buried. “We know very little about the social relations of that era, to call her “Princess” or “Princess”, moreover, the position of the burial contrary,” says kleschenko.
The fact that the burial was made in the mound, but not in the continental pit, as the vast majority of the burials. “Judging by the available facts, leaders, individuals with a high social status were often buried in the mound, they did embankment height to three meters, with a significant status points, including the amount of labor required for the ceremony. In mounds usually buried children, often found burial, no artifacts. Here we are dealing with a sort of ritual nonsense,” says the scientist.