Experts from the Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic have discovered amazing burials on Yamal: the dead were laid in unusual poses and burnt on fire.
Archaeologists from the Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic are examining the Yur-Yakh III monument located in Yamal, dating from the XI-XII centuries. ad. It was opened in 1996 and was classified as a settlement by the presence of a cultural layer. The 2016 expedition, supported by the Arktika Interregional Expeditionary Center, presented scientists with a new discovery: instead of the expected remains of dwellings and household utensils, several burials were found here.
Two of them are well preserved; they contained the remains of women who died between the ages of 18 and 20. During their lifetime, they had a number of pathological diseases and injuries that could cause death at a young age.
Burial No. 3. Photo: Andrey Plekhanov / nat-geo.ru
Burial No. 4. Photo: Andrey Plekhanov / nat-geo.ru
Two other burials, discovered by archaeologists, were disturbed in the past and poorly preserved. With the help of paleoanthropological examination, it was possible to establish that the remains belong to two different people. One of the deceased is a man aged 40-50 years old who suffered from hyperostosis (excessive growth of bone tissue). Scientists believe that at the age of 4-6 years, he suffered physiological stress as a result of severe starvation or illness. In another grave, there was once a 20-25-year-old girl, but she was identified only by the only body fragment found: the clavicle bone.
The method of burial, which is atypical for the Yamal tundra, presented a big puzzle for archaeologists. Traditionally, the dead are buried here in an extended position, but on the monument to Yur-Yakh III, the deceased are laid in a crumpled form. “Moreover, the examination showed that the body of the man was set on fire after his death, which had never been recorded before at medieval necropolises in the region,” said Andrei Plekhanov, senior researcher at the Center for Arctic Studies.
Comprehensive studies of Yur-Yakh III continue. Archaeologists do not exclude its connection with another monument of the XI-XII centuries. - Yarte-VI, located eight kilometers to the west. A thick layer of deer bones and organic matter was discovered there, so scientists made the assumption that there was a medieval economic and fishing complex there.
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Anastasia Barinova