This year, the expeditionary team of the Arkaim Nature Reserve under the leadership of Yuri Makurov continued excavations at the burial ground of the nomadic era called Mandesarka-6. Two days ago, on one of the mounds, archaeologists began to clear a grave pit where the skeleton of an adult woman was discovered.
With her were found an iron knife, a ceramic spindle (a product used in spinning), small beads and fragments of a ceramic vessel.
Moreover, black beads were arranged in a row near her hands, and, possibly, they decorated the sleeves of the burial clothes or were bracelets. Under the girl, organic decay was cleared, which could have remained from the kind of flooring on which the deceased was buried. The gender and age cannot yet be accurately determined, since an anthropologist's expertise is required. The buried woman, most likely, belonged to the Sarmatian tribe, as did the two men and women who were excavated at the same burial ground last year. Most likely, the buried lived and died in the 2-3 centuries. AD, i.e. 1700-1800 years ago.
The burial mound above the burial was low - upon discovery it reached no more than 30 cm. During excavations, fragments of an ornamented jug were found in the burial mound, the shape of which has not yet been restored. The tribesmen dug a grave pit for the deceased at a depth of about 1.5 meters. Surprisingly, the entire perimeter of the pit was lined with burnt wood. Perhaps the fire symbolized the ritual cleansing of space during the funeral procession. As a rule, traces of fire (and often very large-scale ones) are visible on all the mounds of the Iranian-speaking nomads of the Eurasian steppes.
Within a month, archaeologists also plan to complete the excavation of the largest burial mound, where amazing clay structures and traces of large bonfires can already be traced in the burial structure.
Promotional video:
The nomad discovered this year, like her fellow tribesmen, has a deformation of the skull, but not as bright as that of a woman, who became famous in the media in 2015 under the nickname “alien”.
