Elista Burial Mound Site: Analyzing the Correlation between Early and Middle Bronze Age Mounds and Burials

Introduction. Elista grave field is a largest and most investigated one in the Ergeni Uplands, with the bulk of barrows and burials dated to the Bronze Age. Burial mound sites in the mentioned area are distinguished by linear positioning of tumuli — the most sizeable groups constitute chains of kurgans located transversally along watershed lines. Plateau-like ridges may comprise groups consisting of several parallel kurgan chains. Goals. The study aims at analyzing the correlation (ratio) between kurgans and burials of Early and Middle Bronze Age cultures within the grave field of Elista. Results. The work reveals some specific functions of under-kurgan rooms (space) in different cultures of the examined period. So, burial mounds of the Yamnaya culture contained one central burial each. In the Early Catacomb era, inlet burials were made only in ‘own’ barrows, while the arrived North Caucasian steppe culture gave rise to scattered cases of constructing inlet burials in culturally alien kurgans. Pit-catacomb burials were characterized by somewhat differing use of foreign culture barrows: one such construct virtually demolished the main burial in a Yamnaya kurgan; in another instance, the creation of an inlet burial was followed by heaping quite a plenty of soil which resulted in that the tumulus became several times as large. The distinctive feature is that all the monuments are arranged along the watershed without visible clustering. The largest group is that of kurgans and burials referred to as the East Manych Catacomb culture. Catacomb barrows were inserted into the existing chain, and dimensionally the bulk of them were virtually identical to previous monuments. Conclusions. The analysis shows research of Early and Middle Bronze Age burials should focus not only on quantitative properties in separate kurgans. When it comes to counting inlet burials it is critical to identify the cultural and chronological affiliation of the main burial. Moreover, it is important to obtain additional data, such whether the burial is located inside the tumulus or below the latter, whether there is any trace of later soil heaping, etc. This may be instrumental in discovering additional groups of inlet burials that vary from ‘common’ to ‘elite’ ones and could have been accompanied by several-fold enlargement of the initial (original) tumulus.

main burial, inlet burial, additional soil heaping, Volga-Manych steppe, Ergeni Uplands, Bronze Age, Yamnaya culture, Early Catacomb culture, North Caucasian steppe culture, Pit-Catacomb group, East Manych Catacomb culture

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