Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 50 (2) 2022   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2022.50.2.049-059

Annotation:  The Incipient Neolithic of the Kurile Islands: The Culture of Long Barrows An Early Neolithic Sanctuary in the Eastern Irtysh Basin The Cultural Continuum of the Eurasian Boreal Zone and the Eastern Siberian Wedge (Based on Comparat A Bronze Age Shaft-Hole Axe from the Northwestern Baraba Forest-Steppe Bioarchaeology of Childhood in the Yamnaya Culture, Based on Kurgan 1 at Boldyrevo-4, the Southern U A Functional Analysis of Lithics of the Early Iron Age Yankovsky Culture: New Findings Burial of the Pazyryk Elite Members at Khankarinsky Dol, Northwestern Altai Analysis and Museumization of a Wooden Burial Structure from Pazyryk Kurgan 5, the Altai Mountains: Decorative Belts of Xianbei Period Nomads from Karban I, Northern Altai Occupation Layer at the Kushman Cluster of Sites (9th–13th Centuries) According to Multispectral Ima Philip Johan Tabbert von Strahlenberg: An 18th Century Swedish Prisoner’s Research in Siberia Rocks in the Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Ob Ugrians The Kyrgyz Republic: Concept, Strategies, and Practices for the Preservation of the National Cultura Paleogenetic Studies of Migration Processes in Eurasia Porotic Hyperostosis Observed in the 16th to 19th Century Crania of Native Siberians, Russian Settle   

Bioarchaeology of Childhood in the Yamnaya Culture,
Based on Kurgan 1 at Boldyrevo-4, the Southern Urals

N.L. Morgunova¹, A.A. Faizullin¹, O.Y. Chechyotkina², and M.B. Mednikova²

¹Orenburg State Pedagogical University, Sovetskaya 19, Orenburg, 460014, Russia

²Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dm. Ulyanova 19, Moscow, 117292, Russia

Archaeological and anthropological data concerning two children’s burials representing the early horizon at Boldyrevo-4 kurgan 1, Orenburg Region, excavated in 2019-2020, are presented. Early mounds were covered by a huge kurgan above another, later burial of adults. The entire complex was built by the Yamnaya people at the turn of the early and middle stages of this culture, about 3300-3100 cal BC. Remains of three children, aged about 6, from two graves, were examined. Severe pathological conditions were discovered. The child from burial 3 died of metastatic cancer. Child 1 from burial 4, represented only by a cranium, possibly suffered from scurvy. The oncological condition may have been triggered by a long stay at a smoky hearth or proximity to a metalworking site, since the Yamnaya population of the Southern Urals was engaged in an intense exploitation of copper deposits. In both children’s burials, common elements of the Yamnaya funerary rite were accompanied by certain unusual features. Vessels were similar in form and decoration, but different in manufacturing technique. The organic substances of which the mats under the skeletons were made display certain differences. These features suggest that children belonged to related but separate groups. Children buried under early mounds apparently had a special inherited social status that had an effect on the further construction of the kurgan for members of the elite.

Keywords: Yamnaya culture, elite kurgan, children’s burials, Southern Urals, paleopathology, pediatric oncology