Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (1) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.146-153

Annotation:  Findings from the Paleolithic Studies in Siberia The Earliest Paleolithic Assemblages from Denisova Cave in the Altai Upper Paleolithic of the Yenisey: New Discoveries, Old Debates Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis The Most Important Archaeological Discoveries Relating to the Neolithic to Early Iron Age Cultures o Possibilities of Direct Dating of Rock Art in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin On the Chronological Position of Siba Culture Metal Artifacts, Northwest China The Current Model of Historical and Cultural Processes in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the Ob-Irtysh The Pazyryk Dwelling D.G. Messerschmidt’s Collection of Siberian Antiquities in Drawings at the St. Petersburg Archive of The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin A Study of Silk Fabric from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Origin and Evolution of the Earliest Iron-Smelting Technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin “D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups” Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–   

Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices
of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–14th Centuries

A.V. Kharinsky

Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Lermontova 83, Irkutsk, 664074, Russia

Irkutsk State University, Karla Marksa 1, Irkutsk, 664003, Russia

In the 13th and 14th centuries, there was a custom of placing parts of a ram/sheep carcass in the grave as an offering in the Baikal region. Materials from three areas, which were then parts of the Mongol Empire, are described: southeastern Trans-Baikal, northern Khovsgol, and southern Angara. Graves are described with a focus on sheep bones, their composition, and location in the grave. In the southern Trans-Baikal, the shank was usually placed near the buried person's head. Scapulae and vertebrae are much less frequent than shank bones. The latter are most often found under the human pelvic bones or under the upper femur. In the Khovsgol area, a ram’s shank was placed near the deceased person's arm or leg. On the Angara, a ram’s head—or the entire dorsal part—was placed near the deceased’s legs. In the Sayantui type burials, located south of Lake Baikal and representing the Mongols 'funerary tradition of the imperial period, the most common offering was a ram’s shank, placed upright. Elsewhere in the Baikal region, other ways of arranging parts of a ram carcass are observed, apparently because of the absence of the Mongol population and its elite in those areas.

Keywords: Mongol Empire, Baikal region, Sayantui funerary rite, ram bones, shank bones, vertebrae