Ozek-Suat – 5 Mound Grave Field: Excavating One Late Nomadic Burial in the Lower Kuma

Abstract

Introduction. The article presents the results of 2012 excavations of a late nomadic burial in Kurgan 1 at Ozek-Suat – 5 mound grave field in Neftekumsky District (Stavropol Krai, Russia). Goals. The paper publishes the archaeological materials from the specified site in the Lower Kuma excavated in 2012. So, the work shall describe and characterize the investigated late nomadic complex, specify its culture and historical attribution. Materials. Archaeological materials from the burial include items made of iron, bronze and bone from the Golden Horde era. The grave goods comprised elements of a composite bow, a wooden (birch bark) quiver with unornamented bone overlays, bone loops to fix a quiver and a bow case, arrowheads, an iron saber and an iron knife, two bell buttons and a piece of chalk. Results. Burial 1 was the main and only one in Kurgan 1. It was made in a grave pit with an alcove in its southern wall, the human body and a stuffed horse oriented westwards. This burial pattern has analogies in the Golden Horde sites of the Don Region and the Volga-Don steppes. However, the asymmetric composite bow from the burial is unique enough for Ciscaucasia and the specified territories. Similar items have been discovered at pre-Mongol sites in South Siberia where this bow type had preceded the ‘Mongol’ one. The South Siberian nomads could have delivered it to Ciscaucasia during conquest campaigns. The site in the Lower Kuma dates to the mid-thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.