BURIALS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE ERA IN THE NORTHWEST OF STAVROPOL GOVERNORATE (RANDOM FINDS AND EXCAVATION MATERIALS OF THE LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Abstract

The paper publishes information about burials of the Golden Horde era (random finds and excavation materials) obtained in the northwestern territories of Stavropol Governorate at the end of the 19th century. Goals. The study aimsto to summarize information about artifacts of the Golden Horde era discovered in the territories of Medvezhensky Uyezd and Bolshederbetovsky Ulus of Stavropol Governorate at the end of the 19th century. To facilitate this, the study shall examine random finds in the given territory and a late nomadic burial site, which was investigated by S. A. Solovyov in 1899 in the vicinity of the village of Letnitskoye, as well as identify their cultural and historical attribution. Materials. Archaeological material compiled from a number of random finds and burial inventory from the vicinity of the village of Letnitskoye consists of items made of iron, bronze, silver and glass dating back to the Golden Horde era. The funeral inventory consists of remnants of defensive armor (shell and helmet) and offensive weapons (spear and bow), objects of Golden Horde toreutics, bronze mirrors and jewelry. Results. Among the random finds, a fragmented helmet with an open-type camail stands out, which has broad analogies in the monuments of the 7th–13th centuries. The burial, examined by S. A. Solovyov in 1899 in the vicinity of the village of Letnitskoye, was located in a barrow of the Middle Bronze Age. A woman was probably buried in a simple pit oriented in the eastern direction. This type of funeral rite has analogies in the Golden Horde monuments of the Volga-Don steppes and Central Ciscaucasia. The bronze mirror depicting two human figures («sages») and two dragons is a replica of Chinese mirrors and has analogies in the monuments of the Lower Volga region. Such mirrors date back to the middle of the 13th – 14th centuries. The earring in the form of a question mark dates back to the middle of the 13th – early 14th centuries. The complexes analyzed in the paper characterize the culture of the nomads of the interfluve of the Western Manych, the Greater Egorlyk and the Middle Egorlyk in the middle of the 13th – early 14th centuries. They probably reflect the cultural ties of the local population with the urban centers of the Don region and the Lower Volga region.