Children’s burials with jewelry in the andronovsky (fedorovsky) necropoles of the steppe and forest-steppe Altay

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of children’s burials containing jewelry of the Andronov (Fedorov) culture of the steppe and forest-steppe Altai. For the study, materials from the four largest burial grounds in the region were selected, for which anthropological determinations were also made.

As a result, it was found that children’s burials rarely contain jewelry. They could accompany children from birth, but are much more common in the burials of children over three years old. There are both typically “female” and “male” jewelry, the category of “children’s” and “teenage” jewelry is also distinguished. The most common categories of jewelry (for the territory of Altai) are ring-shaped (tubular) bimetallic earrings, as well as wire bronze ring-shaped earrings. In addition to the presence of decorations, some burials were distinguished from the general mass by other features, such as depth, intra-grave structures, ornamentation of vessels, etc. Most of the children’s burials with jewelry were located next to the burials of adults, which also contained jewelry.

The interpretation of such burials is an open question. Jewelry could serve as amulets for children, they could be placed in children’s burials as offerings to higher powers, for children of the second age group, they could also be part of a costume.