Duana's Burial Ground on Ustyurt of the 3rd–4th Centuries A.D. (According to the Archaeological and Anthropological Data)

In the 1980s and 1990s, many cemeteries of early nomads on the territory of Ustyurt were studied under the supervision of Vladimir N. Yagodin. One of the most representative and interesting is the Duana cemetery on the Eastern cliff of Ustyurt. It has nine groups of burial monuments. The study of objects made it possible to identify two main types of burial complexes. The analysis of burial structures, implements and burial traditions, which is presented in both types of structures, allows to identify analogies and to make some suggestions about the processes which took place in the region. Thus, the burial structures of the first type of monuments make it possible to reveal and indicate the activation of connections between the population of the steppe and forest-steppe zones of the Volga-Ural and the Lower Volga regions towards the south. This direction of relations is located on the ancient nomadic routes that lead to the borders of the ancient Eastern civilizations of Khorezm and Parthia. The second type of monuments is associated with the monuments of Djetyasar culture, which population bends around the Aral Sea from the northern side, and then moves to the south along the Eastern cliff of Ustyurt up to the borders of late Ancient Khorezm. An anthropological analysis of the available craniological series shows a mechanical mix of different populations. The tradition of the ring-type skull deformation is associated by its origin with the population, which brought it from the territories of the Aral region and the Ural River basin. All the data obtained are an important source for understanding the processes in the territory of the spread of the nomadic population of the late Sarmatian period.

Перевод пока недоступен