Люди и собаки в одной могиле: жертвенно-погребальный комплекс из могильника Опушки в Крыму
Humans and Dogs in the Same Grave: A Sacrificial and Burial Complex of the Opushki Cemetery in the Crimea

Summary/Abstract: The excavations at the Late Scythian area of the Opushki cemetery with the complexes from the first century BC to the second century AD uncovered grave no. 326 containing several tiers of burials of four dogs, children, and a headless woman. Skeletons of some of the buried were partially articulated, and only skulls remained of two children’s burials. One of the dogs laid on the back, with the paws stretched out, the neck craned, and a top fragment of an amphora without the neck and handles placed on the head. By all appearance, the burials in this grave feature ritual nature. Although dogs’ burials, sometimes along with humans, are known in the Roman-Period sites in the Crimean foothill area, there are no analogous complexes to that from Opushki known so far. More or less similar and chronologically close burials have been documented in the Maeotean cemeteries. The latter are also typical of burials in tiers, collective burials of humans and dogs, and unusual poses of many bodies. With an equal degree of probability, this similarity could be explained as a result of the contacts between the populations of the two regions, or as a historical stage phenomenon reflecting religious beliefs of settled population reaching approximately the same level of social and economic development. From the location of the deceased and the parts of skeleton, especially the remains of beheaded woman, in the analyzed grave from the Opushki cemetery, there are reasons to suppose that the peoples of the Late Scythian culture practiced human sacrifices.

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