THE UCH-BASH BURIAL GROUND: LOCALIZATION, ORDER, DATING, FUNERARY AND COMMEMORATION CUSTOM

Abstract

The Uch-Bash burial ground in Southwestern Crimea is a site of the Kyzyl-Koba culture which is attributed to the Tauri mentioned in ancient Greek written sources. Excavations of the burial ground took place in the early 1950s. The site was unpublished and this fact has caused confusion in its localization, dating, and attribution of other sites of the Kyzyl-Koba culture. The Uch-Bash burial ground of the Kyzyl-Koba culture and some conclusions based on analysis of the data are published in the paper. The Uch-Bash burial ground is located on the northern terrace of Sapun-gora Mountain above Chortovaya Balka, opposite the plateau of Chortove Horodyshche, where the fortified settlement of Uch-Bash is located. Row graves of stone cist in enclosures appeared in Crimea with the beginning of the Taurian period of the Kyzyl-Koba culture and, together with the pottery set, mark the change of population in the region. This change ought to be dated to the second half of the 8th — early 7 th century BC. Uch-Bash is a row burial ground, located on the uppermost terrace of the Crimean cuesta before the top. The rows of graves are oriented latitudinal, sometimes have deviations, and consist of stone cists in enclosures. The stone cists are ordered on an ancient surface, oriented longitudinal, sometimes with deviations. The rows of stone cists were covered with stone piles, probably formed by funeral custom. The grave in the stone cist served as a family tomb, the deceased were laid down on their right side with their heads directed to the south, facing east. A funeral stone was installed opposite the head in the fence of the cist. In the area of the head, probably behind the parietal part, a personal drinking vessel was placed, probably with some drink or liquid. The burial ground belongs to the new people in the Crimea. They are associated with a change in the historical situation in the region, the movement of early Scythian (Cimmerian) tribes through the Caucasus, which caused the movement of the population north through the Caucasus and further advancement to the Crimean foothills. Constant in similar sites is one of the types of pottery that unites not only the burial ground with settlements, but is also common to the Northern Caucasus and northern Asia Minor. These are the bowls of type 20 and scoops of type 21, typical of the V horizon of Uch-Bash. Analogies in the ceramic complex are also accompanied by the new type of burial grounds of Uch-Bash type, which were previously unknown neither in the Crimea, nor in the Balkans, nor in the Dnipro or Azov regions. In archaeological cultures south Caucasus, in northern Asia Minor in the period preceding the Middle Eastern campaigns of nomads, as well as in the North Caucasus during the time of the campaigns, the tradition of burials in stone cists ordered on the surface becomes prevalent. This burial tradition, as well as the position of the deceased in the grave, may be the main feature of the people that settled at that time around the Black Sea in its eastern part to the north. One of the main criteria in the set of burial and funeral custom is the role of stones. At the same time, the similarity of the burial custom with the sites of the Final Bronze Age, for example, with the Shyroke burial ground in the appearance of sites of the Uch-Bash burial ground type in the Crimea remains at the level of comparisons. Without excluding the general trend in the origin of these traditions from the regions south of the Caucasus, it is worth considering not a one-time, but a wave-like movement of the population that was the bearer of these traditions to the Northern Pontic Region. The appearance of burial sites of the Uch-Bash burial ground type at the beginning of the Taurian period of the Kyzyl-Koba culture was associated with the next wave, which, unlike the time of the Final Bronze Age, spread to the Crimea not from the Central Caucasus, but bypassing Dağlıq Qarabağ and the Northern Caucasus.