Post-funeral actions and their archaeological embodiment (on the materials of the Bronze Age sites in the Southern Ural)

Abstract

The work conceders the problems of the interpretation procedure of the disturbed burials study
on the example of the Bronze Age sites of the Southern Urals. The main emphasis is on the practice
of documenting the archaeological evidence and the need for the entire of the sequence of interpretation
stages. Case studies suggest that the interval between the end of the funeral ceremony and the
invasion was quite brief, and participants of the “robbery” were well aware of the grave construction.
Consequently, the “robbery” in some cases could be a part of ritual practice. Judging from the
ethnographical data, the relation to the dead could vary widely - the worship, fear, lack of respect.
Perhaps each of these options actualized at different stages of the funeral ceremony. Further studies
will clarify the dynamics of “robbery” motives. Maximum attention to the ancestors was paid in the
early chronological period, in the period of development of new territory and the formation of new
cultural traditions. Afterward there was a gradual decline in the number of these traces, and the custom
of penetration into the graves became more utilitarian.