КОМПЛЕКСНЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ОДИНОЧНОГО КУРГАНА МАЙЛЫБАЙ-2 (БАШКИРСКОЕ ЗАУРАЛЬЕ)

Abstract

The article outlines results of an interdisciplinary study on the Maylybay-2 single kurgan located in the mountain-steppe zone of the Irendyk ridge, the most eastern ridge of the Ural Mountains (Russia, Republic of Bashkortostan, Baimaksky District). The kurgan was a ruined stone structure — a hollow crypt type (mausoleum), close to a square shape. The grave represented a deep oval pit containing one burial. 25–35 years old female skeleton was found in the extended supine position. There are indications that the body was swaddled, legs were tied. Based on the scarce accompanying grave goods (beads, bracelets, spindle whorl, clay vessels), the burial can be dated to the second half of the 4th century BC and attributed to the Mugodzhar group of the Southern Ural nomads of the Sauromato-Sarmatian period. The Maylybay female skull is characterized as Caucasian, with a combination of very large diameters of the neurocranium and frontal breadth, and very high nasal bones. Comparison with a number of Scythian-time cranial samples using Heincke’s method revealed proximity of the studied cranium both with the early nomads of Western Kazakhstan and the Volga-Ural region on the one hand and with the Tasmola, Pazyryk and Uyuk-Sagly samples on the other. A “clustered pits” lesion on the frontal bone, qualified on the basis of macroscopic examination as a benign neoplasm (possible meningioma), is discussed separately. The observations made on the Maylybay-2 kurgan point to its extraordinariness, not only in the physical condition of the buried female, but also in the spatial localization of the kurgan, the funeral rite features and grave goods. There are indications that this was a female-sham burial.