A Chalcolithic Burial in the Mountain-Forest Zone of the Trans-Urals

Abstract

We describe an unusual burial at a stratifi ed Chalcolithic site Shaitanskoye 4-6 on the coast of the eponymous lake in the Sverdlovsk Region. An individual, aged 18–35 was buried in an oval fl at-grave pit, 1.6 × 0.56 × 0.2 m in size. We give a detailed description of sixty funerary items, made of stone: three unusually large knives manufactured on thin chert plates (the nearest outcrops are found in Northern Kazakhstan and Southern Urals); a projectile head, 19 arrowheads, 18 fl int bladelets from a side-bladed tool, a polished axe-adze, a composite tool on a blade, two plates with use-wear traces, and 15 beads. Notably, some of the artifacts are made of “southern” rocks. The results of the isotope analysis indicate considerable mobility and close ties between populations of the forest and steppe Trans- Urals in the 4th and 3d millennia BC. The Chalcolithic site, which, apart from the burial, includes habitation deposits with numerous artifacts such as ceramics of various types, lithics including a large series of arrowheads and several fl int fi gurines, can be viewed as a complex archaeological object where, among other activities, rites were performed securing group consolidation.