Faunal remains from the burials of the 2nd-1st millennia BC in Tuva: Main results and perspectives of the study (based on the materials excavated by the Tuva Archaeological Expedition of IHMC RAS in 2010- 2018)

Abstract

he article deals with faunal remains from the Late Bronze — Early Iron Age buri- als of Tuva (from the middle of the 2nd to the end of the 1st mil. BC.) obtained in the course of archaeological excavations con- ducted by the Tuva Expedition of IHMK RAS in 2010–2018. The authors analize both scat- tered bone fragments of various animals and intact skeletons or skeletal parts found in situ in burial contexts. In some cases these bones seem to represent leftovers of funeral food, whereas in other cases the animals might have been buried to serve as livestock in the “other world”. Some of the burials contain accumulations of sheep and goat skulls be- longing to all the main age and sex groups: newborn, young and old animals, males and females. These accumulations are thought to symbolize the herds. One of the promising ways for extracting cultural information from osteological collections is associated with the possibility to determine the seasonali- ty of funerals based on the age of young an- imals whose bones were found in burial con- texts. This method has been extensively used by the authors and produced interesting re- sults which are discussed in the inal section of the paper.