FUNERAL RITE AS A SOURCE OF STUDYING IDEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF THE POPULATION OF DAGESTAN OF THE ERA OF THE MIDDLE BRONZE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of burial rites of the Middle Bronze Age - the most important source for the study of the ideological ideas of the population of Dagestan. The funeral rite is an important ethnographic feature and a conservative element of archaeological culture. Along with the inventory, it is considered a reliable base for identifying the characteristics of a culture, its chronology and boundaries. The aim of this work is to study the burial rite of the population of Dagestan of the Middle Bronze Age based on the analysis of burial monuments, the study of which allows us to identify various religious ideas and rituals of the cult character of the local population. Fundamental shifts in the development of the culture of Dagestan at the turn of the Early and Middle Bronze Age led to the cultural transformation of the region and caused changes in the ideological perceptions of the local population, which was reflected in the funeral rites. This led to an increase in ethnic diversity, mobility of the population, the spread of the burial rite, cromlechs around burial structures, the appearance of burials in log cabins and with carts, the use of ocher, pebble, tree and reed bedding in the funeral rite, etc. All these facts testify to the great diversity of the funeral rite.These events are associated with the significant influence of the steppe tribes on the culture and ideological ideas of local tribes. A comprehensive study of burial structures and rituals of the population of Dagestan in the Middle Bronze Age made it possible to highlight many problems associated with ideological ideas and social organization of society, ethnocultural contacts of the local population with neighboring tribes. The study of the materials of burial monuments made it possible to form an idea of ​​the spiritual culture of the population of the region under consideration: to reveal that the population of Dagestan in the Middle Bronze Age had complex and varied beliefs, among which ideas about the "soul", "afterlife", magical, protective techniques, cults of animals, nature and other cosmological representations, etc.