Rohachyk Horizon in Steppe Funeral Traditions

Abstract

Discussed is a series of burials (taking into account the stratigraphic position and ritual features), dishes of which tend to the middle layer at Mykhaylivka. These funeral monuments cover the territory between the Dnipro and Southern Buh Rivers, as well as the steppe Crimea. The absolute majority of dishes from these sites are samples with a round bottom. Stratigraphic position of these graves has allowed the author to add the burials without utensils to them. Primarily, it is about burials which were part of small cemeteries with single mound, or those which demonstrate ritual similarities. Funeral ceremony was not monotonous. It is only the orientation which was constant: most of graves are oriented to the east. Such burials usually formed a large burial mounds arising on the principle of burial grounds and eventually were closed by a general mound. Central burials predominated there, other situated on the periphery, sometimes exceeding the bounds of a common embankment. The embankment’s height reached 0,8—1,6 m and the diameter was up to 10—15 m. The burials were often made in the pits of quadrangular plan shape with rounded corners, although there are also oval pits, particularly, made for stretched graves. Only two cemeteries had a permanent funeral ritual. Other ones are diverse, for instance with a combination of various poses of the dead: extended, crouched, and crumpled on the back bodies. Ochre for strewing corpses and graves was used limitedly. Such usage of ochre in the funeral ceremony indemnified for products made of it. There are few traces of animals used in the funeral ceremony. Dishes are various with domination of round-bottomed ones with spherical or elongated proportions, with a high neck and shoulders retreating without ornamentation. There are metal objects in the graves. They are usually small adornments. Flint flakes are sometimes found. In general, burial ceremony of the Late Copper Age Steppe population presents the multiplicity, while the early Yamna culture population, on the contrary, shows the ritual unity. This fact led to the appeal to the stratigraphy of barrows. It allowed the author to ascertain that the selected burials (Rohachyk horizont) occupy a stratigraphic position between the oldest Copper Age burials and the ones of Yamna culture.