The Early Nomads of South-West Ural Region in the 4th–3rd Centuries BC: Analysis of Women’s Burials with Weapons

Abstract

The paper examines women’s burials with weapons originating from the cemeteries of the South-West Ural region of the 4 th – 3 rd centuries BC. The main principles of the method developed by the authors to determine the utilitarian or ritual function of placing weapons in women’s burials are given. Synchronous male respective cemetery a group. Comparative analysis is carried out on the following grounds: a set of weapons is detected; typological analysis of weapon of fixation out. the graphic After processing the information from the control group, a comparative analysis is performed on all grounds with female burials. According the degree of se-miotics, two groups of weapons are of the three one – controversial. The utilitarian function includes 12 burials, the ritual – four. The combination of utilitarian and ritual functions was found in two complexes. The rate of women’s military burials of the total is 7.8 %. Of the 20 cemeteries, only four had military female burials. There could be two to five such complexes in one cemetery. Most of the women were already ma -ture, and some were elderly. Women took part in all tactics. Both women from the ordinary, poor strata, and from the richer – middle classes were involved in hostilities. However, no aristocratic burials were recorded. In addition to weapons, spinners, spikes and piercings were often recorded. Eleven of the twelve burials of female warriors were in mounds with many synchronous graves. This may indicate that female warriors existed mainly in large families or clans. In the case of a ritual function – the weapon is rep-resented by single copies.