WOODEN CONSTRUCTIONS IN THE BARROWS OF THE RAIKY CULTURE: GENESIS, ANALOGIES, SEMANTICS

Abstract

Wooden constructions of various types were found in the barrow cremation burials of the Raiky culture of the 8th—10th centuries. People of this culture were the Slavic tribes of the Right Bank of the Dnieper, Volynia, and Dniester River regions. The burnt rectangular constructions made of horizontal logs (Mezhyrichky, Velyka Horbasha and Radastst in Polesie) were the most widespread. Burial chambers from the Don River basin (Borshevo culture) or Transylvania are usually cited as parallels. However, in terms of typology, wooden constructions spread over the territory of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and East Germany are much closer. They are considered as models of residential buildings — «houses of the dead». Circular fences made of burnt pillars are less common (Holovne and Mylanovichi in Volynia). It is believed that they were supposed to separate the World of the Living from the World of the Dead. Most of the barrows from the Chornivka (Bukovina) and Dobrostany (Roztocze) cemeteries had the pillar holes on the periphery. This element which has usually been overlooked by researchers is also widely known in West Slavic lands: modern Czech archaeologists even consider the burials of this type to be dominated in the territory of Bohemia. It is believed that burial urns were placed on the pillars because around them on the surface of the mound the burnt bones and fragments of ceramics were often recorded. Thus, the words of the Old Rus chronicler who described the burial of pagan Slavs «on a pillar by the roads» should be understood quite literally. The recording of such burials during archaeological excavations causes understandable difficulties. In general, in the area of the Raiky culture, there can be counted at least one and a half dozen mound burials with the remains of wooden structures. The homogeneity of constructions demonstrates the common worldviews that were widespread in the 8th—10th centuries among the Slavs from the Elba to the Dnieper.