What Are the Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Underbarrow Mudbrick Enclosures of the Lower Volga Region?

Abstract

This article explores the underbarrow [podkurgan] mudbrick enclosures that comprise a numerically large group of burial structures from the time of the Golden Horde. They had previously been associated with nomads who had switched to a sedentary way of life and had been exposed to the influence of the sedentary population of Golden Horde cities. A detailed examination of this category of structures allows us to assert that earlier characterizations were often erroneous. These constructions are in no way associated with nomadic barrows, but are hillocks that suggest the outlines of ruined mudbrick edifices. Juxtaposing various types of “enclosures” with the layout of mausoleums leads to the conclusion that they are mudbrick mausoleums, situated in necropolises on the outskirts of cities and on the steppes.