The Buried Kurgan 23a of the Filippovka 1 Necropolis and the Chronological Relationship of the Sauromatian and Early Sarmatian Antiquities of the Southern Urals

The analysis of the lateral burial (No. 2) of the kurgan No. 23 of the Filippovka 1 necropolis (Russia, Orenburg region, the watershed of the Ural and Ilek rivers), investigated in 1990 by the expedition of the Bashkir branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of A.H. Pshenichnyuk, is presented. Based on planigraphy and stratigraphy data analysis, as well as through the use of archival photographs, it is shown that a small earthen kurgan (No. 23a), built several years earlier, was blocked by this kurgan. Judging by the ritual characteristics and the presence of a flat-bottomed vessel with a grooved spout-drain, the only burial of this kurgan can be called “late-Sauromatian” or syncretic “Sauromatian-Early-Sarmatian”, more characteristic of the westernmost part of the Southern Urals. The individual buried in this grave was laid in the “horseman’s pose” and oriented with his head to the southeast. In the relatively late kurgan No. 23, traditions characteristic of the early stage of the Prokhorov culture are recorded (dromos and catacomb burials, burnt wooden tent-shaped structure). The data obtained show that the substrate (“Sauromatian”) and superstrate (“Early Prokhorovka”) traditions in the territory of the formation of a new culture coexisted with each other for a long time, including among the population who left the elite necropolis Filippovka 1. The buried kurgan No. 23a is a clear confirmation of this coexistence. The mechanical superimposition of “Early Prokhorovka” traditions on the necropolises of the previous, “Sauromatian” time and the genetic proximity of the bearers of new traditions indicate that their spread in the territory of the Southern Urals followed the line of gradual transformation of the ethnic complex of funeral rites into a prestigious supra-ethnic one.