Burial of a Warrior in the Pazyryk Mound at Khankharinsky Dol, Altai

Abstract

This article presents the findings of excavations of mound 46 at the Khankharinsky Dol cemetery on the left bank of the Inya River, 1–1.5 km southeast of the Chineta village in the Krasnoshchekovsky District of the Altai Territory (northwestern Altai). Inside the mound, there was a burial of a male, placed in a crouched position on his right side, with his head oriented toward the east. Along the northern wall of the grave, the burial of a horse was found, oriented in the same direction. The most interesting funerary items were an iron dagger, an iron pickaxe, and decorated belt plaques made of horn. Parts of a horse harness included iron ring bits, a horn girth buckle, and a block. Analysis of the funerary rite and artifacts allows us to attribute the mound to the Pazyryk culture, and tentatively date it to the late 5th to 4th centuries BC. The fact that the dagger and the pickaxe were real weapons rather than replicas, and that the horse was buried, suggests that the man was a professional warrior, possibly a high-ranking one. Another sign of this are the decorated horn belt plaques, known to be endowed with important socio-cultural meaning among the Central Asian nomads.