THE ENTOMBMENTS OF THE 2ND HALF OF 12TH – THE 1ST HALF OF 13TH CENTURY NEAR THE CAVES MONASTERY IN BAKOTA

Abstract

The article deals with the results of protective archaeological studies near the Rocks-Caves Monastery in Bakota. In April 2017 members of architectural-archaeological expedition cleared up a double entombment of the women with the child and searched out a contour of the immersed building. These objects were placed in the section of the hill flank on the hiking trail between the wellsprings № 2 and № 3. The funerary implements, the buried woman pointing and her limbs position are typical for the Christian necropolises of the Middle Transnistrian Ancient Rus. Furthermore, the series of Ancient Russian entombments were examined on the South-Eastern outskirt of the monastery during previous years. There were some double entombments among them. It’s possible to conclude that the women with the child were buried in the 2nd half of 12th – the 1st half of 13th ct. on the base of the ceramic fragments in the funerary filling, wire-woven and similar with finger-ring temporal rings as well as of the cross worn next to the skin. The ruins, founded near the wellspring № 3 also belong to this period on the base of the fictile ware rims. Such anthropological methods as craniometry, cranioskopy, craniophenetic and osteometry were applied to the Ancient Russian entombments from Bakota for the 1st time. According to craniological data the well preserved skull belonged to the women of 20–30 years, its cranial index is mesocranic. The face is mesognathic, its absolute width and absolute length are moderate, its superior facial index is mesen. The face is strongly profiled on the upper as well as on the middle level. The general facial index is mesoprosopic. The orbits are wide and moderately high, they have a moderate height according to the index (mesoconchy). The nose is moderately high and narrow its relatival width is leptorhynic. The nasal bridge is considered as high. The nasal projection angle is big. The skull as well as the skulls of Kyivan Polans belongs to the series of mesocranic craniological types with moderately wide faces according to the table of T. Rudych. Key words: entombment, Bakota, cave monastery, Christianity, repoussage, anthropology, craniology, osteometry.