New Data on Armed Conflicts in the Altai During the Rouran Period: The Choburak I Cemetery

Abstract

This study focuses on a burial at a Rouran period cemetery, Choburak I, in the Chemalsky District, Republic of Altai, where altogether twelve burials were excavated by an expedition from the Altai State University. In kurgan 34a, a burial of a 30–35-year-old male with a horse was excavated. The burial goods included weapons, items of horse harness, utensils and domestic artifacts. The head of the buried individual had been replaced by the cranium of a ram, and certain postcranial bones revealed multiple injuries inflicted by a cutting weapon. The burial is attributed to the Dàlián tradition, associated with the Bulan-Koba culture. The analysis of the burial goods and a radiocarbon estimate suggest that the burial dates to the middle or second half of the 4th century AD. Injuries testify to armed conflicts, in which males had taken part, and support the belief that violence in the Altai was high during the Rouran period. The case is interpreted as one of decapitation. Given the parallels in adjacent regions, is can be hypothesized that the head of a ram had been used as a basis for a mask. Apparently, this peculiar custom was associated with the ritual in which the missing bodily part was replaced in specific cases of violent death.