Passions for Children or an Etude on the Supreme Third

Abstract

The article considers a few burial sites with numerous chindren’s graves of the Early Eneolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age (the fifth and fourth millennia BC) in the North-West Black Sea region (cemeteries at Giurgiulești, Koshary, Vykhvatintsy and Bursuceni). Analysis of the burial rite and distribution of grave goods allows us to discern some ternary structures which could exemplify certain principles in the organization of prehistoric societies and institutions of social power. It is suggested that young children could be treated in a ritual as sacred victims whereas burial sites themselves could partially or completely function as sacrificial places. Archaeological parallels for such triple structures can be also traced outside the region in question. The ritual ternary compounds uncovered at archaeological sites are compared with threefold structures and motives evidenced within different mythological traditions. An inference is drawn that triple social models have no universal character and can emerge and disappear depending on specific historic situations.