Children’s Burial from Shatmantamak: Cultural Traditions between Radiocarbon and Archaeological Chronology

Abstract

The author analyzes sources from the inlet child burial in Mound 1 of the Shatmantamak I burial ground. It is located in the northern steppe of the Southern Urals (today’s Miyakinsky District of Bashkortostan, Russia), within Bugulminskaya-Belebeevskaya Upland. It is shown that this burial belongs to the earlier stage of the Early Iron Age (late 9 th—8 th centuries BC). It was the time when a bright and recognizable “nomadic complex” was spreading across the Eurasian steppe from east to west. This one and closely related burials used to be previously regarded as part of the transitional period from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. The early nomadic epoch in the Southern Urals is also marked by finds of Karasuk bronze daggers and knives.