Scientists from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, while excavating one of the mounds in the Republic of Khakassia, discovered the burial of a woman with a set of bronze jewelry from the Late Bronze Age, according to a message posted on the Institute's website on Monday.
Archaeologists, in the framework of research excavations at one of the mounds of the Sagai glade in the Askiz region of the republic, discovered a shallow grave pit with a woman's burial and valuable bronze decorations under the rock debris. Scientists suggested that the woman was respected in society, because she was accompanied by objects valuable for that period that performed not only aesthetic, but also semantic functions.
"An undisturbed burial of the Late Bronze Age was discovered in the fence, attached to the main stone structure of the mound on the west side. The burial dates back to the Kamennoi (or Lugava) stage of the Karasuk culture and is included in the chronological framework of the X-VIII centuries BC," the message says. …
Near the woman's skull, metal elements of the head decoration were found: two triangular plates decorated with small protuberances, and large temporal rings, located three on each side of the skull. Archaeologists also found an open bronze bracelet covered with large convex pearls at the ends, bronze cast rings, and a cast plate decorated with pearls, similar in shape and size to those noted on the bracelet. All decorations were made in a single artistic style, reflecting the aesthetic tastes of the inhabitants of the Minusinsk Basin located in Khakassia at the late stage of the Bronze Age.
The preservation of the bones of the woman's skeleton is poor, but most of them are located in anatomical order, and the skull is also significantly damaged. In addition to the decorations, the skeleton of a large-horned animal was also found in the burial, together with a broken blade of a bronze knife, as well as an ornamented ceramic vessel decomposed into several fragments.
Khakassia is famous for its numerous monuments from different eras and peoples. There are about 30 thousand monuments of ancient history, artifacts of the culture of the copper, bronze, iron ages were found. Burial mounds, ancient burials of the Tagar, Tashtyp cultures, the Hunnu kaganate, the state of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, the empire of Genghis Khan can be found throughout the republic.