Pages: 271-281 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp242271281 

The paper publishes the results of a study by the method of tracology of postmortem trepanation found on the skull of a man from the burial of the Middle Don catacomb culture of the Bronze Age. The burial itself is an atypical reburial of bone remains, which is part of a large ancestral funeral and ritual complex built by the bearers of the tradition of roller ornamentation of ceramics and can be tentatively dated to the XXIII—XXII centuries BC. It was found that the holes were made in the occipital part with a tool with a grooved working blade, presumably to extract the brain. After that, the skull was probably dried, while retaining the shape of the head. 

Keywords: Upper Don region, kurgan, Middle Bronze Age, Catacomb culture, burial, trepanation

Information about authors:

Evgeny Girya (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-2037-9826
Andrey Zheludkov (Lipetsk, Russian Federation). Lipetsk Regional scientific public organization “Archaeological Research”. Square Communalnaya, 9, Of. 106, Lipetsk, 398059, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-1920-9106
Sergey Vasilyev (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, IEA RAS. Lenin Ave., 32-A, Moscow, 119334, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-0128-6568