Pages: 521-546

The excavation process of a unique medieval burial containing mercury in one of the kurgans of the Shumaevo burial ground was conducted with a number of methodologial and analytical errors, that resulted in an incorrect attribution of the complex to the period of the Golden Horde. “Technical details” that were taken for granted without any critical examination were reproduced in a number of publications and engendered a number of invalid conclusions regarding the origin, social station and spiritual habits of the Shumaevo warrior. New data obtained from studying textiles from the burial indicate the mistaken dating of the burial and the premature nature of the conclusions regarding the complex’s connection with the political and cultural history of the Mongols. The burial was made by the early medieval nomads that were dominant in Central Asia long before the arrival of the Mongols.

Keywords: Central Asia, Mongol Empire, Golden Horde, medieval nomads, Shumaevo cemetery, burial with mercury, archaeological textiles, defleshing, radiocarbon analysis, embalming, funerary rite

Information about author:

Zvezdana Dode. Doctor of Historical Sciences. Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.  Chekhov St., 41, Rostov on Don, 344006, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]