Pages: 267-279

This paper compares the results of anthropological research and information about the burial of horses in the burial grounds of the Sambian-Natangian civilisation (Dolkeim-Kovrovo culture). The inclusion of anthropological analysis data from the cemeteries of Mitino and Zaostrovye-1 shows that for the Merovingian period and the beginning of the Viking period, the connection of horse burials exclusively with male graves is not certain. Horse burials are accompanied here by male, female and children’s burials. Presence of a horse in the burials of Sambian-Natangian culture was undoubtedly a social marker, and Roman period was associated primarily with military funerary rituals. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the custom of burying a horse was “democratized” and widely used. However, presence of horses in burials continues to play the role of a social indicator, but now it is not the presence of the horse that is indicative, but their number.

Keywords: Southern Baltia, early Middle Ages, Sambian-Natangian culture, horse burials, anthropological data, gender indicator, social indicator

Information about authors:


Michel Kazanski (Paris, France). Doctor Habilitat on Archaeology. National Center for Scientific Research, UMR–8167 “East and Mediterranean”. Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 52, Paris, 75005, France.
E-mail: [email protected]
Anna Mastykova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117292, Russian Federation.
E-mail: [email protected]