Specialists fr om the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS, under the direction of Evgeny Bogdanov, Candidate of Historical Sciences and NSU graduate, investigated the Kurayka burial ground of (II-V centuries AD) in the Kosh-Agach region of the Altai Republic. The group included student historians, who had practical experience on archeological digs.
Olga Novikova, the Head of the interns, Assistant Professor of the Department of Archeology and Ethnography, talked about the work, "Archaeologists have known about the Kurayka burial ground monument for a long time. Eugeny Bogdanov chose several different types of burial constructions to research. They are all visible on the surface in the form of stone masonry, fences and embankments. In total, we managed to unearth eight objects, and none of them is similar to any of the others".
According to the expedition members, the variety of the funeral rites was striking. Some of the dead were placed in a wooden frame fixed in the grave, others were lowered into the grave in a hollowed tree trunk, and a third way was to bury them in a wooden box that looks like a coffin. The exact position of the bodies of the dead and the funerary inventory have many similarities. It is possible that the burial ritual ceremony was determined by the age and status of the deceased.
Burial inventory was standard. Archaeologists discovered wooden saucers in the headboard, jewelry and fasteners in the form of large beads, single metal and bone products. Remains and traces of almost completely decayed organic materials tell scientists that the graves also contained clothes, shoes and hats.
It is interesting that one of the ends of the funeral logs bears traces of additional work and looks like the bow of the boat. Similar to the boat was the wood block in which the child was buried. The archaeologists noted that the boat is a symbol of the transition to the afterlife. This attribute of the funeral rites from ancient times is found among different peoples of Eurasia. Since ancient times the burial rite in a boat has a symbolic meaning. Different peoples in different epochs buried their dead in boats and launched them along the river, burned or buried them in symbolic boats, and lay them with their feet to the bow of the ship. Those buried in the Kurayka deck-boats were placed in the same way. But wh ere did the ancient nomad cattlemen get this funeral rite? Using materials from the Kurayka burial ground, archaeologists, with the help of geneticists and anthropologists, hope to find an answer to this question in the future.
Novikova talked about the contribution from NSU students to the work of archaeologists,
"The interns mastered all types and stages of work from the breakdown of the excavation to its reclamation. However, when it comes to cleaning the graves, that is not for everyone, that work requires certain skills. In addition, grave pits are deep and narrow so a maximum of two people can work at a burial site. There were extreme cases: one of the children was buried in a wooden deck that had to be lifted and cleaned on the surface; there was no other way to do it. In addition to the excavation work itself, the students learned how to work with a theodolite, saw how the objects were photographed with a quadrocopter, how field conservation of the finds is done, and how samples are taken for dendrochronological analysis. It's nice that so many young people are interested in archeology. Let's hope that in the autumn new students will come to our Department".