Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the way of death
11.3 (Right) Kurgan 2 from the Seven Brothers cemetery excavated
1875–8. The excavation plan shows the burial chamber of the deceased
separated from that in which his horses were buried.
11.4 (Bottom right) Kurgan 3 at Rjadovye is typical of the catacomb
structure of burial in which a shaft is first sunk and from the bottom
tunnels are dug, opening out into chambers for the burials.
bers or of sloping beams meeting at an apex. Sometimes
there were internal timber supports. The chambers were
entered by means of sloping ramps which were sometimes
timber lined and partly roofed. But there was
much variety in construction. In the case of the Seven
Brothers burials in the Kuban some chambers were
lined with stone walls which had been plastered inside,
with roofs of horizontal logs; others were built of mud
bricks with vaulted roofs of the same material. Beyond
the confines of the Pontic steppe, across Kazakhstan and
to the Altai–Sayan, the timber-lined rectangular chamber
is the norm, though they are usually quite modest
in size compared with the elaborate constructions of
the Pontic region. Other types of construction are also
recorded. In some cases the chambers were built on the
ground surface rather than set within a pit.
From the fourth century onwards a rather different
style was adopted, probably as the result of Sauromatian
influences. It consisted of an access shaft with an
entrance passage leading from the bottom to a burial
chamber or chambers hollowed out of the bedrock. The
shaft is a consistent element but there is much variety
in the number and arrangement of the chambers. Once
the burials and the grave goods had been laid out, the
shaft was filled and the mound built over it. If, for any
reason, access was required again a new shaft had to be
dug and a tunnel driven from it to the original grave. In
some cases new shafts were later dug towards the edge
of the mound to allow new burial chambers to be constructed.
This catacomb style of grave became popular
in the fourth century and was universally adopted for
B
A
chamber
11.4
RJADOVYE 3
B
shaft
A
chamber
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