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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2021.12.5.010
LATE MEDIEVAL MONUMENTS IN THE MATSUTA GLADE OF THE DIGOR GORGE
Volnaya (Kertseva), Galina N.
Kavkaz Forum. 2021. Issue 5.
Abstract:
The material culture of the late middle ages of the Digor gorge in North
Ossetia is not well studied in comparison with other periods. The article presents
for the first time a complex of archaeological monuments located in The Matsuta
Glade of the Digor gorge: monuments, their location, and history of study. The
purpose of the study is to consider the Matsuta Glade as a funerary and cult
complex, where there are late medieval semi-underground crypts, stone boxes,
menhirs, tsyrts, «nartovsky» Nykhas, settlements of the Koban and Alan periods.
These monuments are revered by the local population, mentioned in the Nart epic.
The article uses field research methods, the method of analysis and analogies.
The article presents the author’s material of rescue excavations in 2020 of
the «Ground burial ground of Matsuta I, middle ages» of the XVI‑XVIII centuries in
the area of the project «Construction of a paramedic and midwifery station in the
village of Matsuta». The burial ground is a burial in stone boxes. In total, 75 boxes
were excavated, in which the deceased lay stretched out on their backs with their
heads facing West with latitude deviations. Some early burials are accompanied
by a cremation ceremony. The funeral rite finds analogies in the mountainous
Balkaria. The funeral rite is characterized by the absence of ceramic dishes in the
burials.
A funeral feast with cremation and a large amount of fragmented pottery,
most likely of local production, was built over the early burials of the burial ground.
The grave goods are rather poor and typical for mountain Caucasian culture of
the late middle ages. In adult burials found clothes, shoes, belts, headwear, belts;
women’s jewelry; the men’s knives, whetstones. In most children’s burials, only
chicken eggs are found to the left of the head, or there is no burial equipment at
all. Children’s funerals account for almost 50 % of the total number of excavated
graves.
Keywords: the Digor gorge is to the later middle ages monuments
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