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Archive » The Volga River Region Archaeology Vol.4 (6) 2013
On the issue of reconstruction a social structure of the population, which left the Selicsa-Trofimovsky (Ancient Mordovian) burial ground of the IV–V centuries
Grishakov V.V., Davydov S.D.
page 96–106UDC 393.05.1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24852/pa2013.4.6.96.106
The article is devoted to the problem of reconstruction of the social structure of the ancient Monrovian population that had established the 4
th –5
th-century Seliksa-Trofimovka burial ground in the Upper Sura river region. The materials of the male burials of the necropolis have been chosen for analysis as most socially informative. An attempt has been made to determine the relationship between the social status of the individual and its expression in ritual rites. The differences in the composition and quantity of grave goods made it possible to distinguish three groups of burials conventionally termed as “the poor”, “the ordinary” and “the warriors.” The latter group included three graves with swords. The necropolis has a row-based order layout; all the burials are on the ground level, with no traces of gravestones, and have the same northeast orientation. The property-based stratification in the analyzed community was apparently insignificant, while social stratification depended primarily on professional activities.
Keywords
the Middle Volga river regionthe Upper Sura riverthe Early Middle Agesthe ancient Mordovian burial groundburial ritegrave goods assemblagesocial informative charactersocial stratificationmale burialsprofessional and ranking affiliation
About the author(s)
Grishakov Valeriy V. Candidate of Historical Sciences, Docent. Mordovia State Pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevev. Studencheskaya, 11 А, Saransk, 430000, the Republic of Mordovia, Russian Federation; vvg815@yandex.ru
Davydov Sergey D. Research Institute for Humanities attached to Government of Mordovia Republic. Leo Tolstoy St., 3, Saransk, 430005, Russian Federation; ser.d88@yandex.ru