(According to the materials of ritual burials in the Azov Sea littoral, the Crimea)

N.I. Vinokurov (Moscow)

Beginning from the remote past man supposed the world around him depended on some divine powers. To ensure the proper functioning of the universe they must be coaxed in some way. The whole nature, earth, waters, celestial luminaries, earthen plants and animals, and the people themselves depended directly on pleasing the gods with various gifts and proper feeding with sacrifices. Otherwise furious deities could have taken vengeance depriving the people of longevity, health and vitality; welfare and abundant grounds; good luck in war, hunting and fishing; fertility of fields and vineyards, domestic animals and poultry; and, finally, progeny and the sequel of lineage.

The sacrifices offered to the deities could be both bloodless (the first crops and fruit, baked bread, oil, honey, fermented milk products, incenses, beverages) and bloody that presupposed killing human beings or animals. Blood and violence were mysteriously present in the early ideas of the primitive pagan beliefs. The kind of the offering and the ritual performed were determined by the custom, the time, and the reason sacrifice was necessary for, and were observed in accordance with the oral or written religious regulations. In traditional religious practice it was limited to the attributes specially consecrated to the ceremony. In any case, offerings were aimed at temporal pleasing the deity, the hero, or the ancestor that was thought to be sated with its aroma. Man occupied the medial position during the sacrifice between the nether world – the kingdom of chtonic deities, and the upper one inhabited by the celestial gods, and served as a mediator. The more sacrifices were performed, the closer the ancient people felt to be to the deity. Such phenomena as mortal blow of sacrificial sword or axe – the key point of killing the offering, blood poured down and perceived as the vital essence of the offering, as well as the subsequent stages of the drama related to the offering dismemberment (or tearing to pieces), burning, and consuming constituted the fundamental elements of the idea of “sacred”. The described ceremonies were far from being limited to the piety, singing praises and incantations, and leading dances.

In the Mediterannean and the North Pontic zone human sacrifices were known beginning from the remote antiquity, at least since the periods of the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age. Numerous myths and archaeological finds give the impressive facts of ritual slaughtering human beings, and the important role they played in the religious life of many ancient peoples of the region. The echoes of the severe rituals have survived in the “genetic” memory of the people, even up to now. It was not an accident that any secret rituals conducted under the veil of religious beliefs were associated in the ordinary people conscience with sacrifices of infants and adults, pouring down their blood, and using it for mystical purposes. The scenes depicting tearing to pieces and dismemberment of people and animals, ritual feasts and processions portrayed on the vessels of the classical period, and some other pieces of figurative art mirror the mythological subjects and the real manipulations performed in the course of certain mysteries. The so-called lay figures discovered in the shrines and temples starting from the Minoan epoch often represent both mutilated and intact models of human extremities, torsos, and heads. They clearly remind the discussed cruel and bloody rites. Some of those figures could have been hanged or tied to some objects by special openings present on them, thus being used as the substitutes of real parts of human flesh during some actions that presupposed the state of ecstasy. It seems quite probable that not all the models in question should be interpreted as the evidence of praising for healing some diseased organ, or the sign of gratitude to those healed by the deity.

Judging from the indirect data preserved in the Dionysian cycle of myths, it may be supposed that the sacrificed humans were treated as animals. While performing sacrifice its participants made special stress not only on blood, but also on sacrificial meat, entrails, and especially on some internal organs, like heart and liver. The latter were the worshipped objects used in divinations. The offering was skinned, gall-bladder, grease and separate bones were extracted from it. Gall-bladder was dug in earth near the altar table. The first small piece of fresh meat was cut off from each organ; together with grease they were put on the offering’s femorals and tails placed on the altar table to symbolize the entire offering designed to be consumed by the purifying fire. The skins of the sacrificed animals could have been used for temple necessities, sold, or, rarely, burnt or stuffed and then buried. The skulls or their fragments were preserved in the place of the ceremony as the evidence of consecration act.

The deities sated with the aroma of the burning offerings kindly complied with the requests of the participants of the cruel rituals, who turned to be strongly connected together with the magic links of bloodshed, slaughter, the feelings of guilt and repentance. The bloody action was realized by the ancient as an extreme mean necessary to ensure the continuity of life and generating new lives, collecting the bones surmounted with skulls and spreading the skins represented an attempt of real restitution, restoring to life the killed beings. It was a palpable demonstration of the metamorphosis that turned the dead matter into living one, and vice versa. Consequently, various objects made in the course of posthumous manipulations of the parts of the sacrificed living beings were endowed with important sacral meaning and were widely employed both in religious and everyday practices of many ancient peoples. The artefacts made of the offering’s bones, such as knives, flutes, ornaments; bowls and lamps shaped from skulls, teeth and scalps used as the adornments, protective amulets, and the signs of valour, the skins spread over the drums and tambourines were considered effective instruments in communication of the initiated, the priests and shamans with the supernatural forces, first of all those sojourning in the world of the dead. Those objects helped to establish a special mystical links between them and the man.

The priests and the initiated in the mysteries participants of the ritual meals and solemn feasts partook of the offering parts of the living beings: it was the way to communicate with the deity, and, to a certain extent, to identify themselves with it and the offerings. The feasts should be regarded as specific acts of offerings made for the dead ancestors. In these occasions the juxtaposition of food and death can be clearly seen. It is not an accident that throughout the world the wakes were marked by abundant food, drinking, libations, and bloody sacrificial rituals; meat was designed for the living, while blood was shed to feed the dead.

The archaeological materials from the territory of the Azov Sea littoral in the Crimea evidence that the early inhabitants of the region were affected with the religious views that implied the rites related to bloody sacrifices both of animals and humans. These rituals can be deciphered to a certain extent proceeding from numerous myths referred to the chtonic deities worship. It was this mythic tradition that described the scenes of beheading, tearing body to pieces, and ritual cannibalism.

Some time ago special attention of the scientists was turned to the discovery of the human skull cut off with a sword or axe in the sanctuary of the early centuries AD at Ilurat. The sanctuary was an isolated construction disposed in the north-eastern portion of the town near tower 1. The skull had belonged to a man of 30-35 years of age, on the right side of the skull vault the traces of healed trauma were seen dealt with a heavy blow of some blunt object. The skull was placed in the north-eastern part of the shrine on the altar table (?) constructed of big triangular slab fixed on two smaller slabs placed on one another. Four cervical vertebrae were preserved, the last one has shown the traces of cutting blow. One element of the discussed bloody ritual seems worth noticing – the skull was disposed its face part turned to the East – to the sunrise, thus pointing the direction of future rebirth. It is important that in between the altar slabs there was discovered the skeleton of hen. Close to the sanctuary at the beaker-shaped depression (arranged to let the offering blood to flow down?) a large fireplace was cleared up. In the ashes there were found the bones of goat, the animal that played special role in the myths telling about Dionysus. Among various (offering?) finds in the sanctuary a lamp and the bottom part of a big pointed-bottom amphora were excavated. They can probably evidence the chtonic aspect of the Ilurat sanctuary: such amphora fixed its pointed bottom dug into the ground could have symbolized fecundation act and played certain role in the rituals consecrated to Dionysus as an element of fertility rite. The shrine apparently referred to the worship some female deity symbolising the procreative forces of nature.

On the Azov Sea littoral in the Hellenistic site Pustynny Bereg II specialised in viticulture the construction was discovered with the altar in the centre. Beneath it, on the side facing the vine-cellar, in the solid wall of the terrace the symbolic blind arch was cleared up. It was deliberately filled with stones. Evidently, it symbolised the entrance into the subterranean kingdom of Dionysus the Chtonic.

In connection with the above of significance seems to be the burial containing the human head ritually cut off. The burial was discovered in the peripheral portion of the settlement Baklan’ya Skala, close to two major winepresses disposed on the sea-shore. The skull was found in fragmented state, placed on the edge of a small flat-bottomed pit (botros or the cavity for the offering blood flowing down?) in ashy infill containing numerous tubular bones of cattle (bulls?). On some animal bones the traces of fire were seen. It is important that the skull had belonged to a boy of 10-12 years of age and was cut off most probably with a sword. The data of physical anthropology have shown that the victim had been first stunned. The child was stabbed on the sinciput from his right with some weapon, round in section, maybe a pointed setting of a spear or a wand. As a result the skull vault was broken through and cracked. In opinion of the investigators, the described rite resembled the archaic type of some extraordinary sacral actions of clearly chtonic character, apparently related with the cult of Artemis Orthia and caused by an epidemics or crops failure. Similar severe ritual was shown on the wall painting of the Etruscan tomb of the 2nd – the 1st cc. BC; in this picture the victim is portrayed being decapitated with the short sword.

Similar finds are known also from Myrmekion. Probably in the same chtonic aspect another find should be considered, I mean the human skull discovered in the infill of subterranean wine cistern disposed in one of the production associations with the composite wine-presses in the Hellenistic rural estate near Myrmekion.

Generally, the cut off human head was of important symbolic significance in the religious systems and magic rituals both of the Greeks, the Etruscans, the Carthagenians, the Celts, the Thracians, the Scythians, the Taurians, and other ancient peoples. The information on this point is repeatedly met with in the classical sources. Explanation of the beheading rite can be found in many mythical subjects referred to the worship the chtonic deities, and, first of all, Dionysus. It is not an accident, that in many literary sources (including dithyrambs) we can find the descriptions of cutting the head off, tearing body to pieces, and ritual cannibalism.

In connection with the above it is of interest that, according to Nonnius of Panopolitania, in the battle with the Indes the enemies’ heads cut off with the sickles (the weapon of Demeter) were compared to the first crops offered to Dionysus, and the whole Dionysus’ battle was called the rites of Ares; the sword bespattered with blood was called the bloody sacrifice for libations to Lieius (XVII, 153-159). In that battle the corybantus Mymas cut off the enemies’ heads with the death-dealing axe, thus offering to Dionysus the “first crops” for the altar bulls, and made libations with blood, not with wine (XVIII, 297-300). I should point to the semantic relation: Demeter – Dionysus – Ares, sword or axe splashed with blood – enemies’ heads cut off – bloody offerings to Dionysus; probably, it reflected certain ritual aspect of the fertility cult that in the remote past inevitably meant offerings of first crops, libations of blood, and even human sacrifices.

In 2000 quite different but equally mysterious ritual burial was discovered at the fortified site Artezian. It dated back from the 2nd c. AD and contained the remains of collective cremation of at least 7 human individuals, infants and adults as well, and 18 skeletons of domestic and wild animals.

Pit No. 252 in excavation trench I, square MN 18 turned to be a grave containing the remains of cremation. The pit was rectangular in shape and trough-like in section, its depth from the ground surface measured 1.84 m. It was arranged in the ancient trench left after wall No. 44 had been pulled down, the construction originally maintained from the north the terrace dated back to the 2nd – the 3rd cc. AD (Figs. 3, 4). The pit-grave was strictly oriented E-W, it was 4.52 m long, 1.15-1.27 m wide, and 0.50-0.55 m deep. Its corners were rounded, the walls vertical, slightly narrower at the bottom than at the top. The western wall was evidently rounded. The transition from the walls to the flat bottom was also rounded, the bottom was slightly deepening to the west. The east side of the pit was narrow (0.50 m) and formed a kind of dromos.

The pit was filled with a solid grey-yellowish dusty soil with numberless inclusions of charcoal and charred human and animal bones, the latter strongly prevailed. Totally 48 whole human bones and their fragments and over two thousand small fragments of animal bones were registered. It was clear that many bones had been affected by high temperature for a long time: the bones had undergone grey and white heat, so that they acquired clear bluish-black colour. When touched they easily dispersed. No traces of mechanical dismemberment could be traced on preserved ones. The experts concluded that the remains of at least 7 individuals had been cremated: a man of 61-71, three women of 25-40, three children of 0.5-1, 5-6, and 10 years of age. Also 18 animals had been identified: seven individuals of cattle (six adult and one young), three horses (two adult and one young), three young individuals of sheep or goats, one young goat, one adult sheep, one deer, young dolphin, and young pig. Apparently, the revealed combinations of numbers are not an accident and imply certain sacral meaning. It is well known that many peoples considered numbers 3 and 7 sacred.

The variety of species sacrificed and the age groups represented lead to the associations with the priestly sacrificial circle that included maximal number of living beings involved into the sacral action to provide continuous eternal cycle “life – death – life”. The cremated remains of such action had been thrown into the sacrificial pit below the strengthening wall of the largest terrace. The walls and the bottom of the pit were heated to red-brown colour and covered with soot layer 0.7-1.5 cm thick. Judging from the relatively small size of the pit, cremation must have been performed in some other place nearby; scorching ashes then were thrown into the pit.

In accordance with the stereotype archaic ideas, the ancient magic and burial rituals of burning led to decomposition of the cremated living beings to the elements that had formed their bright and dark spiritual substances and thus helped to transport the dead to the other worlds. Cremation should be regarded as the act of the most effective dismemberment of the offerings, their cleansing from the uncleanness of death, the guarantee of their future rebirth, while the bones represented their visible frame. The burial fire cleansed the offerings and freed the souls from their perishable earthen elements, sated the celestial gods with the aroma of burning offerings. The buried charred remains symbolised the dark essence of the sacrificed people and animals, and constituted the share of chtonic deities.

According to the stratigraphic position and the finds discovered, the cremation most probably took place in the 2nd c. AD.

The huge cremation, with its remains buried practically in the centre of the fortified settlement not far from the entrance gates, cannot be considered an ordinary burial. In fact, is was a mass hecatomb evidently caused by some extraordinary event.

Some terrific disaster (maybe the strong earthquake evidenced archaeologically) could have induced in the religious conscience of the Bosporan people the idea on necessary addressing some powerful gods and offering them the extremely valuable sacrifices unseen before. The event of extreme consequences appealed for equally incomparable compensation – unusual sacrifices of human beings and animals.

I should point out that the cremation was disposed nearby the sanctuary where the inhabitants of the site worshipped chtonic deities.

Among the numerous stone and pottery altar tables, censors, and various utensils of sacral function recovered while investigating the association a specific subterranean altar table was of special interest. It was shaped of rectangular stone with the through hole in its centre obviously designed for offering blood and other libations flowing down into the ground (Fig. 6). The altar table was oriented to the cardinal points, it was arranged on the level of the sacrificial offering of a young cock discovered in a hand-made vessel, on somewhat higher level the altar was surrounded by small portable pottery and stone altar tables.

In 1995 at the hillfort Artesian on the top of the western cinder-heap* there was occasionally found the well-preserved skull of adult individual. The top of the cranium was accurately cut or sawn off and then fixed in its former place, mandibula missing. Unfortunately, lack of archaeological context (except several sherds, the fragments of vessels’ walls dating from the first centuries AD) and special anthropological determination gave no grounds to attribute the find reliably. Good state of preservation of the bones and their stratigraphic position (close to the ground surface) seem to imply late chronology of the find – not later than the 2nd – the 3rd cc. AD.

The discovery in question is not unique. In the cinder-heaps of different age investigated in the North and West Pontic zones whole skeletons, skulls, and separate human bones are found rather often. The bones of extremities clearly dominate in number, mainly humeri and femorals, there are registered mandibulae, fragments of skulls or skulls without mandibulae. It is worth noticing that the skulls demonstrate clear traces of ritual execution with preliminary stunning the victim.

At the same fortified settlement of Artezian the equally impressive and intriguing ritual associations of different time were uncovered. They belonged to the epoch of the Middle Ages, to be exact, to the 8th – the 10th cc., when the area was occupied by the dwelling site of Saltovo-Mayatskoe culture. That close a disposition of the ritual associations of different time separated with 600-year-long gap evidently may be explained proceeding from their position – on the very top of the hillfort. Probably, that point seemed to the ancient inhabitants the most suitable area for arranging sanctuaries.

The medieval associations were disposed at relatively small distance from one another (Fig. 7). Close to them northward the remains of not large two-chamber house and sunken dwellings were cleared up, as well as the debris of yurta-like dwellings and cattle enclosures.

Totally three ritual associations were investigated in this area. Their characteristic features were burials of dismembered skeletons of infants and juvenile individuals accompanied by whole carcasses of bulls and dogs and their parts, the remains of funerary feasts, funerary food and drinks, millstones, stone trough-shape vessels, and other ritual attributes. The ritual meaning of the objects under discussion is far from being clear. Possibly, they represented a united medieval complex with strongly expressed chtonic symbolism.

North-eastern ritual association.

The north-eastern association represented an isolated burial of a juvenile in square KL 15. The dead was disposed in the shallow oval pit (Fig. 8) 1.10 to 0.35-0.40 m in size and 0.35-0.40 m deep. The skeleton of a child of 8-10 years old was placed on its right in contracted position, somewhat turned to its back, big stone covering the upper part of the corps. The total length of the skeleton was 0.90 m, the head pointed WSW. In the infill of the pit several fragments of grey-clay wheel-made pots of the 8th – the 9th cc. were registered.

The right arm of the dead was extended along the body, the hand being bent at the right angle, the finger phalanges put on the pelvis. The upper proximal part of the humeral showed the traces of the fracture dealt from the right with a heavy blow of a club or a whip. The fracture was not properly healed which had caused improper knitting of the bone. The left arm was bent in elbow, the hand disposed on the pelvis and the right femoral. The bones of both shins were discovered not in anatomical order, they had been separated from the femorals. They were put together parallel to one another, and placed upon the right femoral. During this operation one of the tibiae was turned its proximal epiphysis the wrong direction – opposite the skeleton. Separate metatarsal bones were also found there.

In the described case ritual dismemberment of the juvenile individual may be reliably stated. The attention should be paid to the unnatural position of the legs; the motif of turning upside down typical of burial beliefs of many peoples is clearly seen here. It symbolised the end of normal earthen life of the individual and his transition to the other space dimension. The dead with deliberately damaged extremities arranged in unnatural position could not return from the nether world and do any harm to the living.

Southern ritual association.

In 1999 on the highest portion of the hillfort (the southern part of excavation trench I, squares NO 21) the mouth of stone construction was discovered at the depth of 0.12-0.18 m below the ground surface. It looked like an ordinary well (Figs. 9, 10). The fragmentary remains of masonry and pavements of the 8th – the 9th cc. AD were cleared up close to it just beneath the turf layer.

The “well” had been used for performing the ritual burial of a juvenile. The stone construction was of irregular rectangular shape, and trapezoidal in section, its corners oriented along the line NEE-SWW. The dimensions of the mouth were 1.22 to 1.28 m, the opening measured 0.85 to 0.72 m, the square bottom was larger – 1.02-1.04 to 1.04 m, so that the well widened towards the bottom. The construction measured 2.39-2.46 m in depth. Its walls were built of accurately cut slabs of yellow shell rock put on their sides. Alternate horizontal and vertical courses of slabs were arranged according to the orthostatic pattern.

On the bottom the interlayer 1.5-3.2 cm thick of dense greyish-green sticky clay with chlorites admixture was observed. The superimposed layer of 2-3 cm thick and intense black colour consisted of soot mixed with large amount of burnt grain (wheat or barley). Some slabs at the bottom of the well facing showed the spots of reddish-brown colour caused by strong fire.

The burial of the juvenile individual was disposed in the north-western corner of the well in strongly contracted position on its back (Fig. 9, 10). The corps was deposited on the described burnt layer along the northern wall, the head pointing west. The legs were strongly contracted, the knees bent and turned to the north. The skull was found not in the normal anatomical position: it was put on the cranial base on the chest of the dead, face being oriented to the south-east. Mandibula was preserved in situ, so that it covered the right clavicula, the upper part of the spinal column, and the right humeral. This fact proves that the skull had been moved from its anatomical position before the soft tissues decomposed. The skull almost touched the western wall of the well with its occipital bone. The right elbow was strongly bent, and the hand placed beneath the bones of the legs. The latter found placed over the chest and the left arm which was extended along the corps, breastbone was missing. The femorals were displaced from the pelvis, but their knee-joints with the shins remained in anatomical order, the tibiae and fibulae were superimposed over the feet, entirely covering them. The described position cannot be considered natural. Evidently, before the burial the legs were separated from the body in coxofemoral joints, and the feet – from the shins, also in joints. Moreover, the above state of the legs’ contraction can be most probably explained by sinews’ cutting. Apparently, the head was also cut off.

Below the shoulder-blades of the skeleton there was found the neck of medieval red-clay amphora, according to this find it is possible to date the burial from the 8th – the 9th cc. AD.

In the centre of the well several roughly shaped limestone slabs were disposed one over another; on the uppermost one the skull of 25 years old bull was placed. It was laid the horns down, 0.80 cm above the bottom of the pit. The animal skull was oriented along the axis SW-NE. At the stones the tail and metatarsal bones were registered dispersed in disorder. The osteological remains imply that here we deal with the burial of the bull’s skin, the mentioned parts of the skeleton being connected with it.

The position of the human remains placed closely to the wall points to the large size of the skin, interpreted as a substitute ritual offering: skin for the whole animal.

The opening of the stone construction was covered with the massive rectangular trough cut of a limestone block. It was thrown down into the half-filled well, and remained fixed on its side, so that the opening was left partly open.

The construction was built on the top-most point of the hillfort, much above the soil-water level, which made it impossible to use it as an ordinary water-well. The characteristic features of the construction, lack of hydro-insulation in it suggests that it was not designed for accumulation and preserving water. Beside the mouth of the well the millstone 0.28 m in diameter was found made of fine grey stone and with iron pin in the centre; at the same place fragments of diorite grindstone dated to the classical time were registered. These finds and the remains of charred grain on the bottom of the well may be considered indirect indications that the pit faced with stone was initially designed for storage grain, and only some time later it was used for depositing the burial. But many peoples used grain in their funerary practices as the symbol of rebirth. Mill- and grindstones were also often used for magic purposes.

Thus, both the peculiarities of the discussed burial and the above considerations confirm the version on the interpretation of the well-shaped stone-faced pit as the ritual object deliberately constructed for burial ceremony.

At the same spot on the bottom of the secondary pits dated to the 8th – the 9th cc. more human remains were discovered. The pit was filled with dark-brown soil with abundant crushed stone and refuse with the admixture of the finds dated to the 1st – the 3rd cc. AD and animal bones.

12-13 m northward from the well in 1995 the mandibula of an adult man accompanied with the skull and legs of a foal was found. The bones were unearthed on the bottom of the large medieval pit that had cut up the ancient trench left by the wall that maintained terrace No. 44 dated to the 2nd – the 3rd cc. AD (square NO 17-18, Fig. 7). In 2001 at a distance of 7-8 m to NE from the well the squashed skull of an adult human individual was discovered together with the tubular bones and the fragments of skull attributed to a bull (?) (Fig. 7). The bones were arranged in a compact heap on the depth of 1.90-2.90 m on the bottom of the shapeless secondary pit up to 5 m in diameter and at least 4.5 m deep. The pit was formed while extracting stone from the north-eastern tower of the “Citadel”.

I should point to the fact that the human and animal skulls were discovered together, which strongly implies that the local population worshipped the ritually cut off head.

In 1989 some tens of meters to NE from the southern association and the pits containing the human remains in square P 16 a small offering table (?) was cleared up (Figs. 7, 11). It was constructed of stone trough (maybe re-used) and the millstone 0.54 m in diameter and 0.09 m thick with round opening in the centre. The millstone probably originally covered the trough; it was broken to several large pieces, the fragments being found beside the trough bottom. The trough (its size 0.62 to 0.51 m and 0.24 m high) was hewn from stone block and resembled the similar object that covered the mouth of the described well with the contracted burial. On the bottom of the discussed trough were registered bird bones and some fragments of sheep/goat tubular bones. Three broken rims of grey-clay oinochoes of the 8th – the 9th cc. were also found. The finds were covered by loose ashy soil of grey colour. Around the offering table the ashy grey soil contained tens of sherds attributed to red- and brown-clay medieval oinochoes of different types.

The millstones and stone troughs accompanying the sacrifices of non-adults, as well as the broken oinochoes, whole carcasses of domestic animals or their parts evidently represented the characteristic elements of some ritual actions with the meaning far from being clear yet.

South-eastern ritual association

The south-eastern association comprised pits Nos. 120 and 108, ancient trenches Nos. 1-4, and several large secondary pits (Figs. 7, 12). The ritual burial of dismembered infants and dogs accompanied by the remains of funerary feast were discovered there.

Pit 120 contained the remains of five infants, the skeletons of two dogs, and two amphorae; in pit 108 several amphorae were found. The trenches contained huge heaps of medieval potsherds. In the secondary pits local accumulations of cattle bones were cleared up.

The association’s centre (squares T 18-19) was occupied by pit 120; it was round in shape and bell-shaped in section. The coloured spot of the pit 1.24 m in diameter was registered at the depth of 1.94 m below the ground surface. Its dimensions: mouth 1.26 to 1.29 m, bottom – 1.56 to 1.58 m, depth 0.53 m. The upper portion of the pit has not survived. The pit, in its turn, had cut up pits Nos. 120a and 122 dated back to the classical period. The bottom of pit 120 was dug in the clayish subsoil, its northern part clearly deeper than the southern one. No traces of lime crust were observed on the bottom.

In the south-eastern part of the bottom two round-bottomed amphorae with slightly grooved surface were cleared up. The vessels were placed on their sides (Figs. 13, 14.1-2). The buff-clay amphora of smaller size was, most probably, of Byzantine production, another one was red-clay vessel of Bosporan manufacture (Fig. 14.1). While clearing the first amphorae the skeleton of a puppy of 4-5 months was discovered in it. Judging from its position, it was pressed though the relatively narrow mouth of the amphora its head facing the rim.

The amphorae were squashed by the dense layer of the infill formed by middle and small-size rubble-stones mixed with loose grey-yellow humus soil of fine flaky structure. Its thickness measured 0.30-0.43 m and entirely covered the amphorae and the pit’s bottom. The infill contained separate charcoals, cattle bones (ribs, fragments of mandibulae, and tubular bones of a cow), and separate infant bones: ribs, finger phalanxes), and the sherds of classical pottery.

On the layer of stone infill in the yellowish-grey soil of middle density there were registered five infant skulls arranged in line along the eastern edge of the pit. Their state of preservation was poor. The skulls were placed on their cranial bases, the face parts turned E and NEE (Figs. 12, 13). Four skulls were disposed in the north-eastern part of the pit, the fifth one – in the south-eastern. As it was clear from the dental status, the skulls had belonged to the infants whose biological age in the moment of their death can be determined as 2-3, 3-4, 3-4, 4-5, and 5-6 years old. The selection of the ritual victims of the above age was hardly occasional, the same concerns the character of destruction observed on one of them: the face part of one skull was squashed and pressed inside by a heavy blow (dealt with a stone?).

Close to the fifth skull, somewhat to NW there was discovered the skeleton of a dog, of big husky or a minor sheepdog size, disposed on its right side and preserved in full anatomical order. The skeleton was oriented W-E, the head pointing W. The front paws of the dog were put one over another, maybe they had been tied together (Fig. 12). The rear paws were pressed against the eastern wall of the pit. Due to the good state of preservation it was established that the skeleton had belonged to an old male, its tail intact. The dog was not skinned in the course of the burial, the claws were discovered in situ.

It is difficult to say why the same number of amphorae and dogs had been deposited in the pit. It is known that two funerary dogs mirror the mystical traditions inherited from the remote past. For instance, according to the Arian beliefs circulating in India, two dogs meet the dead in afterlife. The earliest Greek compositions depict the Hades dog – Cerberus as a two-headed creature. Achilles while preparing funerals of Patrocles killed two dogs from his team (Il, XXIII, 173). The dark and terrific goddess of the night spells Hecate was always accompanied by several hounds, their blood played the important role in the chtonic mysteries consecrated to the goddess.

The orientation of the dog in pit 120, its head pointing west and the paws extended to the south must probably show the symbolic direction of its travel to the land of the dead. This quite well corresponds to what we know on the image of dog in the funerary rites and repast that mediated the world of the living with the world of the dead. It was dog occupying the medial position between life and death that accompanied and guarded the souls of the late on their way to the nether world abundant with dangers and threats. In connection with the above it is clear why burials of dogs (as well as horses related with the transportation of the dead) are often discovered in combination with the whole and fragmented human remains, as far as the classical and medieval cemeteries and shrines are concerned.

Below the skeleton of the big dog there were unearthed fragmented bones of arm and several other bones (clavicula, vertebrae, ribs) of an infant. Chaotically dispersed separate bones of (another?) infant were also excavated over the stones and between them in the centre of the pit and its western portion: several vertebrae, pelvis bones, shoulder-blades, ribs, bones of arms) (Figs. 12, 13).

The described burial can hardly be acknowledged the result of the exposure burial rite. The five skulls and the separated and scattered bones that had belonged to the skeletons of one or more infants can reliably point to the ritual cannibalism.

It is widely known that cannibalism on certain stage of development constituted the necessary condition of social life, in particular in hostile encirclement. Consuming of human flesh (of the prisoners of war) was apprehended as the sacral restoration of the spent vital energy, gaining some mighty transforming powers concentrated in the body of the consumed person, mainly in such organs as heart, liver, genitalia, and head. Eating the enemy captured in the battle field, cutting off his head – the receptacle of the rebirth forces, meant gaining his power and battle qualities. Also, if some kinsmen were killed in the military action, their spirits should be appeased, since the spirits of those died a violent death were extremely strong and could do harm to their living relatives. The powerful spirits demanded the proper offerings. Bloody human sacrifices and funerary cannibalism were acknowledged the effective measures aimed at appeasement and feeding the spirits of the killed people. In antiquity cannibalism could have been executed also as a psychological deterrent of the enemy. Polyenos in his “Stratagems” accounted for such facts (II, 8).

The experts have stated that the skulls of the infants were separated from the spinal columns in a rather skilled manner, which points to wide practice of similar sacrifices and special training of the priest estate. The fact of deliberate squashing of the face part of one skull seems to be of significance, though remains unclear against the background of the other intact skulls interpreted as an eloquent testimony of the cult of the ritually cut off head.

The discussed association has got close analogies, namely, the objects investigated by Yu.Yu. Marti nearby the medieval necropolis of Tyrithaca, and those excavated by V.F. Gaidukevich. The first complex represented the ritual burial dated from the 8th – the first part of the 9th cc. The deep pit contained several human skulls, two dog skulls, and the round millstone. The second association was cleared up in a disturbed pit; on the bottom human skull, millstone, and the fragments of early medieval amphorae were registered. Evidently, the human skull and the dog ones were viewed as the sacrifice offered to the chtonic deities responsible for the fertility of land and the whole universe. The millstones were the symbolic images of the earth welfare and fertility.

It would have been of interest to know what people had performed those dreadful ceremonies that included the ritual slaughtering and dismemberment of infants carried out with perfect knowledge of the anatomy of the human body. Quite clearly, they were not Christians, but pagans, though they lived close to Byzantine frontier. This fact, however, had in no way affected their wild customs.

At a distance of 4.80 m eastward from pit 120 there was discovered pear-shaped pit 108 filled with light-yellow soil. Its upper part was destroyed. The bottom part was noticed as a rounded grey-brown spot 1.10 to 1.37 m in size traced at a depth of 1.45 m from the ground surface. The pit was dug out in the clay subsoil. Diameter of its bottom measured 1.69 m, its depth was 1.49 m. The infill consisted of ashy grey-yellow soil of medium density with inclusions of animal bones (tubular ones, ribs, mandibulae, and teeth of cattle and sheep/goats), the shells of snails and molluscs, ash, charcoals, lumps of burnt clay and glass-coated porous slags, sherds of classical and medieval vessels.

In the pit the fragments of five squashed red-clay round-bottomed amphorae and other artefacts were found. The vessels date from the 8th – the 9th cc.; some of them have been fully restored (Fig. 14. 3-8)*

• Two similar amphorae were discovered in Myrmekion in the ritual association of the 8th – the 9th cc. AD. It also included a man’s skull accompanied by millstone (!). The association was cleared up at a depth of 0.60 m from the ground surface (Гайдукевич, 1987, 165).

It is worth noticing that the rims of the amphorae found in the pit were morphologically similar to the upper part of the amphora discovered in the stone “well” beneath the contracted burial. This fact probably permits to suppose that the chronology of the discussed ritual associations containing infant burials of the medieval period was the same, or at least similar.

In stratigraphical aspect pits Nos. 120 and 108 were related with large ancient trenches Nos. 1-4 revealed in 1990 and 1992 at a depth of 0.30-0.60 m from the ground surface. Trenches 1 and 2 were disposed in squares ST 18; trenches 3 and 4 have practically entirely destroyed the winepress of the first centuries AD in squares TU 19-21. The trenches were of irregular trapezoid or oval shapes and trough-like in sections. Trench 1 measured 1.19 to 1.31 m, its depth was 2.31 m; trench 2 was 2.21 to 4.27 m in size and 2.54 m deep; trench 3 measured 2.98 to 3.71 m, its depth was 1.11 m; trench 4 was 2.27 to 1.21 to 0.29-0.76 m in dimension. Their walls slightly sloped to the rounded bottom.

The trenches were filled with ashy loose soil with black and brown lenses and interlayers of humus, rubble-stone, and crushed stone. Much trash and the refuse of everyday life were registered, they were accompanied by the inclusions of small and middle-size lumps of glass-coated slag, charcoals, dross, and other remains of metallurgical production. Among the finds there were the sandstones covered with iron crust, the lumps of burnt clay, fish bones, and mollusc shells, charred bones of animals and poultry, some of them with the traces of processing. Some fragments of crystal gypsum were also found; this rock deposits are known 12 km to NW from the hillfort, in the region of Syuyurtash. The plates of schistous marl of pink and beige colours were also met.

The trenches have disturbed and partly dug up the pits of the classical period and the ashy infill of the fortification moat, that is why their infill contained a lot of fragments of the classical pottery of different age.

Most likely, trench 1 was a large pit of household function, while trenches 2, 3, and 4 were the bottom parts of some constructions, maybe subterranean or sunken dwellings (Fig. 7). At the same time, their poor state of preservation, lack of floors, stoves, braziers, and the like give no grounds to interpret them as dwellings, household or other constructions. I should like to remind that in 1992 southward from the trenches in squares TU 20-21 pits of irregular shape and lens-like sections were investigated, their dimensions ranging from 3 to 1 m in diameter and from 0.25 to 0.80 m in depth. The pits were filled with dark-brown, almost black soil with strong admixture of humus. It contained much rubble-stone, numerous fragments of the vessels dated from the classical period and the 8th – the 9th cc., large accumulations of cattle bones (fragments of skulls, mandibulae, ribs, tubular and pelvis bones). Apparently, here we deal with the remains of the funerary banquets or public feasts, or maybe with the parts of animal carcasses brought for ritual feeding gods and ancestors.

It is not an easy task to suggest the interpretation of the ritual burials of the classical and medieval periods. Such phenomena as cutting up sinews, dismemberment of the dead, destruction of the skeletons are not rare in the burial sites of Saltovo-Mayatskoe culture, but the burials of skulls are thought-provoking and need special comments.

Human and animal skulls found together or separately must evidence the existence of the ideas referred to the cult of the cut off head, its chtonic and funerary aspects are well known, as well as those connected with earth fertility.

Worshipping skulls and the heads separated from the bodies met with in primitive religious systems should be considered the ancient symbol of future rebirth, transformation of nature and the universe. The rite of beheading was included in some cults as the final and the most important moment of the sacral dismemberment, and was apprehended as its equivalent. It should be pointed out that according to numerous ethnographic materials, horse head or bull’s head played essential though not always the same symbolic role in rituals. Most often they represented substitutes, the more so that the idea of the principal difference between man and animal widely acknowledged in the modern world, in the primitive religious systems, resistant to any changes and, consequently, especially stable, was far from being universal.

Anyway, head and skull, as well as their images, were conceived by the ancient population as the divine receptacles of sexual force; and in that aspect the god was worshipped as the male phallic agent of the underground energy of plants. He returned from the nether world to ensure coming life. The male heads cut off, in opinion of V. Ivanov are the ripe fruit fraught with the embryo of coming rebirth, the seeds impregnating the bosom of underground night. It is of importance that the role of woman in the discussed orgiastic rituals with concealed phallic content was extremely great; this can be seen in many ancient myths related to the ritual decapitation. It should be considered logical that the secret aspect of the rituals of this kind included victims’ castration performed in the course of their slaughtering on the altar tables. The famous Dionysian phallophoriae were preceded by the procedure of castration – the ritually legitimised outlet for the primitive instinct of destruction of procreative vital force and the male commencement in general, often compared to the fertility-bearing ear.

Evidently, the phenomena of human sacrifices, the cult of the ritually cut off head, and cannibalism in the periods of classical antiquity and Middle Ages originated from the similar views on the interaction of the real world and the beyond one.

In accordance with the ideas of the ancient population the human sacrifices similar to the described above, various manipulations and preparations of the victims’ and the dead bodies, homophagia were the symbols of repentance and coming life. The offering was apprehended as a kind of visible mediator between the living humans and the deity, the dead ancestors that sojourned in the nether world to invoke them to secure crops and fertility of soil, and the welfare of all earthly beings. The sacrifices of infants were apprehended as the most “natural” and pleasing the gods. The pagan religious systems presupposed the infants to have been related to the other world and standing most closely to the divine forces, since they occupied certain medial position between the world of the living and that of the dead.

Probably, the human sacrifices performed in the time of classical antiquity and Middle Ages were based on similar ideas. Nevertheless, the discussed ritual procedures accounted for by the narrative and archaeological sources cannot be considered ordinary actions. The human sacrifices performed in civilized ancient communities should be interpreted as the rituals caused by some extraordinary circumstances: war conflicts, bad harvests, famines, epidemics, sin-offerings for grave crimes and so forth. In such situations usual compromises based on the rules of sympathetic magic (the similar produces the similar and should be substituted by the similar) when human beings were substituted by animals, symbolic figurines shaped of timber, textiles, clay, dough, or wax were thought improper, and the substitute offerings were excluded. Stability and conservatism of the religious customs and habits aimed at preservation of the “sacred” rites inherited from the preceding, more barbaric, blood-thirsty, and wasteful epochs influenced the millennia-long practice of human sacrifices, that has been preserved by some peoples till present.

The madness of cannibalism and human sacrifices can hardly be explained by the consequences and survivals of lean epochs people experienced that often. This phenomenon was rooted in the wretched human nature, in perverted perception of the ideas of god reverence and piety. Ancient people did not realized the nature of death, they primitively dreaded its inevitability and made specific attempts to comprehend the imperceptible boundary between life and death, pinning their hopes on the coming rebirth in afterlife. The offerings were slaughtered in the name of this goal, while the perception of death gave the pagans tangible impression of sacredness of life.

Thus, our perception of the bright side of ancient people’s religious life fades as soon as we cast a glance on its beyond chtonic integral part, and can more clearly see the absolute power of Christianity that has triumphed over the very ground of pagan perception of life. The modern attempts to revive a neo-paganism contribute the demonic component in the religious life of mankind, and are aimed at digression of man’s spiritual aspirations toward the hell.