Социальные аспекты практики кремации в обществах эпохи бронзы Южного Урала
Social Dimentions of the Cremation Burial Rite in Bronze Age Societies of the Southern Ural Region

Summary/Abstract: Burning the dead body is one of the most ancient burial rites. Cremation was widely spread during the Eurasian Bronze Age and this practice was a dominant burial ritual in many societies. In the article I will analyze cremation burials during the Ural Bronze Age (18th — 10—9th centuries cal. BC) discovered in the Srubnaya, Alakul’ and following Latest Bronze Age sites. These societies cremated separate individuals although the inhumation rite dominated. This paper has the main purpose — to examine possible determinants of such selectivity. As a result, it was established that age, gender and horizontal social position had a great influence on selection of the way of interment. Vertical status probably was less important. Every burial could be determined by different reasons that can explain their variability.

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