Ancient tombs often provide critical insights into a culture’s historical periods and geographical territories. Many of these ancient and prehistoric practices have been preserved by modern humans, reflected in various modern cultures and religions through cremation and burial rituals. Recently, a particularly significant discovery was made in southern Siberia: a special amulet from the Bronze Age, crafted from an unusual piece of human bone, was unearthed in a tomb. This serves as an important example of ancient practices.
The Tagar Culture Tomb and the Human Bone Amulet
The fertile Minusinsk Basin of Siberia has long been home to numerous historical cultures, most famously the Tagars of the Siberian steppe. In 2020, a cemetery known as Kazanovka 1 (from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age) was excavated.
The Tagars were a thriving Bronze Age culture from the 8th to the 2nd century BCE in southern Siberia, positioned between the Karasuk and Tashtyk cultures. The Tagar culture is widely recognized as one of the largest copper-smelting centers in ancient Eurasia, contemporaneous with the Scythians in Crimea and the northern Black Sea region.
Hundreds of Tagar burial mounds have been preserved and documented. From these mounds, thousands of intricately preserved bronze objects have been unearthed and displayed at the Khakass National Museum in Abakan.
In Mound No. 15, there were two enclosures, the main one containing four graves, with three adults in the center of the mound. The mourners dug a pit measuring 2.5 x 4.45 meters (8.2 x 14.5 feet), with the perimeter decorated with small steles, and a horse skull was placed on the grave’s lid. This was the subject of curiosity and surprise, being placed with a woman who was laid on her back facing west.
She was buried alongside pottery, a bronze mirror, a leather pouch, a bronze plate and pin, chunks of meat, and the remains of a calf and sheep (a continuation of Karashuk traditions). Next to her right elbow was placed a bronze amulet. At its center, the amulet contained a fragment of human bone and a silk fabric pouch (now torn), while the top featured strung bronze and tubular carnelian beads, and the bottom held a boar’s tusk hanging from it!
Incidentally, other burials in the region have reported bead strings, animal bones, boar or musk deer tusks, and bird claws, so this is clearly not uncommon. Such amulets have also been found in the basin, almost always associated with the burial of women.
The human bone is an anomaly, and archaeologists suspect it had some magical or ritual purpose. It could also be an example of secondary burial, where the remains and grave goods are later reburied in the culture, potentially meaning that the amulet was placed beside her at a later time.
The human bone amulet beside the woman’s right side (left in the photo), with its fragment of human bone, makes this tomb a unique anomaly among all other early Tagar culture tombs.
Global Burial Practices and the Tagar Documents
While mummification is a careful preservation of the dead as they pass to the afterlife, cremation is the practice of burning the deceased into ashes (ashes hold spiritual and religious significance in many cultures).
According to a report by Ancient Origins earlier this month, mummification dates back at least 8,000 years, while cremation dates back at least 17,000 years. Secondary burials are where the remains of the dead are reworked, often linked to prehistoric West Asian cultures.
The deceased were often accompanied by goods to ensure a smooth transition to the afterlife, and valuable material possessions were “allowed” into the higher world after this one. These grave goods also served as markers of the deceased’s social status in life and, for archaeologists and historians, have proven to be an essential key to understanding our ancestors’ burial customs. The earliest-known high-status burials date back to the Upper Paleolithic period, approximately 40,000 to 12,000 years ago!
All the aforementioned practices were wrapped in rituals, varying greatly among world religions. Today, it is common for a mediator or shaman to conduct these rites in the presence of family and loved ones. In ancient Egypt, manuals were written to preserve the ritual details of these events for future generations, who would follow the same steps when their time came.
Although this is one of the most extensively studied ancient Siberian cultures, the ethnographic burial customs of the Tagars remain largely unknown, primarily due to grave robbing, which poses a significant threat to archaeological reconstruction. The Minusinsk Basin of Siberia in Russia is not favorable for preserving organic materials and other artifacts post-deposition, making historical reconstruction even more difficult. Finally, the early stages of tomb explorations were marked by poor analysis and documentation, leading to the loss of invaluable artifacts and records.
