Igor’ Yur’evich Schaub Doctor in History, leading scientific researcher, Institute of History of Material culture of Russian Academy of Sciences (Dvortsovaya emb., 18, Letter A, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 191181)
schaubigor@mail.ru
Schaub I.Yu. Greek and Barbarian Features in the Funeral Rituals of the Bosporans, Religiya. Tserkov’. Obshchestvo. Issledovaniya i publikatsii po teologii i religii [Religion. Church. Society: Research and publications in the field of theology and religious studies], pp. 144–177.
doi: 10.24412/2308-0698-2025-14-140-173
Language: Russian
This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the funeral rites of the population of the Cimmerian Bosporus. The very opulent funerary architecture of the Bosporus, completely uncharacteristic of Classical Greece, suggests that both the appearance of burial mounds in its territory and the monumental tombs over which they were built are the result of non-Greek cultural impulses and are associated with an ancient northern Black Sea tradition dating back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. Many Bosporan burial mounds contain burials with striking features of funerary rituals and grave goods characteristic of the culture of the local tribes of the Northern Black Sea region (Scythians, Sindians, Maeotians, Sarmatians): an abundance of weapons and jewelry (neck torcs, gold sewn plaques, etc.), horse burials with richly decorated bridles crafted in animal style, etc.It is much more difficult to determine the traditions associated with burials in simple pits, which were equally characteristic of both ancient and local burial grounds. However, covering graves with boards and layers of sea grass (kamka) – a practice widespread on the Asian side of the Bosporan – is characteristic of local burial rites. There is considerable evidence that testifies to the Greco-barbarian syncretism in the funeral practices and mortuary cult of the Bosporan population, beginning in the 5th century BC. The descendants of the colonists, fully in keeping with the tastes of their distant ancestors, adopted from the barbarians of the Northern Black Sea region the construction of monumental burial structures (tombs), the lavish burial goods accompanying the deceased, and the holding of funeral rites. It is likely that the customs that were most widespread in the Bosporan necropolises were those that corresponded to the traditions of both Greek culture and the barbarian world.
Key words: funeral rites, beliefs about the afterlife, Greeks, barbarians, Cimmerian Bosporus
URL: https://rcs-almanac.ru/schaub2025-en/
