INTENTIONAL DAMAGES OF POSTCRANIAL SKELETONS OF KAMENSKOYE CULTURE CARRIERS IN THE UPPER-OB’ REGION (PROBLEM STATEMENT)

Abstract

A preliminary macroscopic study of the postcranial skeletons of the series
of the Kamenskaya culture from the Upper Ob’ region (4th–2nd centuries BC)
- Kamen’-2, Maslyakha-1, Novotroitskoe-1,2 – has been carried out. Using the
method of visual (osteoscopic) diagnostics of the skeletons, artificial destructive
changes in the long bones of the limbs were revealed, mainly in the area of the
joints. Presumably, the fixed defects are the result of deliberate damage which was
done during post-mortem manipulation with the body of the deceased in the necropolises
of the Scythian time in the Upper Ob’ region. The problem of creating
a unified methodology for the identification and differentiation of bone defects in
the postcranial skeleton arose. The solution of this problem will allow us to correlate
paleoanthropological data with archaeological data and to obtain new information
on the everyday burial tradition and on other markers of the religious life
of the carriers of different cultures of the Scythian-Siberian community in Eurasia.