A grave of a Cuman noble woman in the Kislyakovsky 13 kurgan cemetery (Krasnodar kray)

The Kislyakovskiy 13 kurgan cemetery was excavated in 2008 by an expedition of the Southern Scientific Center, RAS. Kurgan 2 contained two graves – one dated to the first centuries AD, the other to the Middle Ages, when the North Black Sea steppes were inhabited by the nomadic Polovеts tribes. This article discusses grave 2. The burial was made in a chamber in the form of a niche. Robbers destroyed one of the grave's walls but the burial remained undisturbed. The buried woman of 35-40 years old was laying extended on back, head to west. Decayed wood from the funerary stretchers preserved under the skeleton. The rich grave goods included a bronze cauldron, an iron knife, two silver torques, hair rings, and a mirror. Fragments of the wooden frame, felt, textile, and gilded silver foil from a headdress preserved in area of the woman's chest. The kurgan was encircled by a ditch; its northern part had two ledged niches made in the outer wall. Animal bones and ceramic shards with remains of the funerary feast were unearthed on the ditch bottom. The ditch was thoroughly made and has unique construction features. Judging by its lower layers, the dug-out soil was stacked not only on the kurgan's surface but also round the ditch's outer perimeter. The ditch remained opened for a long time and was gradually filled with flooded soil. Grave goods are typical for the Cuman graves of the 12th - early 13th centuries. The assemblage suggests a high social status of the buried woman. It is possible that for some time the area surrounded by the ditch was used as a sanctuary; afterwards the burial of a noble woman was performed, the kurgan was covered with a layer of soil.