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Post-mortem mutilations of human bodies in Early Iron Age Kazakhstan and their possible meaning for rites of burial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

J. Bendezu-Sarmiento
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Archéorient, UMR 5133 CNRS/Université Lumière Lyon 2, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 7 Rue Raulin, F-69365 Lyon cedex 7, France (julio.bendezu-sarmiento@mom.fr)
H.-P. Francfort
Affiliation:
Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie René Ginouvès, 21 Allée de l'Université;, F-92023 Nanterre cedex, France
A. Ismagulova
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Anthropology, National Central Museum, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Z. Samashev
Affiliation:
Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography A. Kh. Margulan, Shevchenko str. 28, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Translated by Madeleine Hummler, Antiquity, King's Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK

Extract

The authors find numerous cut-marks on human bones from an Early Iron Age cemetery in Kazakhstan and review a wide range of possible explanations. They discount cannibalism and find that the cuts and fractures fit best with a range of ritual mutilations known to ethno-archaeologists of the Altai region

Type
Research article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

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