Ritual, Society and Population at Klin-Yar (North Caucasus): Excavations 1994-1996 in the Iron Age to Early Medieval Cemetery

With contributions by Dmitrij V. Bogatenkov, Alexandra P. Buzhilova, Mariya V. Dobrovolskaya, Sergej L. Dudarev, Igor O. Gavritukhin, Thomas Higham, Dmitrij S. Korobov, Galina V. Lebedinskaya, Vladimir Yu. Malashev, Mariya B. Mednikova, Sergej N. Savenko, Anna K. Shvyryova and Rebecca Warren.

The present volume documents the results of one of the early joint projects between Russian and Western archaeologists. The cemetery of Klin-Yar, situated near Kislovodsk in the foothills of the North Caucasus, had already been excavated before 1993. 350 graves, mostly belonging to the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Koban Culture, had been uncovered; another 70 graves belonged to the Sarmatian and the early medieval Alanic period. The field work of the Anglo-Russian team carried out between 1994 and 1996 brought to light another 52 graves, most of them Alanic. The original plan for DNA analysis could not be realized in the 1990s but is due to be revived after the recent improvements in the extraction of ancient DNA. The results of the anthropological analysis suggest an immigration of both, the Sarmatian and the Alanic population with new male and female phenotypes as well. The modern Ossetians are considered to be the descendants of the Alans.

Beside the main authors Andrej B. Belinskij and Heinrich Härke, a number of notable colleagues, anthropologists and archaeologists, have contributed to this volume and have shed light on widespread nomadic cultures like the Sarmatians and the Alans by a detailed analysis of the excavated cemeteries. We still need more of such well excavated and documented evidence for overarching perspectives and theories.