Сhildren’s Grave at the Cemetery of the Chernyakhiv Culture Voytenki

Abstract

The children’s graves at the cemeteries of the Chernyakhiv / Sоntana de Mureş culture are the relevant problem for the archaeology of the period. Children’s burials at the cemeteries of this culture have been the subject of special study for more than fifteen years. At the cemetery Voytenky 15 graves of children of various ages were discovered (graves 6, 34, 50, 72, 79, 85, 94, 97, 99, 103, 126, 217, 218, 220, 231). Their analysis is envisaged within the framework of the project on the reconstruction of the social structure of the population of the Chernyakhiv culture on the basis of the cemetery Voytenki.
 The publication of materials from grave 231 of the cemetery Voytenki includes archaeological and anthropological analysis. Inventory features of the complex allow determination of the social status of the child and his family.
 The burial’s inventory includes 24 vessels. A specific feature of this complex is the presence of an amphora. The burial belongs to the phase «C» after the relative chronology of the «classical» Chernyakhiv culture horizon in the Dnepr-Do­netsk forest-steppe (after M. Lyubichev). This correlates with stages C3, C3/D1 by J. Tejral, and in absolute dates can be attributed to the third quarter of the 4th century.
 The age of the child determined as (1.5) 2—2.5 years. Pathological lesions on the skeleton diagnosed as traces of scurvy, probably anemia, and viral or bacterial meningitis. Their presence permits raise the question of adaptation of the children of particular social class to their living conditions. Presumably, some adults of this social stratum belonged to the mobile part of the population or were in close contact with migrants. Migrations could be seen as one of the reasons, led to the emergence of new infections, which primarily affected children.
 The grave with the amphora testifies to the strong economic position of the family, whose child was buried. This family probably participated in an interregional exchange.