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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 ,
H.-P. Francfort ,
A. Ismagulova  and
Z. Samashev
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
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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

Keywords

KazakhstanEarly Iron Agekurganhuman bonemutilationmummification
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 315 , March 2008 , pp. 73 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

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