The article is based on the materials of archaeological sites of the Sargat community and analyzes skull injuries. Based on the data of the burial inventory, which contains a significant proportion of weapons items, by analogy with the nomadic world, researchers have repeatedly noted the pronounced military nature of burials, on the basis of which various reconstructions have been proposed. However, an anthropological analysis of 173 skulls (male and female) revealed only 9 specimens. with traces of injuries (only five of them were classified as combat, i.e. they were inflicted with weapons); two more skulls with penetrating wounds were found according to archival data. Based on this, as well as a contextual analysis of the burials and taking into account the materials of burial grounds of other cultural formations of the Iron Age, it can be assumed that military clashes took place in the Sargat world, but they were not constant, and the observed "abundance" of weapons in the burials most likely marks the status of the buried.

Key words: Early Iron Age, Sargat community, bioarchaeology, skull injuries, cultural identity.

Introduction

Analyzing the antiquities of the Sargat culture, researchers have repeatedly noted the pronounced military nature of burials and the militarized way of life of the population group buried under the mounds**. The noticeable prevalence of weapons and armor items in the accompanying inventory of both male and female burials gave rise to the assumption of a certain militarization of the Sargat society [Kul'tura..., 1997, p. 155]. The pathologies of horsemen identified on the bones [Razhev, 1996], together with the presence of arrows in women's burials, allowed us to put forward a hypothesis about the existence of female warriors in this society [Matveeva, 2005, p.164; Razhev 2009, p. 61, 63]. Some modern interpretations, supported by historical facts, are more categorical, but they are justified without using the data of physical anthropology. Despite a number of reservations related to finding weapons in women's burials, N. A. Berseneva also considered it possible to interpret such complexes as belonging to "warriors (representatives of elite clans)" [Berseneva, 2008, p.150]**.

The article was prepared within the framework of the integration program of the Ural Branch of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Cultural variability on the archaeological sites of the Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages".

* The authors are of the opinion about the selective principle of formation of Sargat necropolises, according to which all individuals buried in burial mounds were not people of ordinary status [Kul'tura..., 1997, p.137; Razhev, 2009, p. 60-63].

** At the time of writing this article, a publication has been published, according to which military classes are held by wives-

A similar point of view, constructed by analogy with the pastoral societies of Eurasia, belongs to B. Hanks (2008). In addition to horse equipment and common weapons samples, materials from the excavations of ancient settlements were used, in particular, the scale and complexity of their fortifications were noted, which may indicate "long-term armed confrontations" [Matveeva, 2005, p.145, 165]. However, the study of military affairs was limited to the analysis of the weapons complex [Mogilnikov, 1992; Pogodin, 1998] and the military hierarchy [Matveeva, 2000; Pogodin, 1997]. An attempt to assess combat injuries was made by N. P. Matveeva. Analyzing the materials for the paleodemographic characterization of the Sargat community, she gave examples of burials where skeletons with arrowheads stuck in them were found (Nizhny Ingal-1 burial ground, mound 1, border 1), and looted burials in which the bones of the feet and hands were missing from the buried (Strizhevo-2, mound 1). 3, pages 4 and 8), on the basis of which it assumed that a significant number of people were injured and died from wounds (Matveeva, 1999)*. Nevertheless, some contradictions between paleoanthropological data and the known militarization of the Sargat population were revealed when determining the level of combat injuries based on materials from the Tobolo-Ishimya burial grounds (Razhev, Kovrigin, and Courtauld, 1999).

Somewhat deviating from the topic, we recall that thanks to Herodotus we know about the military customs of the Scythians (History, II, 67; IV, 64-66). Ovid left a mention of the Sarmatians as fierce warriors (Mournful Elegies, book five, VII, 10, 15). The materials of excavations in different parts of the steppe ecumene, including the forest-steppe, seem to confirm the frequently cited passages of ancient authors. For example, some Sarmatian skeletal series show a rather high percentage of traumatic injuries; many of them are recorded as injuries caused by weapons (Pererva, 2002). Probably, these circumstances explain the colleagues 'firm belief in the" belligerence " of the Sarghat population, which is recorded mainly by buried inventory. In addition, experts often note the external similarity of pastoral cultures of the Iron Age.

In our opinion, despite the relentless interest in social reconstructions, there is a certain lack of publications that present the correlation of archaeological models and anthropological data, especially non-metric osteological features. This article presents the results of studying cranial injuries of the Sargat population, analyzing the prevalence of traumatic injuries in ancient times, and comparing the funerary context with the data of an anthropological study.

Injuries and their features

Bioarchaeological studies that have developed in line with the paleopathological direction are not new; their methods are aimed at reconstructing the ancient way of life (Zuckerman and Armelagos, 2011). Certain differences of schools are noted at the level of methodology. Often, Western colleagues describe a specific pathology outside the archaeological context, while for domestic specialists, the disease is primarily an adaptation to certain living conditions. By studying various changes in the skeleton, you can understand the conditions under which they appeared. There is also no doubt that body modifications are not only a valuable source for reconstructing the worldview of the ancient population**, but also a kind of marker of aggressiveness and poor social environment [Buzhilova, 2005, pp. 197-208]. Paleopathological data clearly demonstrate a peculiar relationship between the degree of development of human communities and the increasing influence of anthropogenic factors of social orientation [Ibid., pp. 141-146]. Injuries are considered extreme indicators of ancient population activity (Razhev, 2009; Jimenez-Brobeil, Souich, Oumaoui, 2009; Larsen, 1997).

In recent years, bioarchaeology has been actively developing a social direction that covers the following areas:-

However, this does not change the essence of the case [Berseneva, 2011]. Moreover, the factual inaccuracies contained in the text call into question the author's arguments and do not allow us to recognize them as convincing (cf.: [Ibid., p. 77; Matveeva, 1994, p. 107; Razhev, 2009, p.291]).

* Some modern demographic studies of the death rate of the population as a result of armed clashes indicate that in some cases, human losses during the actual armed actions are insignificant, their main mass is accounted for by power outages and sanitary problems among the civilian population, whose mortality rate reaches 90 % [Chamberlain, 2006]. It is obvious that the Sargat kurgan sample cannot adequately reflect the real factors of mortality in particular and the demographic situation in the population as a whole.

** As you know, the variety of manifestations of ritual behavior includes deliberate deformation of the skull, painting the body with mineral dyes, traces of which are often recorded on bone remains, as well as other forms of damage and self-mutilation.

It also provides a rich palette of violence and conflict manifestations [Hollimon, 2011]. Until recently, the prevailing view was that injuries to male skeletons were evidence of armed clashes, while female skeletons were evidence of raids or domestic violence (Jimenez-Brobeil, Souich, and Oumaoui, 2009). The intensification of tender research in archaeology led to a revision of some existing hypotheses, and injuries sustained by women in certain populations were considered as combat injuries [Gender..., 2001]. This circumstance may primarily indicate that the role of the victim or aggressor is culturally specific and not always determined by biological sex.

It should be noted that for all the expressiveness of traumatic injuries, their systematic accounting and comparison with other samples are fraught with considerable difficulties. First, only fractures in the state of healing or already healed can be recorded on the elements of the postcranial skeleton during cameral processing, since injuries inflicted shortly before death and postmortem ones are very difficult to distinguish from bone destruction after burial. Secondly, fractures that have been cured for a long time, completely and successfully, may not be determined by visual examination. In this respect, the skull differs from other elements of the skeleton, since it can be installed both healed fractures and injuries without traces of repair. In addition, according to the national traditions of collecting anthropological material, it was the skulls that were preserved with special care, and their collections in full (maximum) volume characterize burial samples. Thus, the analysis of injuries on skulls allows us to objectively assess injuries among the population under consideration and compare it with similar indicators of other samples. In this paper, skull fractures are understood as both penetrating wounds and violations of the outer plate only, including chipping.

Anthropological characteristics and reconstructions

Materials from 32 burial grounds covering all regions and chronological stages of the Sargat community were used for in-house research. 173 adult skulls (109 male and 64 female) were examined; only nine of them have traces of lesions: five male and four female, originating from eight Sargat burial grounds of different chronological groups (Table 1). In addition, additional information about two male skulls with traces of damage was revealed during archival work (burial grounds Ipkulsky (Koryakova, 1986) and Abramovo-4 [Polos'mak, 1987]), but since these data are not verified anthropologically, they are not included in the statistical sample, but they are taken into account in the characterization of local series; later in the text they are mentioned with appropriate reservations.

The importance of causal analysis, which is so necessary to determine the cause of injury and the conditions of recovery, as well as a small sample, allow us to consider each case separately, grouping them by the nature of injuries.

1. On the skull of a woman (age of death 40-60 years, Gayevsky-1, mound 3, border). 5) there is a depressed rounded damage to the arch in the left part of the frontal scales. This may be the result of blunt force trauma.

2. A similar depressed brain box injury was found in a man (age of death 25-40 years, Abatsky-3, mound 2, border 10, skeleton 1). The damage was caused by a blunt object.

3. From the same burial complex comes the skull of a woman (age of death 25-35 years, skeleton 3), in which the lower jaw on the left has traces of a fracture that has healed with a slight displacement, without signs of an inflammatory process. The blow was of considerable force, caused by a blunt object from below. A deliberate ring-type deformity is recorded on the skull.

4. Depressed damage to the cranial vault was found in a man (age of death 40-60 years, Kartashovo-2, mound 6, border 4). This case demonstrates a healed injury resulting from blunt force trauma.

Depressed injuries or compression fractures on the cranial vault cannot be unambiguously interpreted. Such injuries could be caused by a wide variety of hard objects, including a fist and a thrown rock. The consequences of such injuries for the victim, as a rule, are not particularly dangerous. Judging by the healing of these injuries, they can be considered with a certain degree of conditionality as the result of domestic collisions. The number of fractures of this kind is approximately half of all detected injuries in both men and women. The remaining injuries are classified as combat defeats, or rather, penetrating wounds caused by weapons. They are more informative than the previous category.

5. On the skull of a man (age of death 20-30 years, Murzinsky-1, mound 6, border 2, skeleton 1) there is a chipped surface plate. On the cut, there are visible traces of irregularities from being hit by an object with a sharp blade, but no signs of healing were detected (Fig. 1).

6. 7. Skulls of two adult males (age of death 22-25 years, Bogdanovka-1, mound B, central-

Table 1. Skulls studied in the kurgan sample of the Sargat community

burial site, skeleton 1) and women (age of death 30-50 years, Kokuysky-3, mound 3, border 3, skeleton 1), have triangular holes, presumably penetrating wounds from arrows. The injuries were inflicted shortly before or shortly after death.

8. On the skull of a woman (age of death 25-40 years, Markovo - 1, mound 15, border 1), stab and dent injuries of the brain box arch were recorded. The depression of an oval shape revealed in the right part of the frontal scales has a small funnel-shaped depression, traces of the inflammatory process were not found. It is likely that this injury is the result of a healed stab wound. Another injury without signs of inflammation was noted on the left parietal bone (Figure 2). The blow was inflicted with a blunt object with a small surface or a sliding chopping tool.

9. On the skull of a man (age of death 30-50 years, Beshaul-2, mound 1, border). 1) five damages were detected

1. A skull with a chipped surface plate. Burial ground Murzinsky-1, mound 6, border 2, skeleton 1.

2. Skull with punctured and depressed arch injuries. Burial ground Markovo-1, mound 15, border 1.

3. A skull with multiple wounds. Beshaul-2 burial ground, mound 1, border 1.

3). All the damage is perimortal*, caused by objects of different shapes.

Eight diagnosed fractures were observed on the cranial vault, only in one case a broken jaw was recorded. All the injuries studied can be classified as intentional injuries sustained as a result of aggressive collisions between people. So, out of the nine injured skulls of the Sargat collection, five were found to have combat defeats. Only one of them showed signs of healing, the rest of the injuries are perimortal. For the people who received them, these clashes were the last.

This group can include the damage noted by L. N. Koryakova on the skull of an adult male (Ipkulsky, mound 1, border). 3) - a rhombic hole; it is also mentioned that this individual had an artificial head deformity [1986]. Another case is multiple penetrating wounds recorded on the skull of a man (Abramovo-4, mound 22, upper burial in grave pit 5). They could have been coined [Polos'mak, 1987, pp. 22-23].

As can be seen, the absolute number of battle wounds to the skull for the considered part of the Sargat society is small, about 3 %. General ideas about the technique of fighting with edged weapons suggest that the head accounts for a small number of wounds, mainly injuries should be found on the torso. This assumption finds paleopathological confirmation. In particular, studying the skeletal remains of Central California Indians, R. Jurmain found 12 combat injuries, and only one of them was on the skull (Jurmain, 1991). The rest fell primarily on the vertebrae and elements of the chest. Comparative data on the lesion of different parts of the body are presented by paleomaterials of the Libben Indians (6% of the 94 identified fractures are on the skull) and the population of Lower Nubia (11 % of the 160 recorded fractures are on the skull) [Ibid.].

* These include damage that occurred shortly before or shortly after death.

Table 2. Combat cranial injuries based on materials from burial grounds of the Early Iron Age

* Three female skulls with signs of trauma were identified during an anthropological analysis.

The presented paleopathological data allow us to cautiously assume that the number of injuries affecting the postcranial skeleton is approximately 10 times higher than the number of combat injuries on the skull. Accordingly, the number of defeats received during the battle and not reflected on the bones is even greater. In the course of an anthropological study of the Sargat sample, combat wounds were found on three of the 109 male skulls and two of the 64 female skulls. Therefore, we can assume that the total number of wounded men was more than 30 (over 28 %), women - about 20 (31%).

For a relative assessment of the level of cranial injuries in the Sargat population, a comparison was made with materials from other burial grounds of the Early Iron Age (Table 2). Based on the results obtained and taking into account the above reasoning about the proportion of head injuries, the considered ancient collectives can be divided into three categories according to the level of combat injuries. The first category includes societies in whose burials the injured skulls do not exceed 3 %. Combat injuries affect a very small part of these groups, and it is obvious that most of them did not participate in military battles. From the considered series, the Scythian population that left underground burial grounds falls here. The second category includes groups in whose burials injured skulls, both mostly male and female, make up 3-10 %. Combat defeats in these cases affect a significant part of society. Apparently, such groups were regularly drawn into military operations as both aggressors and victims. Most Early Iron Age populations fall into this category. This also includes the considered part of the Sargat community. The third category consists of associations in whose necropolises the proportion of injured male skulls is higher than 10 %. There is no doubt that all these men took an active part in military operations and had battle wounds. This category includes the Xiongnu and late Sarmatians.

Archaeological context

Based on available publications and field reports, data were collected on the burials of all individuals with traumatic injuries on their skulls. Information about the two male turtles mentioned above from the Ipkulsky and Abramovo-4 burial grounds was also taken into account. As can be seen from Table 3, male burials were located both in the center of the under-burial area and along the periphery, and there are undoubtedly inlet burials [Koryakova, 1986; Kul'tura..., 1997; Matveeva, 1994 ;Mogilnikov, 1976, 1981; Pogodin, 1988, 1989; Polos'mak, 1987; Habitats et necropolis..., 2002, p. 27]. More than half of the looted burials (Ipkulsky, mound 1, pogr. 3; Karta-Shevo-2, mound 6, border 4; Abatsky-3, mound 2, border 10) contained a standard set of equipment, consisting of a sword and / or dagger, metal badges, bone arrowheads (less often together with bone bow pads), bits and vessels. There are also household knives and small elements of harness. The remains of ritual food - horse bones-were cleared in the grave pits. The most reliably dated complexes are those of the Pritobolye and Priishimye regions: the turn of the eras - the first centuries of our era. The dates of most of the burials under consideration are also within this range.

Table 3. Local series of cranial injuries

* The craniological collection of the TSU Anthropology Cabinet dates back to the third and second centuries BC.

** Inv. N 1275 of the craniological collection of the TSU Cabinet of Anthropology corresponds to the Bogdanovka-1 burial ground (excavated by V. A. Mogilnikov in 1974), but the burial mound is located on the right bank of the TSU River. B was excavated at the Bogdanovka-2 burial ground by V. A. Mogilnikov in 1976.

4. Inventory of border 2 (skeleton 1) of mound 6 of the Murzinsky-1 burial ground (author's drawing from [Habitats et necropolis..., 2002, fig. 20, 22]). 1-8-bone; 9-glass; 10-silver; 11-bronze; 12-ceramics; 13, 14-iron.

the chronological range. There is a certain equipment with a full arsenal of melee and ranged weapons, as well as a deformity of the head (Ipkulsky, kurgan 1, border). 3), which was typical for representatives of the aristocracy [Matveeva, 2005, p. 164; Razhev, 2009, p. 156; Sharapova, 2007, p.60]. Well-known synchronous Sargat looted burials show a less "expressive" ensemble: a dagger instead of a sword (Gaevsky-1, mound 6, border). 1) [Kultura..., 1997, p. 37-38]; there is no horse harness (Abatsky-3, mound 4, border 7; mound 5, border 3) [Matveeva, 1994, p. 77, 82-85]; the exception is the materials of the Sopininsky burial ground (mound 2, page 9) - sword and knife / dagger in a lacquered sheath [Wednesday..., 2009, p. 230]. Arrowheads, fragments of bladed weapons, elements of protective armor, a bit, a quiver hook, a whetstone, an earring and a bead were found in looted graves from inventory.

In social terms, the series considered is quite homogeneous. Funeral equipment marks the status of a warrior (Fig. 4). These members of the military-druzhin stratum, including those who have identified combat injuries, are at least 20 years old. This circumstance fits into the framework of both general ideas and studies of age-related aspects of Sargat burial practice.

The female sample is small and less homogeneous. At the moment, rich burials have not been found. From the territory of the Irtysh region, only one skull is known, on which traces of battle wounds are revealed. It originates from a grave site that was heavily destroyed by robbers without any preserved equipment (Markove-1, mound 15, border 1) [Polos'mak, 1987, Adj., Table 1, pp. 126-127]. The monument, which, according to N. V. Polosmak, functioned for more than 40-50 years, is dated by her to the II-I centuries BC [Ibid., p. 88]*. Reliably documented complexes originate from the territory of the Pritobolye and Priishimye regions. They are dated to the first centuries AD. Of the known burials, almost all are side burials (except for border 3 mound 3 of the Kokuisky-3 burial ground). Related inventory is more than common. The least well-provided inventory is a young woman buried in a ditch in a collective (four individuals) burial of the Abatsky-3 burial ground (mound 2, border 10), who was found to have a domestic injury. Its clothing complex consists of an iron knife, bronze and glass beads (Matveeva, 1994, pp. 135-137). An equally meager set accompanied an individual with an intravital deformed skull. A more diverse inventory comes from the burial of an elderly woman at the Gaevsky-1 burial ground (mound 3, border 5): glass beads and beads, bronze earrings, an iron knife, a clay spinning wheel, and stone tiles (Fig. 5,6). It is noteworthy that this burial was accompanied by a large amount of ritual food: two accumulations of horse bones were recorded, as well as traces of food contained in four vessels [Kul'tura..., 1997, pp. 18-21 ]. In a looted grave pit (Kokuysky-3, mound 3, border). 3), where the remains of two individuals were cleared, only fragments of pottery were found from the preserved inventory of a buried adult woman with a through hole in the skull [Matveeva, 1994, p. 107, fig. 63, 3]. The overall characteristics of this sample are as follows: these are adult women, no younger than

* Due to the total looting, the complexes of only two mounds were used for dating; taking into account the author's arguments given to determine the period of operation of the burial ground, the proposed date is quite acceptable.

Fig. 5. Planpogr. 5 mound 3 (author's drawing from: [Kul'tura..., 1997, Fig. 6,3]) of the Gajevsky burial ground-1. 1 - vessel; 2-horse ribs; 3 - spinning wheel; 4-stone tile.

Fig. 6. Inventory of border 5 mound 3 of the Gajewski-1 burial ground (author's drawing according to: [Kul'tura..., 1997, Fig. 5, 7]). 1-clay; 2, 3, 5-7-bronze; 4, 9-iron; 8, 10, 12, 13-ceramics; 11-stone.

25 years old, the clothing complex of undisturbed burials is made up of jewelry. Of interest is the fact that in the graves, even those where the buried were diagnosed with combat injuries to the skull, no weapons were found, the inventory reflects the so - called women's kit [Koryakova, 1988, p.54-58].

Discussion

Probably, in the last centuries BC - the first centuries AD, there is a certain "surge" of tension and conflicts. Based on the above facts, it can be stated that the maximum number of cranial injuries was recorded in the Sargat burials of this time. By the last centuries BC, N. P. Matveeva attributes the appearance of a stratum of armed, mostly young men (according to the number of graves of this type-about 26.6% of the total male population), who are defined as members of military squads [2005, p.165]. During this period, a custom of deliberate deformity of the head was recorded on the Sargat territory (in the sample under consideration, two skulls had traces of intravital deformity in addition to traumatic lesions).

All the facts discussed above allow us to conclude that military clashes were common in the Sargat world. The causes of such conflicts (cattle looting, women getting pregnant, etc.) are very diverse and deserve a separate study. However, these collisions were not constant after all. For comparison, we can cite data on some Late Sarmatian burial grounds, where there is a high level (up to 60 %) of combat facial injuries and injuries mainly on male skulls, more than half of which had a pronounced deliberate deformity of a mixed type [Pererva, 2002, p. 141, Table 1]. Localization of a number of injuries suggested that the opponents at the same time when the injuries were inflicted, they were face to face [Ibid., p. 147]. Two skulls with multiple wounds found in Sargat materials clearly demonstrate well-known cases of postmortem deaths.-

destruction of the remains, implemented in the form of repeated attacks on the corpse. From the point of view of the current concept of cultural identity, the group / cultural belonging of the ancient population could also have an extremely aggressive form of expression, up to the dehumanization of the enemy [Walker, 2001]. An alternative option is the ritual nature of such skull injuries (Mednikova, 2004). They were found in the Ulangom burial ground, in the native Pazyryk culture, and in the Early Iron Age population of Tuva (Naran and Tumen, 1997; Pozdnyakov, 2004; Schultz et al., 2010). Nevertheless, in the almost thousand-year history of the Sargat community, there are only nine (taking into account archival data 11) skulls with traces of damage, of which, as already noted, only five (taking into account archival data seven) have damage caused by weapons, among which arrows and bladed weapons stand out, which were quite widespread in the Soviet Union. the Sargat world. However, injuries sustained with the use of weapons should not always be attributed exclusively to military clashes. The lifestyle of pastoral culture bearers, their ideology and psychology, and physical activity, which is also determined by the way of farming , are a source of increased injuries. In the same vein, we should probably consider all known interpretations of Sargat women's burials with weapons, the share of which is small (from 5.6 to 18 %) [Berseneva, 2011, p. 74; Koryakova, 1988, p. 56]. There are only two injuries classified as combat defeats in the sample considered. Above, we have repeatedly noted a certain peculiarity of Sargat antiquities, which could also extend to social relations. In this regard, any interpretation of women's graves, including those with weapons, will be valid, provided that the proposed hypotheses strictly correspond to the archaeological source.

Recognizing the fact that the kurgan sample cannot adequately reflect the demographic situation of the Sargat population, for additional arguments, we should refer to the materials of excavations of settlements where no noticeable traces of fires and devastating invasions were recorded. It is fairly assumed that in the Early Iron Age in the Urals, armed conflicts occurred mainly between neighboring communities (Borzunov and Novichenkov, 1988), so that the fighting was conducted mainly by small detachments. Accordingly, fortifications were built primarily to resist the attacks of such detachments - "for waging war with large forces, the Trans-Ural "towns" with their miniature, by the standards of the era, moats, low walls and a small area were simply not adapted" [Wednesday..., 2009, p. 255].

From all that has been said, it follows that the Sargat society in the version in which it is reconstructed from archaeological and anthropological materials was stratified and included groups of "chosen ones" who were engaged in cattle breeding and spent a lot of time in the saddle. Nevertheless, the appearance of material paraphernalia, represented primarily by various types of weapons and horse harness, does not always indicate a high level of involvement of this part of society in real military operations*. In any case, it is obvious that the observed "abundance" of weapons in Sargat burials primarily marks the status, which could also be determined by gender stereotypes that existed in Sargat society [Sharapova and Razhev, 2010], which probably assumed the primacy of men both in real life and in the ritual sphere. It is noteworthy that the external similarity of some archaeological manifestations, in particular in the ways of expressing status differences, is typical for most of the elite of the Early Iron Age of Eurasia (Wells, 2006). There are similar examples in ethnography: in all nomadic societies, bladed weapons and especially defensive weapons were the property of only the aristocracy and its entourage [Pershits, 1994, pp. 154-161]. In Sargat mounds, luxury items are found in both men's and women's graves. As for weapons items, as an example, we can refer to the few looted burials (burial grounds Sidorovka-1, Isakovka-1), in which, along with an unprecedented wealth of imported equipment, almost all types of weapons are represented, these burials are defined as men's burials (Matyushchenko and Tataurova, 1997; Pogodin, 1989). The study of injuries of the Sargat population showed that some of them were combat injuries. Thus, the community in question was probably involved in various kinds of conflicts, including those involving the use of weapons, both as an aggressor and as a victim.

Conclusions

The study has shown the fundamental possibility of applying bioarchaeological analysis of skull injuries to characterize the social structure of Sargat society. The need to combine the methods of natural sciences and humanities, which follows from this approach, leads to the mandatory interdisciplinarity of such research, the prospects of which are obvious. Sopo-

*It is well known that things in the funeral rite, in addition to their utilitarian functions, also have a special ritual purpose.

presenting the results of anthropological analysis and contextualization of elements of material culture can complement existing social reconstructions, since hypothetical constructions are based not on the principle of the absence/presence of a trait in a statistical sample, but on data on the physical state of the studied individuals (stress, stress, age, health status, etc.).

The first-ever study of evidence of combat injuries on a community-wide scale allows us to draw the following conclusions. The fact that weapons were found in Sargat burials reflects not so much the militancy of the elite layer of the inhabitants of the forest-steppe of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia of the Early Iron Age, as previously thought, as the status of buried individuals. It cannot be denied that military actions were widespread in the Sarghat world, but the ubiquitous presence of weapons among the male elite was largely symbolic, reflecting the dominant position of their owners in the social and gender structure of society. This form of expression of prestige and symbolic symbols obviously had pragmatic roots (involvement in real clashes with the use of weapons), however, judging by the modest indicators of combat injuries, the intensity of military activity in the Sargat community was small, apparently ten times lower than that of the late Sarmatians and Xiongnu.

Acknowledgements

Materials from the Gaevsky-1 and Murzinsky-1 burial mounds were obtained within the framework of the joint Russian-French project "Settlements and burial grounds of the Early Iron Age at the Eurasian Crossroads", whose permanent leaders were Professor L. N. Koryakova and Dr. M.-I. Dare. We felt like a team, and working together with our French colleagues opened up not only a new vision in the study of the ancient population, but also prospects for further research.

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The article was submitted to the editorial Board on 17.11.11, in the final version-on 12.01.12.

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