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Південної Русі, здійснених у човнах або з їхніми символами. Аналізуються особливості даного обрядового елементу та його семантика, етнокультурна і соціальна належність похованих тощо.
The funeral in boats was widespread in Northern
Europe from Iceland to the Volga region during the Viking
Age. But in the works devoted to this rite the materials
of Southern Rus are practically ignored though
being studied worst.
The remains of small boats which can be recorded
very rarely are survived in two or three burials. Ship
rivets were found in six burials. Despite the insufficient
number of these mounts in two cases we can also
talk about the use of full-fledged funeral boats. In the
other four assemblages the rivets placed on the grave
acted as a symbol of the ship which replaced the whole.
Available materials allow us to attribute the existence
of the rite in Southern Rus to the second half of the
tenth century. It probably ceased to be practiced after
the introduction of Christianity in 988.
In the territory of Southern Rus the burial in boats
can be considered as an ethnic indicator of the presence
of Scandinavians, probably — natives of Central Sweden.
A relatively small number of such burials reflects
a change in the usual way of life of the Normans in the
new conditions.
Although in Scandinavia since the ninth century the
significant simplification and «democratization» of the
rite could be observed, in Eastern Europe it remains
to be elitist. In all burials of Southern Rus the composition
of the grave goods indicates the burial of men.
Most of them contained weapons or whole sets of them,
often the remains of a horse and rider’s equipment, attributes
of trade — weights, fragments of scales, coins.
At the same time these materials demonstrate a clear
social hierarchy of the dead — from ordinary soldiers
to the princely class. Chorna Mohyla barrow in Chernihiv
was the largest and richest Old Rus mound where
a local prince was probably buried. The ship rivets
were also found among the materials from this barrow
120 years later excavation.
