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Horses for the dead: funerary foodways in Bronze Age Kazakhstan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alan K. Outram ,
Natalie A. Stear ,
Alexei Kasparov ,
Emma Usmanova ,
Victor Varfolomeev  and
Richard P. Evershed
Alan K. Outram
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK
Natalie A. Stear
Affiliation:
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK
Alexei Kasparov
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Laver Building, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya nab. 18, St Petersburg 191186, Russia
Emma Usmanova
Affiliation:
Sariarka Archaeological Institute, Karaganda State University named after EA Buketov, Karaganda 100028, Kazakhstan
Victor Varfolomeev
Affiliation:
Sariarka Archaeological Institute, Karaganda State University named after EA Buketov, Karaganda 100028, Kazakhstan
Richard P. Evershed
Affiliation:
School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1TS, UK
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Extract

The authors examine the role of horses as expressed in assemblages from settlement sites and cemeteries between the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age in Kazakhstan. In this land, known for its rich association with horses, the skeletal evidence appears to indicate a fading of ritual interest. But that's not the whole story, and once again micro-archaeology reveals the true balance. The horses are present at the funeral, but now as meat for the pot, detected in bone fragments and lipids in the pot walls.

Keywords

KazakhstanEneolithicBronze AgeAndronovohorseburial ritesfaunal remainslipids
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 327 , March 2011 , pp. 116 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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