From: Alexander Stolbov
Message: 11365
Date: 2001-11-21
----- Original Message -----
From: <tgpedersen@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 1:58 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Vanir
...
But how did the Vanir (if they were indeed the Colchideans) dispose
of their dead?
Torsten
[A.]
I can not say anything about Vanir' burials.
I don't think either that Vanir = Colchideans
(the Onogur hypothesis seems more attractive for me).
Burial traditions in the town of Vani in the middle of the 1st millennium BC
were the following (according to O.D.Lordkipanidze in "Drevneyshie
gosudarstva Kavkaza i Sredney Asii"):
Bodies of dead rich citizens were laid in wooden sarcophagus placed in a
cell which was cut in rock and covered with stones. Burial inventory usually
consisted of golden and silver adornments, silver and clay pottery, glass
bottles for fragrance, huge bronze cauldrons.
Horse burials also were typical for Vani. [Kimmerian influence ? - A.]
In other parts of Colchida the mostly spread tradition were collective
burials in oval pits covered with stones. The bones have traces of strong
fire. This is considered as an evidence of secondary inhumation with partial
cremation or using of ritual fire.
In the North part of Colchida (today Abkhasia) inhumations in flexed
position with Northern orientation were found. Graves with cremation in
the burial pits were also presented in Abkhasia of that period.
Since the 4th cent. BC burials in pitchers became usual in Colchida.
Don't know whether this can help.
Alexander