--- On Thu, 7/9/09, tgpedersen <
tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> the presence if inhumation is a prerequisite for
Yasig presence
GK: Indeed. But that is only one characteristic. Others are:
the grave shape; the body position and orientation; the funeral inventory (specific types of jewellery, ceramics, weapons, <other
objects e.g. phalerae). A single item is never a sufficient identifier for a professional archaeologist, though some are clearly more important than others.
Of course.
But actually that raises an interesting principal question: Whatt does one do in the case of a partial match.
Torsten
****GK: Depends how partial and as to what. An interesting set of results is that for the Chernyakhiv culture: there are a number of shared components in the inhumation burials, but also distinct characteristics which enabled archaeologists to convincingly differentiate Scythian, Alanic, Thracian, and Germanic burials. As far as I remember before checking, the key indicators were grave shapes, body orientation and some specific smaller objects. The unifying factors (the Chernyakhiv ceramics and much "Chernyakhiv" jewellery) were ignored.****