Artifacts of elite children’s burials of the Upper Ob River from the early Middle Ages to Modern Times

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the reflection of prestige and social status in artifacts (jewelry, waist headset, metal sewing) from elite children’s burials of a wide chronological and cultural spectrum in the north of the Upper Ob region. The elitism of these burial complexes is justified by a number of signs. Among them: the uniqueness of the objects, the use of precious metals and stones for their manufacture, the redundancy and richness of the accompanying inventory, as well as ethnographic parallels associated with high social status. In the course of research on a series of elite children’s burials from the Early Middle Ages (5th–7th centuries) to Modern Times (18th–19th centuries), it was found that such burial complexes arose in certain historical conditions.