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The Wolf of Baikal: the “Lokomotiv” Early Neolithic Cemetery in Siberia (Russia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

V. I. Bazaliiskiy  and
N. A. Savelyev
V. I. Bazaliiskiy
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Ethnography, Irkutsk State University, Karl Marx Street 1, 664003 Irkutsk, Russia
N. A. Savelyev
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Ethnography, Irkutsk State University, Karl Marx Street 1, 664003 Irkutsk, Russia
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Abstract

The authors present a synopsis of research on the remarkable early Neolithic cemetery near Lake Baikal known as “The Lokomotiv” which was first discovered by the constructors of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1880s. A current campaign of research is beginning to understand the great variety of the burial rites and their contexts. The rites include communal burials, burial in pairs head to toe and decapitation before burial, the position of the skull being sometimes taken by a carved object. Among the earliest graves was one containing a Tundra wolf.

Keywords

NeolithicburialcemetrywolfSiberia
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 77 , Issue 295 , March 2003 , pp. 20 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

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