Работа посвящена изучению одного из многих частных вопросов, касающихся эпохи позднего средневековья Северного Кавказа. Близость этой эпохи к нашему времени и определенная их связь, принадлежность позднесредневековых памятников материальной культуры современным народам, органическая связь археологических материалов с письменными источниками и этнографическими данными, этническое формирование северокавказских народов и их национальных культур — все это делает весьма актуальным исследование проблем эпохи позднего средневековья.
Для археолога и этнографа Северного Кавказа эпоха позднего средневековья неразрывно связана с понятием склеповой культуры, настоящими хранилищами которой в течение всей эпохи были многочисленные и чрезвычайно колоритные склеповые сооружения. Последние представляют собой синтез архитектурно-строительных достижений того времени и соответствующего уровня материальной культуры, во многих случаях дающей нам опосредствованное, но достаточно яркое представление о культуре духовной, особенно о системе религиозных воззрений и т. д. Если учесть, что целый ряд письменных документов, дошедших до нас, касается либо довольно поверхностных описаний горских народов заезжими путешественниками, учеными, офицерами и чиновниками, либо носит чисто официальный, тенденциозный и зачастую односторонний характер, не создающий полной и объективной картины жизни и быта горцев Кавказа,— значение склеповых сооружений и содержащихся в них обширных бытовых материалов как важных и очень интересных исторических источников вряд ли может вызвать сомнение. Более того,
широкое научное изучение позднего средневековья горских народов Северного Кавказа трудно представить без привлечения и максимального использования этих историко-археологических источников.
Исходя из этого, археологической экспедицией Северо-Осетинского научно-исследовательского института истории, экономики, языка и литературы был подвергнут исследованию крупнейший не только в Осетии, но и на Северном Кавказе комплекс склеповых сооружений у сел. Даргавс (Пригородного района СО АССР), насчитывающий 95 склепов и образно именуемый местным населением и в некоторых изданиях «Городом мертвых». (*) Можно смело говорить о том, что опыт стационарного изучения склеповых сооружений наглядно показал, какими большими и еще неиспользованными резервами располагает археология в условиях горного Кавказа и сколь много она может дать даже при исследовании такого позднего периода, как XVII—XVIII вв.
Автор считает своим долгом выразить глубокую признательность В. А. Кузнецову, Е. Г. Пчелиной, Т. Б. Тургиеву, С. Ц. Умарову, И. М. Мизиеву, М. Г. Магомедову, Р. Г. Джадтиеву, Ф. В. Тотоеву, которые помогли своими ценными советами и замечаниями во время работы над темой и предоставили в его распоряжение ряд неопубликованных материалов, впервые вводимых в научный оборот. (*) В работе археологической экспедиции Северо-Осетинского НИИ, возглавляемой В. А. Кузнецовым, принимали участие И. В. Арефьев, Г. С. Смирнов и Б. В. Хурумов (архитекторы), Р. С. Кочиев (антрополог), X. М. Тменов, Т. Г. Юренева, Л. Н. Осетрова, О. Хадикова, Е. Н. Беликова, А. В. Сурнова, В. П. Мара-Новик, которым автор, пользуясь случаем, выражает искреннюю благодарность за практическую помощь как в процессе полевых исследований, так и при последующих лабораторных анализах. Мы всегда с теплым чувством вспоминаем глубокую заинтересованность и дружескую поддержку, проявленную по отношению к нам и нашим изысканиям со стороны местных жителей, интеллигенции и представителей органов Советской власти района.
Summary
Vitalij Tmenov
«The Town of the Dead»
(The Burial vault erections of Tagauria of the Late Middle Ages)
The epoch of the Late Middle Ages is the most interesting but insufficiently known page in the history of the North — Caucasian peaples. For the archaeologist and ethnographer of the Caucasus it is closely connected with the notion of the burial vault culture which presents a synthesis of architectural and constructional achievements of that time and the corresponding level of the material culture of the mountaineers which in many cases also gives an indirect but rather clear idea of the spiritual culture especially of the system of religious views.
The archaeological expedition of the North—Ossetian Scientific Research Institute of History, Economy, Language and Literature in 1967—1970 investigated the Dargavs necropolis, by far the lagest in North Caucasus, which is known under the figurative name of the «Town of the Dead». It is located in the Gizel— don Canyon near the village of Dargavs in the Prigorodny district of the NO ASSR. On the territory of the necropolis 95 burial vaults — collective tombshave been fixed.
The investigation of he cells in burial vaults was carried out under hard and specific conditions; the material collected (over 1600 articles of everyday life, tools of production, arms, decorations, clothes, footwear, headdresses, etc.) yields much valuable ecientific information. It has been analyzed and brought into a system in the monograph now offered to the reader' attention.
Chapter I reviews the history of the investigation of the North — Caucasian burial vault culture beginning with the end of the XVIII century when Acad. I. A. Guldenstadt and P. S. Pallas paid attention to the numerous extraordinarily picturesque sepulchral erections of the land. In the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century the investigation of the burial vaults was carried out by such outstanding scientists as V. F. Miller, P. S. Uvarova, A. M. Dirr; and in our times by L. P. Semyonov, G. A. Kokiev, E. I. Krupnov, V. I. Markovin and many others.
The burial vault erections of the North Caucasus are comprise 3 groups of collective tombs — underground, semi— underground,
overground. The chapter outlines the typological classification of the investigated funeral monuments of Tagauria— Eastern Osse— tia — situated in the Upper Gizeldon, Genaldon and Terek and also near the «Town of the Dead» at Dargavs which is the centre of the region.
The material oftained by the archaeological expedition, enables us to speak only about 2 groups of the burial vault erections of Tagauria,— overground and semi—-underground, which, in their turn, are subdivided by the author into the corresponding types.
Chapter II gives the analysis of the Ossetian vault funeral ceremony which struck the imagination of many investigators by its singularity and peculiar combination of the ways the bead were buried. The dead were subjected to natural mummification owing to certain factors.
Against the background of a number of common rituals the following types of burials were singled out:
1) open interments — the body of the deceased is taken into the burial vault cell an laid on the funeral deck (or on the floor); in some cases the bead is swaddled in shroad;
2) the interments in blocks, flat — bottomed or sharp —bottomed, consisting of 2 parts, made of wood and connected by iron crampons. According to L. P. Semyonov, «the Caucasian rite of burying people in blocks (dug — outs), late in time, is the last link in the evolution of one of the most ancient rites of burying in a boat which was very common with the Slavs and many other peoples in the West and in the East».
The connection between funeral blocks and burials on the water does not cause serious doubts, and the presence of blocks in the Ossetian vaults can evidently be explained as the result of the cultural influence of the Adygs (such blocks are also found in the Cabardinian tumuli of the XIV—XVI cc.) who after the Mongolian invasion, moved from West Caucasus to the valleys of Central Pre — Caucasus up to the Sunzha river;
3) the interments in wooden coffins are later phenomenon and are evidently connected with the active penetration of Christianity into the highland of North Caucasus;
4) it is interesting to note that children were often buried in cradles. According to the Ossetian legend interments in cradles were widely practiced in ancient times;
5) the interments in stone cased made of shale plates on the floors of the cells in the vaults. They are known from the ancient times but are rarely found in the vaults.
The variety of types of interment leads us to believe that the Ossetian funeral rite reflecting the heathen ideas of the mountaineers, has gone through several stages and has despite the growing influence of Christianity and Islam, preserved many specific peculiarities.
The origin and development of burial vaults and of the respective funeral rite were not caused by one definite factor but by a whole set of religions, social, and economic factors. Out of these the most important role was played by the religions notions of the mountaineers of North Caucasus, and in particular the cult of the dead (ancestors) which undoubtedly serves as the ideological basis for the burial vault culture.
Chapter III is devoted to the analysis of the funeral stock which gives the opportunity to conclude that the main means of production and all the articles of everyday life were made in the closed natural economy of the Ossetian mountaineers. The growth of labour productivity, however, resulted in extension of the external economic ties of the Ossetian population with Iran, Azerbaid— zhan, Daghestan, Russia, Central Asia in the XVII—XIX centuries.
The data collected give ample proof that the material culture of the burial vault as well as the architecture of Tagauria are typically mountainous. This also confirms the views of P. S. Uva— rova, A. A. Miller, L. P. Semyonov that these constructions belong to the local Ossetian population.
The «Town of the Dead» gave some amount of exactly dated things referring to the XVIII—XIX cc., for example: the Russian ten-copeek bit coived in 1754; glassware with Russian trade — marks, snuff — boxes, ets. Synchronous with them are the folding knives, razors, scissors, thimbles, box combs, mirrors, some kinds of silk, cotton and other fabrics of Russian manufactory.
The numerous samples of oriental clothing go back to the XVII — early XIX centuries. The earliest samples of vault ceramics and decorations are dated to the XVI—XVII cc. The burial vault stock of the «Town of the Dead» reveals some similarity to the stocks from the vaults in the Chechen — Ingush Republic, Balkaria, Karachai dated to XVI—XVII cc.
The analysed archaeological material makes it possible to draw the following conclusions:
I. The semi — underground and overground burial vault erections of the «Town of the Dead» and other vault necropoleis of Tagauria belong to one and the same historic period. They were built and most actively used at one and the same time, contain identical funeral stock, belong to the local Ossetian population and are a valuable historic source characterizing the social and economical structure of the Ossetian people in the XVI—XIX centuries.
II. The burial vault culture of medieval Tagauria has primorclially local North — Caucasian sources, dated by the Bronze Age and later also by the Early Middle Ages. The architecture of the vaults was mainly influenced by constructional and architectural traditions of the mauntaineers' architectural school, the formation of the vault funeral rite — by the religious ideas of the Ossetians, the cult of the ancestors.
III. The burial vault culture of Tagauria, being an integral part of the All — Ossetian vault culture, has, alongside with its specific features, much in common with the analogous cultures of North Caucasus. The similarity is accounted for by the identical conditions of the geographic invironment, the close cultural contacts of the mountaineers, and also by the peculiarities of the historic epoch itself; the dissimilarity is explained by the peculiarity of the Ossetian national traditions, that were reflected in the funeral stock.
The author is conscious that not all the questions touched upon have been dealt with equally satisfactority. This is explained by the fact that in the study of the Late Medieval archaeology of the North Caucasus science is still accumulating, material. Undoubtedly in the course of further investigations much of what has been stated above will be precised. However already now it is clear that one of the most popular historical and archaeological monuments of North Ossetia and all the Central Caucasus — the «Town of Dead» near Dargavs,— must enter the fund of the main sourses in the medieval history and archaeology of the Ossetian people on the eve of its joining Russia in 1774.
Оглавление
ВВЕДЕНИЕ ГЛАВА I. Архитектура склеповых сооружений и их типологическая классификация
К истории изучения склеповой культуры Северного Кавказа
Склеповые сооружения Тагаурии («Город мертвых») ГЛАВА II. Погребальный обряд
Захоронения в склепах «Города мертвых» и их типы
Возможные истоки осетинских склепов и склепового погребального обряда ГЛАВА III. Анализ погребального инвентаря
Керамика
Стеклянная посуда
Изделия из дерева
Оружие
Бытовые предметы
Туалетные принадлежности
Обувь, головные уборы, одежда
Украшения
Хозяйство, торговля
Хронология склеповых сооружений «Города мертвых» Заключение
Резюме
Список сокращений
