Graves of Sivashovsky type

This group includes about 120 graves. Most of them were discovered by chance during the construction of hydraulic structures, so their distribution is uneven. The main concentration of Sivashovsky monuments is located in the steppe zone along the lower reaches of the Volga , Don, Kuban, Dnieper and Southern Bug, as well as in Crimea . There is no information about such graves in the Northern Caucasus region. Some regional features of the burials give reason to divide them into five subgroups - the Dnieper, Crimean, Kuban, Don and Volga ^[2] .

Several isolated monuments are also known outside this region. The grave in Artsibashevo, Miloslavsky district of the Ryazan region, was accepted by O. Komar as evidence of the constant penetration of the Khazars into the forest zone ^[3] but, at the same time, other authors believe that this was the result of seasonal migration. The burial from Uchtepe in Azerbaijan ^[4] is associated with the Khazars' campaign in the Caucasus in 628, and the burial in Sentesh in Hungary and Madara in Bulgaria - with campaigns or relocations to the west ^[2] .

A characteristic feature of the Sivashovsky monuments is the secondary burial in more ancient mounds, mainly of the Bronze Age. The bodies are most often oriented to the northeast, rarely north or east.

There is practically no data on the anthropological type of the buried. In two graves, the skull is brachycoran , and in one it is artificially distorted ^[2] .

In many graves of the Sivashevka group, whole horse skeletons or parts of them, including a skull, were discovered. A similar practice is known in the steppe zone of Eurasia from the territory of the Avar Kaganate to Altai. Some graves also found a small number of sheep and goat bones ^[2] .

The ethnicity of the Sivashovsky monuments is the subject of constant discussion and debate about their dating. It is believed that the graves do not contain ethnically identifiable objects, and most of the jewelry was probably imported from the Byzantine cities of Crimea ^[5] . For this reason, attempts at ethnic identification are based on differences in the funeral ritual, which most researchers consider insignificant within the group ^[6] .

Some authors suggest that the burials were left by a group of culturally related peoples, named in the sources of this period by the common name Bulgarians. In addition to the peoples of the Bulgarian group, such as the Onogurs , Kutrigurs , and Utigurs , they include the Khazars, Barsils, Sarmatians, Avars, Ugrians and other ethnic groups living in the region ^{[7] [8] [6]} .

Other researchers, such as O. V. Komar, connect the entire Sivashov group with the Khazars. They date burials much later, from the middle of the 7th century. The main argument in favor of their thesis is some similarity with the burials of the Ancient Turks in Central Asia , especially with the finds of entire horse skeletons ^[9] . Critics of this hypothesis point to the discrepancy with written sources, the continuity between the Sivashovo graves and the early Pokrovskaya group steppe zone of Eastern Europe (until the end of the 5th century), as well as the differences between Sivashov and ancient Turkic graves with whole horse skeletons ^{[6 ]} .

More detailed studies of the Sivashovsky monuments of the Black Sea coast usually connect them with the Bulgarians. Atavin describes the Kuban subgroup and defines the funeral as Bulgarian ^[10] . Similarly, the burials of the Dnepropetrovsk and Crimean subgroups of Orlov and Prikhodnyuk are associated with the adoption of Turkic elements ^{[11] [12]} . Baranov connects the Crimean subgroup with the Onogurs ^[13] , and the Dnieper with the Kutrigurs ^[14] . Aybabin accepts both subgroups as Kutrigur, and ascribes the graves of the late 7th century to the Khazars ^[15] .

Scientific publications of the 21st century often confirm the conclusions of Rashev that only Bulgarian Asparuhi represent the culture of Sivashovka and preserve its funeral traditions after the end of the 7th century on the Lower Danube. Parallels to these traditions are also found on monuments in some areas of the Kuban Valley, and in the modern city of Krasnodar . These funerary monuments belong to the border between the seventh and eighth centuries. Their ethnic interpretation does not exclude the possibility that these graves were left by a nomadic group, which, after the fall of Great Bulgaria, falls within the borders of the Khazar Khazanate ^[16] .

• Great Bulgaria

• Yevgeny Kruglov, Khazar Khaganate in monuments of archeology and according to Ibn Fadlan. // Travel of Ibn Fadlan: Volga way from Baghdad to Bulgar. Exhibition catalog. Kazan, February - September 2016. Organizing Committee: M.B. Piotrovsky et al. Ed .: A.I. Torgoev, I.R. Akhmedov. M .: Publishing House Marjani, 2016.S. 226-235
• Lifanov N.A. Pre-Salt and Early Salt monuments of the Southern Middle Volga and the initial stage of Turkization of the region. // Cultures of the steppes of Eurasia in the second half of the 1st millennium AD TD IV MAK. - November 17-21, 2008 - Samara. - 2008. - P.73-77.
• Komar, O. V. Early Khazars in the Northern Black Sea Region (statement of the problem) (Rus.) // East European Journal: Journal. - 2000. - T. 3 , No. 4 . - S. 1 - 40 .
• Flerova, V.E. Problems of the study of pit and burial mounds of the Khazar time in the Lower Don (Rus.) // Khazar almanac: journal. - 2002. - T. 1 . - S. 178 - 181 .