ASTRONOMICAL PRACTICES AND RITUAL CALENDAR OF EURO-ASIAN NOMADS

101 www.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorehttp://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol31/bekbassar.pdf ASTRONOMICAL PRACTICES AND RITUAL CALENDAR OF EURO-ASIAN NOMADS Nyssanbay M.... More

101 www.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorewww.folklore.ee/folklorehttp://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol31/bekbassar.pdf ASTRONOMICAL PRACTICES AND RITUAL CALENDAR OF EURO-ASIAN NOMADS Nyssanbay M. Bekbassar While interpreting the tombstones and off-barrow (the term introduced by S. S. Sorokin) edifice of Euro-Asian nomads (deer-shaped stones, stelai, stone monuments, barrow entrances with “mustache”, etc.), investigators traditionally confine their study to describing the ritual actions performed during the burial procedure or while commemorating the deceased (Kiselev 1949: 307–308; Rykov 1936: 115–117; Spitsyn 1948: 158). In the opinion of many scholars, the peculiarities of tomb layout, traces of abundant ritual sacrifice objects, traces of fire with fragments of cremated bones, and burials of a whole horse’s trunk or parts of it, mostly skulls with vertebra and hoofs, found on the territory where such monuments are located, tes Less