Demembratiion in Funeral Rite of the Ingul Catacomb Culture of the Northwest Black Sea Region

Abstract. The Ingul Catacomb culture stands out among other cultural groups of the Middle Bronze Age located in the South of Eastern Europe by the number of burials committed in accordance with the demembration rite. Information about burials with demembration of the Ingul culture in the North-West Black Sea region as the most western region in the spread of this culture, where its carriers actively interacted with various groups of another cultural population, is of interest. At the moment, four complexes with reliably fixed demembration are known (Trapovka 6/11, Liman 2/4, Glinoe 1/43, Glinoe- DOT 2/7). Existing data testify deliberate disturbance of the integrity of buried bodies as a part of the funeral rite. The given parallels in demembrations of the Komarovo culture of the Tshinets cultural circle take us beyond the narrow perspective of the catacomb problematic and allow to examine burials from the territory of the North-West Black Sea region in the context of demembration ritual genesis in Eastern European cultures not only in the steppe zone, but also in the neighboring forest-steppe territories.

Keywords: demembration, Ingul Catacomb Culture, North-Western Black Sea region, steppe zone, forest-steppe zone.