Детские погребения городища «Белинское» и его некрополя

The research studies children’s burials at the ancient settlement “Belinskoye” and its necropolis. The authors conclude that the ritual of these burials strongly depended on a concrete military, political and ethnic situation in this western boundary area of the European Bosporus. Up to the middle of the 3rd century AD, infants’ burials in the necropolis of “Belinskoye” fortified settlement generally corresponded to the similar rites in other ancient necropolises. However, later in the course of the changing ethnic composition of the population, the practice of burying adults and children directly in the settlement spread there. These actions were aimed at providing maximum divine protection to the settlement, by this time already completely deprived of defensive walls and virtually defenseless against enemies’ attacks.