Sergei Z. Chernov
Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow (chernovs@sumail.ru)

Key words: Dunin ground cemetery, sixth Dunin ancient settlement, medieval hamlet, Kozinskoye, Zvenigoorod udel, Viatichi, funeral rite, Christianization.

The article presents the materials of the ground cemetery of the medieval hamlet of the 14th–15th cc. This type of sites has been found for the first time. Dunin burial is attributed as a cemetery of the Volost hamlet Vlasyevskaya of Zvenigorod village Kozinskoye and dated back to the second half of the 14th – 15th c. The burials were being done in respect to the Christian Orthodox rite on the depth of 0.3–1.2 m and were not marked on the ground by headstones. The author connects the appearance of the cemetery in the middle of the 14th century to the stage of Christianization of the rural population.