Kharinsky A.V., Nomokonova T.Y., Kovychev E.V., Kradin N.N.
Key words: Trans-Baikal region, Mongols, mortuary ritual, animal carcasses, sheep, tibia, sacral ideas.

The article is devoted to the analysis of faunal remains from the cemetery Okoshki I (the Eastern Trans-Baikal region). Analysis is based on the material from 13 graves dated to the Mongolian period of 13th–14th cc. AD that were excavated in 2009–2011. Nine graves contained remains of animals, among which bones of domesticated ungulates were most abundant. These bones have been found inside the pits, mounds, and in the direct association with human remains. One of the interesting findings is a presence of certain sheep body parts that were left with some of the deceased individuals in their grave pits. These are tibia (sometime with tarsals), scapula, and lumbar vertebrae. Findings of sheep tibia and other body parts of this animal were also present in other Trans-Baikal graves (in more than a half of them) dated to the second half of the first millennium AD, which point out to the importance of these sheep body parts in the elements of mortuary ritual of this period.