Afanasyev G.E.

Key words: Mayatskoye cemetery, rendering the dead harmless, Narts, Alans, Asi, Khazars, skeletons, Middle Don basin, catacomb cemetery.
The article gives a critical analysis of the method which is used for proving the hypothesis that in the 8th –10th cc. the Alanic-Asi population in the Middle Don basin practiced the rite of rendering the dead harmless. The author is of the opinion that the occurrence of two “masses” of ground in the filling of the dromoi does not prove the existence of such a rite. The signs of “systemic” fracturing of the skeletons (separation of the skull, damage to phalanges and breastbone), instead of proving the existence of the rite, are part of the overall taphological picture of the stages of a corpse’s disintegration. The catacombs of Mayatskoye cemetery are shallow, and hence accessible. Metal inventory is to a large extent absent, which indicates robberies. The archaic features of the funeral rite of Ossetians, descendants of the Alans, indicate that the ritual of rendering the dead harmless could not have been applied within the community. The Alanic worldview as reconstructed on the basis of the Nart epos does not indicate the existence of a ritual for rendering the dead harmless.