Mikhail M. Kazanski*, Anna V. Mastykova**, Konstantin N. Skvortsov**
* Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques, Paris, France (michel.kazanski53@gmail.com)
** Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia (amastykova@mail.ru; sn_arch_exp@mail.ru)

Keywords: Sambian-Natangian culture, Aestians, great migrations, Merovingian time, funerary rites, gender markers, social stratification.
This paper deals with gender indicators and markers of social stratification yielded by the burials of the late phase of the Sambian-Natangian culture of the Aestians of the mid‑5th–7th centuries AD. The data of physical anthropology enable us to differentiate male, female, and children’s grave goods. Three levels of burials can be tentatively distinguished from grave goods and certain funerary rites, i.e. (1) privileged tombs with relatively rich grave goods including prestigious costume elements, weapons, horse harness items, and drinking horns; (2) ‘middle class’ tombs with standard grave goods including ornaments from cheap non-ferrous metals, and some weapons; (3) tombs of lower classes either practically lacking in grave goods or containing but pottery. Territorial groups probably corresponding to Aestian policies can be revealed.