Paleodemographic Study of the Zmeysky Medieval Burial Ground (North Ossetia)

This study provides a paleodemographic analysis of the Zmeysky catacomb burial ground located on the northern slope of the Kabardino-Sunzhensky ridge, near the Terek exit from the Elkhotov Gate in North Ossetia. We believe that changes in funerary rites occurred independently of any population changes. Given the burial ground’s continuous use as an urban necropolis, we can analyze the anthropological materials chronologically as a cohesive series. Using J. Angel’s method of paleodemographic analysis from 1969, we identified a total of 1,173 skeletons by sex and age. Our comparative analysis revealed that the peak mortality rate occurs in the age group of 0 to 5 years. Among adults, both men and women exhibit the highest mortality rates in the final age cohort of 50 years and older. In this regard, the Zmeysky burial ground group closely resembles the group from Karachay-Cherkessia’s Krasnogorskoye XIIb. The average age at death for adult men from the Zmeysky burial ground is 40.7 years, while the average child mortality rate stands at 35.69%.