Heads without bodies: Evidence of cattle sacrifice in the rock art and burials of the Okunev culture in southern Siberia

This paper studies the role of cattle in the rituals and beliefs of early pastoralists in the eastern Eurasian steppe belt. It presents and analyses two types of materials associated with the Okunev culture of the Minusinsk Basin during the middle of the third – early second millennium BCEE: 1) images of cattle heads and complete animal figures on rocks, stelae, and slabs; and 2) cattle skulls in ritual pits discovered mostly within the Okunev cemeteries. The paper demonstrates that both materials represent different manifestations of the same sacrificial ritual, in which the removal and burial of the animal's head was an essential part. Their combined study allows the reconstruction of the components and stages of this ritual practice. The animal's head buried in a pit near the graves of people symbolises the whole animal which, it was believed, would accompany them to the other world. The closest parallel to this ritual in form and chronology is found in the Catacomb culture from the northwestern Caspian region, which can be considered as a direct or indirect source for the introduction of this ritual into the eastern steppes. With the economic and social transformations of the early second millennium BCEE, cattle were gradually supplanted by the horse in herders' ritual practices.