UST-IVANOVKA, RUSSIA—According to the Siberian Times, archaeologists have unearthed an unusual medieval-era burial in the Primorski Region of Russia’s Far East. Dating from the seventh to ninth centuries, the remains belonged to a man in his twenties who was buried in a manner that seemed to the team to resemble a dance pose, with his feet crossed and knees wide open. No similar examples of such an orientation are known from burials found nearby, and physical anthropologists speculate it could be the result of the man's feet having been bound prior to burial. His arms also appear to have been tied up in some way. Archaeologists recovered arrow tips that were laid on top of the body, perhaps as part of a burial ritual, although one tip might have actually penetrated the bone, and could have been the cause of the man's death. To read about the excavation of a medieval site in Siberia, go to “Fortress of Solitude.”
