Yevgeny P. Denisov

Keywords: wood, a grave pit, undercut, burials, Danghara, Tajikistan, Wusun, Yuezhi, nomads, Early Kushan period.

The article considers a barrow cemetery Ksirov situated on the Danghara Plain in the valley of the Kizilsu River of the Khatlon Oblast (former Kulob Oblast) of Southern Tajikistan. Mostly the burial ground is presented by usual grave pits without undercut, far more rarely – with undercut (which makes them common with the Wusun burials of Zhetysu and Northern Tian Shan). In the filling of the former the wood is frequently used which is interpreted as the remains of the wooden covering. Analyzing the amount of finds of the wooden dust and rickers from the filling of the burials of another burial ground of Southern Tajikistan and finds from the burial ground Ksirov, the author concludes that Ksirov was different from another synchronic site of Northern Bactria–Tokharistan. In his opinion, the buried persons in the grave pits of Ksirov are the people known in Chinese annals as Yuezhi.