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Religious Image of the Population of the North-Western Caucasus in 8th–15th Centuries: Christianity and the Pagan Cults
Throughout the Middle Ages in the North-West Caucasus has spread Byzantine Christianity, and in the last two centuries of this period – Catholicism. Against the background of long-adopted Christianity, that gained all the external attributes of institutionalization, the population of Zikhia during the whole period continued to bury the dead is not according to Christian rites. The main type of burial – inhumation (in the ground or a mound, often in a stone box), without any Christian attributes, but with weapon, equestrian equipment, and sacrifi cial horses.
Quite strikingly the Circassian funerary practice distanced itself from the Christian tradition by the mass use of the cremation of the deceased’s body. In the Christian religion there was a categorical ban on cremation, and any other forms of destruction of the dead body. Circassian language preserved some relic forms, which are a kind of reminder of the distant epoch when the ancestors burned the dead.
Another bright hallmark of religious life of Circassians was the rite of the so-called “airy burial”. This ritual is a clear marker not only Circassian culture, but also the medieval Abkhazian ethnos. It remained until the middle of the 19th century in vestigial form. Typologically Caucasian ritual of “airy burial” can be compared with the preliminary “airy burials” in Zoroastrianism.
Biritualizm of the funeral rites for more than fi ve centuries was an integral feature of the funerary practices of the Northwest Caucasian population. It is very likely that the cremation rite in Circassia became a kind of conceptual continuation of the “airy burial”. In this regard, cremation is a crucial way to the destruction of the flesh. A typical remark about cultural image of Circassians was a statement that they are “bad Christians” (or “bad Muslims”). An instability of monotheistic ideas and the power of the pagan cults did Circassians in the eyes of Greeks, Turks and Arabs in a sort of “evil pagans”.
Quite strikingly the Circassian funerary practice distanced itself from the Christian tradition by the mass use of the cremation of the deceased’s body. In the Christian religion there was a categorical ban on cremation, and any other forms of destruction of the dead body. Circassian language preserved some relic forms, which are a kind of reminder of the distant epoch when the ancestors burned the dead.
Another bright hallmark of religious life of Circassians was the rite of the so-called “airy burial”. This ritual is a clear marker not only Circassian culture, but also the medieval Abkhazian ethnos. It remained until the middle of the 19th century in vestigial form. Typologically Caucasian ritual of “airy burial” can be compared with the preliminary “airy burials” in Zoroastrianism.
Biritualizm of the funeral rites for more than fi ve centuries was an integral feature of the funerary practices of the Northwest Caucasian population. It is very likely that the cremation rite in Circassia became a kind of conceptual continuation of the “airy burial”. In this regard, cremation is a crucial way to the destruction of the flesh. A typical remark about cultural image of Circassians was a statement that they are “bad Christians” (or “bad Muslims”). An instability of monotheistic ideas and the power of the pagan cults did Circassians in the eyes of Greeks, Turks and Arabs in a sort of “evil pagans”.
Christianity, diocese of Zikhia, paganism, biritualizm, cremation, “airy burial”