The “Internal” Ethnic Communities in Khazaria 253
Sarmatian heritage (they are found both during the Middle Sarmatian period
and in the Late Sarmatian one). She also includes Voznesenka among them.
This burial tradition, widespread in Eastern Europe and in Middle Asia, does
not have a direct connection to the Turkic memorial temples. It can be traced
in various types of burials that were typical for the European steppe between
the fifth and the seventh centuries.129 Presently, it is quite possible that the
moat burials could turn out to be Bulgar.130 Ultimately, scientists have not yet
found a necropolis or a burial type that could be identified as Khazar with any
certainty. The lack of sufficient knowledge about regions, presumably inhab-
ited by Khazars, along with the possibility that the Khazars remained nomads
(and therefore did not have sedentary settlements and necropoles) both hin-
der the discovery of undisputedly Khazar monuments. It is presumed that the
main pastures of the Khazars were in the Kalmyk Steppe, where burial mounds
surrounded by moats have been found. S. Pletneva does not rule out the pos-
sibility that Khazar settlements may also be unearthed there.131
In his examination of the burials with square moats G. Afanas’ev for no
apparent reason states that they do not have a parallel in preceding traditions,
with the exception of the Sarmatian monuments. He associates the Bulgar
burial (pit) rite with the Alans (who were descendants of the Sarmatians)
and highlights its existence from ancient times. According to the historian,
it thus “becomes clear” that the Bulgars, whom he calls “Pseudo-Bulgars”, dif-
fered anthropologically from the Turkic population of the Trans-Ural Region.132
However, the anthropological proximity of the Bulgars to the late Sarmatians
was clarified already in the 1950s, when the necropolis near Novi Pazar in
made by Stanilov 2003a, 48–50 and 2006, 182–184; Rashev 2007a, 105–110; Baranov 1990,
113–115.
129 Flerova 2001b. In Tortika’s opinion, it is possible that Voznesenka could have been a
memorial complex, left by a Khazar border unit (Tortika 2006a, 85). He also acknowledges
its relation to the cremation burials in some Saltovian necropoles. According to Tortika
2006a, 104–105, the ones buried there are local noblemen, whose ancestors “played a
major role in the steppe regions of Southeast Europe during pre-Saltovian times”. Or they
could also be Bulgar noblemen.
130 Pletneva 2005, 23. There is also a theory which associates this type of burial monuments
with the Pechenegs. See Armarchuk 2000, 108–109.
131 Pletneva 1999, 203–205; the lack of undisputable Khazar monuments could also mean
that the Khazars were concentrated in the main urban centers (which is quite probable
in view of the “Khazar” burial rite in the Verkhnii Chiriurt necropolis) (see also Pletneva
1982, 51 and 99).
132 Afanas’ev 2001.