ON THE UNIQUE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN SARAPUL (JOINT BURIALS IN OPOLZIN)
The article deals with two joint burials which were accidentally found near Opolzin in Sarapul city in 1909. According to local ethnographers and historians (N.N. Blinov, F.V.Streltsov, V.Emelyanov), in one grave Orthodox people with crosses were buried, while in the other - Muslims or pagans without any inventory. It was believed that their deaths were caused by epidemic of plague. However, a more truthful version of these burials is the following: during the winter dead bodies were accumulated in the shelter located on the «Startseva Mountain». After he incoming of spring the Orthodox people were buried in one grave, and people of other confessions - in another. D. Printts, J. Fletcher, A. Oleary, J. Streiss - foreigners who visited Russia in XVI-XVII - describe such shelters with plenty of dead people, who were buried in collective ditches or joint burials after the incoming of spring.