Chaatas

(Khakass, “stone of war”), the name of burial grounds and of the archaeological culture widespread in the sixth to ninth centuries in the Minusinsk Basin, in the basin of the Abakan and Enisei rivers, mainly in the Khakass Autonomous Oblast. The stone mounds are surrounded by vertical stone slabs and stelae, sometimes with Orkhon-Enisei inscriptions. The square grave pits beneath the barrows contained cremations and vessels with remnants of food and drink. The large barrows of the aristocracy, which measured up to 30 m in diameter and contained gold and silver vessels, weapons, harnesses, and other objects (see, for example, KOPENY CHAATAS), were surrounded by smaller barrows of ordinary commune members.