Prehistoric cemeteries in the Eastern European forest zone In post-glacial Europe, cemeteries of Stone Age hunter-gather communities are known from Portugal and Brittany in the west, across southern Scandinavia to the eastern Baltic. Well-studied burial sites have enabled archaeologists to draw a detailed picture of the development of funerary rites over space and time and their interdependency with other spheres of life such as settlement, subsistence and economy (Grünberg 2000; Terberger

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... 46-50). In southeastern Europe, two clusters of Mesolithic burial sites have been the focus of long-term multidisciplinary research: the graves of the Lepenski Vir ABSTRACT -Graves and their human remains not only shed light on burial customs and social structures of past populations, but also constitute an excellent archive of prehistoric environmental and living conditions. Especially 13 C/ 15 N isotope analysis has recently opened up promising perspectives for reconstructing changes in diet and their social, cultural and economic background. Such investigations have been started on material from the Stone and Early Metal Age hunter-gatherer cemetery of Sakhtysh IIa in the Upper Volga region of Central Russia, where 15 burials associated with the early Lyalovo culture (5 th mill. calBC) and 57 graves of the Volosovo culture (4 th -3 rd mill. calBC) have been excavated. In this paper, we present new AMS dates and isotopic data from four burials, two from the earlier and two from the later group. The results are discussed against the background of existing dates from Sakhtysh IIa burials and compared with information from other burial sites of Northern Europe. IZVLE∞EK -Grobovi in ≠love∏ki ostanki v njih ne osvetlijo le preteklih pogrebnih praks in dru∫benih struktur, ampak predstavljajo tudi ≠udovit arhiv prazgodovinskih okoljskih in ∫ivljenjskih pogojev. Predvsem analize izotopov 13 C in 15 N omogo≠ajo rekonstrukcijo sprememb v prehrani ljudi in nudijo podatke o njihovem dru∫benem, kulturnem in gospodarskem izvoru. Tak∏ne raziskave smo opravili na materialu iz kamene in zgodnje kovinske dobe na lovsko-nabiralni∏kem grobi∏≠u Sakhtysh IIa na podro≠ju zgornje Volge v centralni Rusiji, kjer smo izkopali 15 grobov iz zgodnje kulture Lyalovo (5. tiso≠letje calBC) in 57 grobov iz kulture Volosovo (4. do 3. tiso≠letje calBC). V ≠lanku predstavljamo nove AMS radiokarbonske datume in izotopske podatke iz ∏tirih grobov, po dva iz zgodnje in pozne faze na najdi∏≠u. Rezultate nato primerjamo z ∫e znanimi datumi iz najdi∏≠a Sakhtysh IIa in jih primerjamo z datumi iz drugih grobi∏≠ v Severni Evropi.