Cist (redirected from Cists)

cistvaen, kistvaen

cistvaen

A Celtic sepulchral chamber of flat stones set together like a box, and covered by a tumulus.

---

Cist 

(stone chest), a rectangular burial structure consisting of upright stone slabs supporting several roofing slabs. Cists were widely used during the Bronze Age and were associated with different archaeological cultures. They were used for individual and group burials. Barrows were sometimes constructed over the cists. In the USSR, the burial tradition in cists is evident in almost all regions of the Caucasus (until the 19th century in the northern Caucasus) and also in the Crimea, where it was most characteristic of the Tauri. The cists of the Tauri (second half of the first millennium b.c.) contain flexed collective burials; bronze ornaments and beads were found in the burials.

REFERENCES

Krupnov, E. I. Drevniaia istoriia Severnogo Kavkaza. Moscow, 1960.
Leskov, A. M. “Rannetavrskie mogil’niki gornogo Kryma.” In the collection Skifo-sarmatskoe vremia. Leningrad, 1961. Pages 104–13.