Introduction Researchers of Buryat shamanism in the first half of the last century believed that the main funeral rite of shamans was their burning. This process was described in sufficient detail by the outstanding Buryat ethnographer M. N. Khangalov [1958, pp. 385-400]. There is also a report about the cremation ceremony by Professor B. E. Petri of Irkutsk State University (1928, pp. 71-73). Both descriptions are based on ethnographic data and, obviously, therefore repeat each other. According to researchers, the burial place of shamans is shamanic groves belonging to the same clan or ulus. These groves are located in the steppe, visible from afar. They are forbidden to cut down trees under the fear of serious retribution and even death, which corresponds to the Polynesian taboo [Khangalov, 1958, p. 389-390; Petri, 1928, p. 72]. This is probably why the literature of the first half of the last century, presumably even earlier, does not contain archaeological data on the funeral rites of shamans. However, in the course of intensive archaeological work in the Baikal region and Transbaikalia in the second half of the XX century. researchers found not only cremation sites, but also burials performed according to a ritual that was not typical for the total mass of graves under study, including medieval ones: the buried were laid face down in the grave [Khamzina, 1970, p. 11-12; Aseev, 1985, p. 161-171]. Apparently, the people buried in this way, for some reason, deserved special treatment. Researchers believe that they were servants of a cult, i.e. shamans. Therefore, there is a need to compare archaeological facts with ethnographic data and identify the types of funerary rites of shamanic burials. Artifacts and ethnographic data Archaeological studies in 1973-1974 showed that shamans were buried not only in shamanic groves, but also in taiga hard-to-reach places, as evidenced by archaeological materials reflecting the burning rites of cult ministers in the Baikal regi ... Read more