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One barrow itemised
in the chart under No.1, was dug up in 2000. The mound was preserved at a height
of 15-20 cm and stood out against the ploughed land as a patch of heavily burnt
soil. The initial size of the mound did not exceed 15 m across its diameter.
Since the land had been repeatedly ploughed, some articles and bones contained
in the mound appeared to be defective. There was no grave pit as such, all the
burial place was located in a lenslike cavity in the centre of the barrow. No
traces of robbery could be noted.
Human bones (not less than two
persons) mixed with those of horses and sheep, were found in the burial place.
The bones, human bones included, were partially burnt. Besides, there was a
bronze cauldron, a brazier (presumably for burning hemp in a Scythian
bath-house), moulded clay vessels, arms (an iron dagger, bronze arrowheads of
various types and one iron arrowhead). Of special interest were some harness
fragments manufactured in a Scythian "Animal Art" style. These were
four bronze pendants in the form of cast volumetric small wolf heads, a fragment
of a snaffle with some predator's (panther?) head on its end, a bronze ornament for horse
head in the form of a big-eared beast and a metal plate with a complicated
composition on it. Most interesting was also a bronze plate shaped as a right
hand palm.
The complex can be dated between the
end of the 5th - the beginning of the 4th century B.C. There is every reason to
consider it as a cenotaph or a funeral-ritual complex with a human sacrifice.
Such monuments are known to have existed in the Scythian-Savromatian life. The
excavations were carried out (under the guidance of Prof. V.Ye.Maksimenko and
V.V.Klyutchnikov) by a group of Russian volunteers. As the volunteers were
immensely pleased by not only the work at the barrow itself, but the marvellous
nature of the land, the picturesque Cossack village named Krasnodonetskaya, the
bathing in the Seversky Donets river, it was decided to organize a large
international camp at the site next year and attract devotees from abroad there.
On the work of this international group in 2001 see>>
CHASTIYE KURGANY 2000
CHASTIYE KURGANY 2001
CHASTIYE KURGANY 2002
CHASTIYE KURGANY 2003
CHASTIYE KURGANY 2004
