“Lower Don Chastyie Kurgany – 2003”

In 2003 a group of Rostov University students and another group of Stavropol Teachers Training Institute students united under the leadership of Prof. V.Ye.Maksimenko to form an archaeological expedition which proceeded with the dig of the Chastyie Kurgany burial ground. The following two Early Bronze Age barrows were excavated.

1. Barrow No. 17. Raised in the Early Bronze Age above a child's grave. The barrow contained no goods, yet found were some pottery fragments referred to the same period. Besides, the barrow had two secondary Srubnaya culture burials (one in a sandstone plate box containing a ceramic pot, and another in a box made of wood with no goods in it) and one secondary Early Iron Age burial (with a fragment of a tiny moulded vessel and a piece of rosin). The same barrow contained two medieval burials of horse skins with skulls and limb bones.

2. Barrow No. 28. Raised in the Early Bronze Age above a group grave. The entrance to the burial catacomb was heaped up with stones. The buried people were a man, a woman and a child who all lay in a writhed, head-to-west position. The grave contained a small hammer-shaped bone pin ringed with thin cut-in hatched bands. The same barrow contained two secondary children’s catacomb burials (goods: braziers of ceramic fragments; ornamented pottery) and three secondary Srubnaya graves (goods: two vessels, one jar-shaped and another sharp-edged; bronze temporal pendants).

On the work of this international group in 2004 see>>

Pictures of the “Chastyie Kurgany – 2003” Expedition

Excavations and finds
In the camp

CHASTIYE KURGANY – 2000
CHASTIYE KURGANY – 2001
CHASTIYE KURGANY – 2002
CHASTIYE KURGANY – 2003
CHASTIYE KURGANY – 2004

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