The expedition of archaeologists of the KarRC RAS and Chupa local historians to the Loukhsky region of Karelia ended with a real scientific sensation.
At the end of August, on the shores of the White Sea near the village of Keret, on an area of about a hectare, the remains of large dwellings of ancient people were discovered and partially excavated, located in three lines of 20, 10 and 5-6 semi-dugouts. One of them consists of 12 "rooms". In another, archaeologists unearthed a hearth, pottery, and a hunting dart made from slate.
According to the conclusion of the scientific leader of the expedition, Nadezhda Lobanova, the settlement dates back to the era of early metal, it is about five thousand years old - this is the time of the birth of the civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Sumer. In the primitive city, as archaeologists called it, hunters for sea animals spent the winter.
- About the pits - traces of dwellings of ancient people - we were informed last year by the local historian Yuri Rybakov. In October, we came here and made sure that there was something to do - the pits were like those that we had previously examined near Sumostrov, - Nadezhda Lobanova told us. - We received a grant from the Russian Geographical Society for these studies and went to explore the Karelian coast in the summer. What we found at Kereti exceeded all our expectations. It's a pity that we didn't have much time for work. I think that in future seasons (of course, in the case of a new grant), we will have new wonderful discoveries here.
However, the city where the contemporaries of the Egyptian pharaohs lived was not the only discovery of this expedition. A new find awaited archaeologists at the Ivankovskaya tone, a kilometer from the ancient settlement. Yuri Rybakov drew attention to the fact that the stones covered with moss near the sea coast seem to form a kind of circular figure. As a result, a round labyrinth with a diameter of 11 meters was discovered, located three meters above sea level.
According to Lobanova, this monument has nothing to do with the ancient settlement: the approximate age of the find is Peter's time, late 17th - early 18th centuries. It is known that fishing on the Ivankovskaya tone already existed at that time, which suggests an assumption about the fishing purpose of the find.
- Who built the maze? Well, certainly not the Sami, such buildings are not typical for their culture at all, and they were not engaged in sea fishing. And then, in those days, the Old Believers Pomors hunted here, and they would hardly have tolerated any attributes of paganism near their homes, - Nadezhda Lobanova comments.
“Of course, this is an archaeological event of Russian significance,” the scientist assessed the results of the expedition. - For the last half century, no such labyrinths have been found in the country. And the settlements of the inhabitants of the III millennium BC do not come across to us every day.
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In total, there are several hundred stone labyrinths of various configurations in the world, of which 300 are in Sweden, 140 in Finland, 40 in Russia, mainly on the islands of the White Sea. Opened in Karelia by the expedition of Lobanova and Rybakov - only the fourth of its kind in the republic.
Researchers have many versions about the origin of the labyrinths, their purpose and the builders of these mysterious structures, but the secrets of these stone circles have not yet been revealed to science.
