The Ministry of Culture of Russia received the results of an examination of the megalithic complex near the village of Olkhovka in the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region. On the basis of these documents, the fate of the monument will be decided, which so far bears the status of an identified cultural heritage site. In the immediate vicinity of the complex, an elite cottage community is being built, and the city defenders say: the owner of the land is methodically destroying megaliths, which have already been nicknamed "Russian Stonehenge".
The village of Olkhovka, Priozersky District, is a well-known place for archaeologists. At the end of the 19th century, settlements and burial grounds dating back to the early Iron Age were discovered here. And in the 30s, scientists found strange stones on which small holes were squeezed out. Archaeologists call such objects "cups". In the early 80s, full-fledged archaeological research was carried out in Olkhovka. But the scientists did not rejoice for long. They did not succeed in exploring the monument to the end: stones, they are stones, even ritual ones. At the moment, no studies of the cups are being carried out, but the complex may not survive until full-scale excavations, since in recent years the construction of a cottage village has begun near the monument.
“Land management works are in full swing on the territory of the archaeological complex,” says Tatiana Kalashnikova, a city activist. - The workers responded to our appeals that this pile of stones is no longer needed. They have a task, they do it and that's it.
The nuance is that the megalithic complex is located in the most beautiful place of the Priozersky region, a stone's throw from Lake Sukhodolskoye. Back in the years of the USSR, a recreation center appeared on the coast. Now the local territories, which were once agricultural land, have lost this status and given over to cottage development. The plots near the lake are owned by several large companies that are laying communications and actively selling land to summer residents. Prices bite - a plot of ten acres costs from a million rubles. But this is so, a trifle, next to Olkhovka lots of plots of 50-70 acres are being sold in large quantities, they are asking for five million and more.
None of the builders demolishes the stones themselves. Megaliths have the status of objects of the identified cultural heritage, and any economic activity with them is prohibited. But the evil irony is that in 2013, when experts from the Institute for the History of Material Culture made the boundaries of the protected zones, the cups were not included in them all together, but separately. It turned out to be ten enclaves that cannot be touched. And the owner received the right to dispose of the land around the stones at his own discretion. Therefore, roads and engineering networks are laid next to the megaliths.
"The expertise performed does not give grounds to carry out state protection of the objects located in Olkhovka, as a single ensemble with a common border of the territory," the official response of the Leningrad Region Culture Committee says.
But the Ministry of Culture has the authority to make one large out of ten small protection zones so that it covers the entire monument. Then it will certainly not be possible to build roads next to the monument, just as it will not be possible to sell a plot with an ancient megalith to someone. Actually, activists hope for such a decision. But the result can be anything. The megalithic complex is considered an identified cultural heritage site, this is a border status, when the site seems to be interesting, but is not officially considered a monument yet. And the protection status can be removed from it. And they can leave the boundaries of the zone as it is. Thus, the story with Olkhovka is still in the air.
Vyacheslav Mizin, ethnographer:
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- I have been doing cup-makers near Olkhovka since 2001. For the Leningrad region and the entire North-West, this is a unique object. There are similar stones in small quantities in the area of the village of Yarkovo, which is near Priozersk, they are found on the island of Gogland, there was a cluster near the village of Krotovo. But now it has been destroyed. In Russian archeology, the topic of cult stones is now somewhat pushed into the background, since during excavations they provide very little factual material, that is, finds. This means that it is impossible to interpret these monuments in detail. Therefore, archaeologists primarily investigate burial grounds, settlements and settlements.
Vera Chereneva