Abakan is a young city, built, as we used to think, mainly in the Soviet years. Meanwhile, people on the site of the future capital of the Republic of Khakassia have lived since ancient times: on the territory of the modern city, more than 30 archaeological sites of different times, mainly burial grounds, from the Stone Age to ethnographic modern times have been discovered. One of these burials (at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) was recently discovered in the very center of Abakan - on Lenin Avenue during excavation work.
In September, on the site on the odd side of Lenin Avenue (from building No. 49 to the intersection with Chkalov St.), the builders opened the roadway in connection with the laying of engineering networks of water supply and drainage to the house under construction. The work was planned to be completed within two months. However, in the course of the work, the utilities found a section of the burial ground, therefore, according to federal legislation, the contractor, upon detecting signs of burial, suspended work and provided the excavated section to archaeologists. However, it is not necessary to say that the utilities have made, albeit an accidental, archaeological discovery. This burial ground has been known to archaeologists since the 40s of the twentieth century.
According to the archaeologist, the excavated site of the burial ground is part of the cemetery of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, where Christianized Khakases are buried. This, according to the expert, is evidenced by a mixture of Orthodox Christian traditions and traditional Khakass ritual culture.
According to the legislation, if an archaeological monument is discovered during excavation or construction work, measures must be taken to preserve it. Measures can be of two types: either the monument remains in place, respectively, construction work is stopped, this land plot is removed from the development zone, or scientific excavations are carried out. After the completion of the excavation, the land plot is transferred to the developer, construction continues. In the case of the burial ground "Kurgan burial ground Abakan-8 (National Bank)", the development of its territory began in the 1940s.
I ask a specialist if there have been cases in the history of modern Russia when archaeologists stopped construction?
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It is worth noting that the rescue excavations, according to experts, are expensive work, depending on the area, the number of monuments, the customer can cost from hundreds of thousands of rubles to hundreds of millions of rubles (for example, in the case of archaeological excavations on the territory of the future coal mine). Abakan is actively developing today - new microdistricts appear on previously undeveloped lands (the same 10th residential area). According to the law, the municipality also orders archaeological exploration when preparing land plots for sale. When forming land plots in the new Arban district, the developer, among other approvals, will coordinate the future construction with the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Cultural Heritage - that there are no archaeological monuments on this site.
Last year, during the construction of a heating main, another burial ground was discovered on the territory of the city (along Budyonny Street). At present, rescue excavations of this monument are continuing there. It turns out that both on Sogr and on Lenin Avenue new modern houses and heating mains are being built, albeit on the old burial site. Can people live in such a place? Are ghosts and various otherworldly phenomena just artistic "horror stories"?
In response to such a remark, I assume that all archaeologists are atheists, since they are not afraid to disturb the burials of past eras.
Olga KARACHAKOVA