There is an opinion that the kurgans in Siberia once abounded in gold and silver things, but fell victim to the hillockers of the 17th-18th centuries. G. F. Miller reports that "people used to go to Siberia for grave-digging in large parties, and as if many of them had food for sable fishing." "Near the river. Iset and in a circle, - writes V. Radlov, - Russian people in Tatar graves or cemeteries dig all kinds of gold and silver things and dishes; on the river Irtysh rip apart the hillocks and find golden stirrups and bowls; in the graves 8-10 days from the city of Tomsk, they find among the ashes of the deceased a significant amount of gold, silver and copper, precious stones, especially sword handles and weapons."
Information about the "golden mounds" refers to the area of the Middle Yenisei, where, in particular, in the mounds of the Abakan and Sayan forts, there was, according to rumors, so much gold and silver that a spool of gold could be bought for half a dollar. However, attention is drawn to the fact that neither D. G. Messerschmidt, nor G. F. Miller could not even buy anything for the royal collection except copper items from the graves. Among the collections donated to Catherine I and Peter I, there are also no items from the r. Yenisei. The scientists themselves travelers Messerschmidt, Miller, Gmelin, Pallas and others did not find anything during the excavations except human bones and fragments of objects, and, meeting on their way mounds dug by bumpers, noted that the latter did not find any jewelry in them. In this regard, rumors seem to be especially fantastic, as if in the steppes of Siberia, in particular along the river. The Yenisei and its tributaries, they found in the graves whole gold chess pieces and large gold plates on which the corpses lay.
I. Kuznetsov-Krasnoyarsky noted that a large number of things made of gold and silver in the ancient graves of the southern part of the Yenisei province, as you know, do not occur, items made of precious metals are not often found on the surface, which is clearly seen from the reports of the Minusinsk Museum, their buying up. In 1898 he specially examined all the gold items in the museum. There were 15 of them, mostly small things, beads, small plaques, beads, pendants. The same situation persists to this day. The Krasnoyarsk archaeological expedition has excavated over 3200 graves from different periods. They contained: one gold and two silver rings of the Afanasiev period, a gold earring and a ring of the Andronovo time, an insignificant amount of small pieces of sheet gold that served as a lining of objects,one silver bowl and silver plaques from the belt of the Kyrgyz time. The lack of gold items can hardly be attributed to the robbers. Bugrovschiki dug a well, leaving archaeologists with things that they had not noticed, but among them there are no gold and silver. In addition, occasionally there are undisturbed graves or parts of graves with a complete set of things (Novaya Chornaya 1, near Lake Podgorny, a mound near the village of Saragash, etc.). In this case, is it possible to believe that the grave gold and silver fed the party of bugrovnikov, constituted an object of trade and had a certain price on the market? In addition, according to all witnesses, the Bugrovniki themselves were always poor.occasionally there are undisturbed graves or parts of graves with a complete set of things (Novaya Chornaya 1, near Lake Podgorny, a mound near the village of Saragash, etc.). In this case, is it possible to believe that the grave gold and silver fed the party of bugrovnikov, constituted an object of trade and had a certain price on the market? In addition, according to all witnesses, the Bugrovniki themselves were always poor.occasionally there are undisturbed graves or parts of graves with a complete set of things (Novaya Chornaya 1, near Lake Podgorny, a mound near the village of Saragash, etc.). In this case, is it possible to believe that the grave gold and silver fed the party of bugrovnikov, constituted an object of trade and had a certain price on the market? In addition, according to all witnesses, the Bugrovniki themselves were always poor.
S. V. Kiselev was the only archaeologist who was lucky enough to find silver and gold tableware in the Kyrgyz chaa-tas near the village. Kopeny, in the area where, according to Gmelin, gold and silver things are found in a fairly significant amount and where the famous buger Selenga robbed the graves for 30 years. The latter met silver, gilded and gold dishes in Kyrgyz graves. The very fact of S. V. Kiselev near the village. Kopen testifies to this possibility. Another thing is how often Selenga managed to find jewelry if he remained a beggar. It should be noted that the vessels from the Kopensky chaa-tas and the silver bowl from the excavations of the Krasnoyarsk expedition are imported things, of late origin. Consequently, they cannot testify in favor of the abundance of "burial gold", in any case,and Minusinsk mounds of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.
The question arises, how to explain the massive robbery of graves and the information of the muggers themselves about the gold they find in the mounds?
Excavations of the Krasnoyarsk expedition more than once succeeded in establishing the conditions for robbing graves. They, as it turned out, could have been disturbed at very different times and for different purposes. So the Afanasyevskaya grave No. 33 of the burial ground near the Afanasyevskaya mountain was robbed (or "desecrated") by contemporaries, when the bones were still held in place. In the Chernovoi Log burial ground, four graves of the Kamennolozhsk stage of the Karasuk culture were also robbed when the bundles had not decomposed yet (No. 3, 6, 11, 18). A similar picture is observed in the Karasuk burial ground Sukhoye Lake II.
Sometimes the older graves turned out to be destroyed inlet. Moreover, some of the things and skeletons could be thrown away. Examples are many of the Okunev graves, admitted to the Afanasievsk ones, and the Tashtyk ones, admitted to the Tagar ones.
Sometimes it is impossible to determine the time of the robbery, but it is clear that this happened in ancient times. In particular, under one of the graves of the Saragashi stage in the Sargov district there was a large robbed Afanasyevskaya grave. This means that the robbery took place before the beginning of the Saragashi stage of the Tagar culture.
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The most frequent cases of robbery of graves of the Bronze Age by the Tagar people. There are numerous Bainovsky, Podgornovsky and Tesinsky burials in the Karasuk and Kamennolozhsky boxes, and the rest of the Bronze Age graves in these burial grounds were robbed, and the Tagar ones were not touched (the Kamenny Log II, Karasuk I, Podsukhanikha burial grounds, etc.).
Thus, the massive robbery of ancient graves on the Yenisei should be attributed not only to the hillockers, but even more so to the contemporaries and subsequent tribes. Bugrovshchiki, probably, plundered the latest and most noticeable monuments - Saragash and Tesinsky graves, Tashtyk crypts and chaa-tasy. However, in these monuments, as mentioned above, apart from chaa-tas, there is no gold. In this regard, the observation of I. T. Savenkov, who apparently met with the hillockers of the 19th century. He noted that the hillockers speak confusedly about the burial mounds they excavate, they often cannot indicate the signs of the graves in which they find valuables, while gold in the graves is mainly found in ingots, which does not correspond to archaeological data. I. T. Savenkov made the original assumption that the bugrovniki passed off as burial gold thatwhat was mined by them in secret mines. This idea seems extremely interesting. Now there is no doubt that the percentage of burial mounds excavated by the mounds on the Yenisei is exaggerated, there was not a lot of gold in the graves, in any case, it was not enough to feed the artels of the mounds. At the same time, there are many gold placers here. At the beginning of the XIX century. they were found, in particular, in different places of the Kuznetsk Alatau, Western Sayan Mountains, in the upper reaches of the White and Black Yus rivers. In a number of cases, many ancient burial mounds appeared on the territory leased by the gold miners. So yes. Klements was going to excavate the Saragashinsky kurgan 8 km from the village. Chebakov at the capture of the gold miner Sazhin, but the latter did not allow. I. T. Savenkov, describing the excavations of the Podgorny burial mound on the Uzunchzhule brook, noted the presence of gold-bearing sands in the valley. From the placers of the Preobrazhensky mine along the creek. Uzunchulu D. A. Clements acquired two copper knives and a spear.
People from all regions of the country flocked to the mines, many single prospectors and even whole artels spent their whole lives in search of precious metal. Workers from the mines took part in archaeological excavations. YES. Clementz believed that such workers, although more expensive, were more profitable, for they were very attentive during excavations. True, gold mining was allowed. Moreover, in 1812 a decree was issued "On granting the right to all Russian subjects to search for and develop gold and silver ores with payment to the treasury of taxes" it is easy to cover up the true source - the secret mines. Thus, if we take the point of view of I. T. Savenkov, the myths about the fabulous riches of the Siberian burial mounds on the Yenisei, apparently, gave rise to the mounds themselves,wishing to keep the true sources of their income a secret from travelers.