The ancient sculpture of the animal was given for some reason to a local forester …
As a layman, I am extremely incomprehensible to the current state of the excavated complex of the Silver Kurgan. If the mound was not previously opened (that is, through the centuries it retained all its design features and was not subjected to the merciless impact of time and the environment with anthropogenic factors), it was dug up consistently by the professional hands of archaeologists, moreover, relatively recently - then why today we have so many lost, its destroyed fragments ??
The question hangs in the void …
We leave the mound 11 and move behind the tomb to the northwest into the forest, where after 25 meters we see the slabs of a small tomb with the remains of a high mound. These are traces of N. I. Veselovsky, made by him in 1898.
At the end of the century before last, the professor unearthed here his first Novosvobodnensky mound at number 1 (number 26 according to the modern numbering of Rezepkin).
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The mound reached a height of ten meters and contained a two-chamber dolmen-like tomb.
A distinctive feature of the tomb was a gable roof, built of two long slabs. The walls are also made of slabs, well hewn and carefully fitted. Their thickness is not the same - from 18 to 27 centimeters. A wide menhir adjoined the close to the outer low wall-vestibule.
The chambers of the tomb were not uniform in size and were divided by a transverse slab with a rectangular opening 38x27 cm, tightly packed with a stone plug of the same shape. The floor in the large chamber consisted of a massive stone slab, and in the smaller one was earthen.
The tomb contained one burial (a skeleton crumpled on its side, sprinkled with red paint), as well as a varied, rich inventory. Many objects were made of precious metals and precious stones, which indicated the special position that the deceased occupied in the family.
Unfortunately, the century-old existence of the excavated tomb did not spare the unique "roof" and menhir of the structure - they were broken, however, the remains of the tomb were recently cleared by enthusiastic archaeologists and today they look like this.
Immediately behind this mound, 25 meters to the northwest, there is a second mound (No. 27), excavated by N. I. Veselovsky in the same year. Under it was also discovered a dolmen-like tomb with the same burial ceremony as in the first burial mound.
The difference was that here the structure had not a gable roof, but a flat one, consisting of two slabs (a mistake was made in the archive drawing: one floor slab is shown, perhaps the error is due to the fact that when clearing the tomb, the second slab, structurally lying under the first, was crushed and fell partially into the second compartment).
A round hole 40 cm in diameter was made in the middle transverse slab separating the two chambers. It was filled with a stone, extremely accurately fitted circle, which in turn was filled from the side of the second room with a special shutter in the form of a stone semicircle.
In a cell with a stone floor lay the dead man and various implements.
A cache in the form of a small rounded depression was arranged over the head of the deceased in a side slab; it contained thick and thin gold rings and gold, silver and carnelian beads strung on a red braided cord.
In the second section of the tomb, items of jewelry and various utensils were also found. The inventory of this tomb was much more modest and simpler.
The walls of the tomb bore traces of painting.
In addition to the sketches of the tombs provided by Veselovsky in his handwritten report, he mentions 10 photographs attached to the report, capturing views of the kurgans, tombs and burials. However, at present, none of these photographs have been found.
A long time after the excavations, the tomb was a pitiful ruin: without a roof, without two side plates, without the lost plug of the inlet, deeply sunk into the ground at the level of the manhole.
Tomb before clearing
Currently, the tomb has been cleared, the soil has been removed from the base of the slabs, in a word, it has been given at least some presentable appearance.
Moving further northwest
After 25 meters - a small hollow. There is nothing reminiscent of the burial mound 28 that once existed here.
The fact is that in this burial mound, excavated in 1982 by the Maikop detachment of the Kuban expedition of the Leningrad Department of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a unique dolmen-like tomb of the Bronze Age with wall paintings was discovered.
Using the accounting documents from the rakopoks, we will try to restore the appearance of the tomb.
In fact, this is the same two-chamber scheme, with a frontal dolmen slab separating the rooms, and side and end walls made of sandstone deepened into the ground (unlike the previous tombs, the bottom of the tomb was not decorated with slabs).
Only one (main) chamber was covered with a cover plate. The side slabs of the auxiliary (outer) chamber are made from slab fragments.
The tomb contained the skeleton of a woman with a comparatively modest inventory.
The most remarkable thing was the painting on the walls of the outer chamber.
Three walls of the cell were covered with paintings. The fourth, the front one, consisted of four slabs, one of which was also covered with painting, but not from the inside, like the previous slabs, but from the outside.
The painting is two-tone, ocher-red and black, applied to a white base, a thin layer of which was covered with the walls of the tomb. The painting occupies 5.5 m2 of the total area.
The southeast wall of the tomb is split into three parts. The fourth part (the upper corner closest to the transverse plate with a hole) has been lost.
Along the perimeter of the slab there are images of running "horses" elongated in a chain. Five of them are well preserved, and traces of paint are visible from 9 more. The images are painted in red, only the short manes, hooves, the ends of the muzzles and tails are painted in black. The center of the slab is occupied by a human figure sitting in full face with legs spread out in both directions and slightly bent at the knees. Hands with outstretched fingers are also spread out in both directions. The upper part of the body is poorly preserved, but the rest of the body shows that instead of the head there is a protrusion, from which both arms extend. The middle part of the body is occupied by a rectangle made in black paint, into which the second is inscribed, divided in the middle by a longitudinal line. The arms and the ledge in place of the head are made with red paint, the legs are black, but around the entire perimeter they are surrounded by a red stripe 2-3.5 cm wide.
Cross plate with hole. On the left side of the slab there is a stylized figure of a headless man with an outstretched right hand stretched over a quiver and a bow. The left arm is bent so that part of the arm hangs parallel to the body. Something like a "cape" is thrown over the upper part of the body. Its lower edge is framed by a “fringe” of short lines made in black and red paints. The body in the lower part smoothly tapers and bifurcates into two legs, standing on an oval-shaped figure.
The hands are three-fingered. The figure is executed in black paint, only the hands and lines that run in the middle of the entire torso and legs are made in red. Lines running in the middle of the arms and along the "cape" are made with red paint: two - on the right side, two - on the left. On the "cape" they run from top to bottom and parallel to each other. On the right side of the slab is a quiver. It is located vertically. The quiver consists of three parts: the first is located in the upper part and is a rectangle made with black paint, with its open ends resting on the body of the quiver.
The "quiver" and the image of a person were overlapped by a "bow", judging by the double bend, complex. The drawing is located horizontally, executed in red paint with randomly applied black dots located in the middle of the object.
In view of the great importance of the found tomb for the study of early metal art, the walls of the structure were removed by archaeologists and transported to the repository of the National Museum of the Republic of Adygea (three slabs with drawings are displayed in the "Age of Bronze" exposition, the rest are kept in storerooms).
The true meaning of the drawings still remains a great mystery and a subject of controversy among scientists.
And we are moving forward again.
Once again, after 25 meters, a surprise awaits us - a tomb with a preserved gable roof, barely distinguishable from a distance, peeping out of a low, densely wooded mound (No. 30). This structure is practically identical in its design and appearance to the tomb from mound 26.
The same small walls (140 cm wide), a roof like that of a rural house, a small open outer chamber resembling a courtyard, a stone floor inside the main chamber and a menhir "guarding" the front slab.
For preservation, after the study, archaeologists left one (right) sector of the embankment.
The purpose of small stone fragments protruding from the ground along the perimeter of the tomb's roof is not clear. It is very likely that these are the remains of menhirs.
Today the tomb exists in a satisfactory condition and it is possible to recreate the appearance of a similar structure excavated by Veselovsky using it.
This is the last "whole" megalithic monument from the excavated mounds of the "Klady-1" group.
But, if you go forward another 130 meters, you can see in the grass the corner remains of the walls of the famous tomb of mound 31.
Indeed, if we call the Novosvobodnenskoe tract the word "Treasures", it is mainly due to the treasures of this particular tomb.
Kurgan Rezepkin and his team studied back in 1979-1980.
It was a round earthen embankment 67 meters in diameter and only 4 meters high. The soil of the embankment in the course of the research was the oldest of all the burial grounds of the tract.
It is interesting that one of the slopes of the mound kept traces of a predatory manhole, 2 meters deep. The ill-fated "black" diggers just a few meters did not reach the rich burials …
Archaeologists here have excavated 5 burials, two of which were buried in a typical two-chamber tomb. It was a small structure: height - 80 cm, average width - 120 cm (the vestibule was slightly smaller than the main chamber), made of limestone and sandstone, covered with two cover plates. There was a dug-in support pillar (height 81 cm, width 28 cm) in tight to the vestibule, on which the ceiling of the additional chamber rested. The floor of the main chamber consisted of two slabs.
The peculiarity of the construction of the structure was that the floor slabs of the burial chamber fell in the middle of the round hole in the dividing plate.
In the first cell, two skeletons - an adult and a child - lay in a crumpled position on the stone floor.
The burials were distinguished by an extraordinary wealth of implements. The cells were filled with dozens of things in two or three layers!
There are about fifty things made of bronze and silver alone, including seven bronze vessels, two bronze hooks, five bronze axes, and one of them is an ax-scepter with a wooden handle wrapped in a silver ribbon, small daggers, adzes, chisels, awls, bronze standard in the form of a circle with a sleeve.
Unique is the 63.5 cm long bronze double-edged sword - this is the oldest bronze sword in Europe!
In addition to metal tools and weapons, two sculptured figures of dogs made of bronze with silver overlays were found. Stone products were also found: a flint ax, a dagger, arrowheads, and a sculpture of a bull.
More than two hundred beads and other adornments made of carnelian, rock crystal, gold and silver were found in the grave.
In the second chamber, which was separated from the first transverse slab with a round hole, the earthen floor was covered with pebbles and did not contain a burial. Here were the bones of animals - the remains of burial food, and along the western wall there were six clay vessels.
The most valuable and interesting materials from this monument are kept in the State Historical Museum, State. The Hermitage and the National Museum of Adygea.
Blown beads. Gold. Kurgan No. 31
A miniature silver dog with traces of repair. Kurgan No. 31
Gold necklace
If you still wander through the forest in the direction to the northwest, you can find the ruins of several more tombs and traces of dug burial mounds.
And our interest is transferred to the southern group of mounds, the so-called "Klady-2".
We return to the tomb of the Silver Barrow, and along the packed road we move about a kilometer down in the direction to the southeast.
And so, in the thickets of young maples and hazel, a classic large dolmen lurked, at first glance.
This is the tomb of burial 2 of mound 39.
Surprisingly, the burial structures of the southern group of burial mounds in the Klada tract are much closer to the dolmens.
Floor slabs (rear view)
Here in 1989 A. D. Rezepkin unearthed the very extraordinary and monumental megalithic complex, part of which was discovered by N. L. Kamenev back in 1869.
A mound with a height of only 4.5 meters and a diameter of 60 meters with a stone earth embankment was chosen for the study.
Two burials were discovered in it.
Burial No. 1 was the remains of a completely destroyed (large predatory funnel) multifaceted tomb.
Burial No. 2 was a two-chambered dolmen-like tomb, somewhat different in design from its counterparts in the Treasure-1 group.
There was no burial in the second burial, but there was an imitation of a burial with a wooden anthropomorphic figure, which suggests that it was a dedication burial.
The burials were made in the mound of an older mound that already existed.
Unfortunately, at the time of excavation, only remains of the multifaceted tomb remained (a round stone slab-base, one or two triangles from the tent, a damaged facade slab with a square hole and a stone plug, and small fragments).
Later, the fragments left by archaeologists on the dumps of the excavated mound were taken away by local residents.
The fate of the basement slab of the tomb looks rather vague.
Despite the importance of this artifact, instead of a museum display, the slab took the place of a step on the porch of a local beekeeper's house.
The slab was first placed under the door and rubbed off with your feet. And recently, it was generally poured with cement in a level with a concrete floor.
This is how the basement of the tomb initially looked (you can clearly see the hole in the center for installing some kind of support for the roof structure)
Later photo. The plinth is filled with concrete
The current state of the artifact
But it was a rare and majestic megalithic monument!
From the multifaceted tomb there was a paved path that turned into a stone corridor (it was precisely this that NL Kamenev observed in 1869), which in turn flowed into the portal slabs of a large tomb, similar to a dolmen.
Left portal wall
Right portal wall
Initially, it was a two-chambered tomb with a main chamber, covered with two cover slabs (large - lower and small - upper), bounded by a dividing transverse slab with a round hole, tightly plugged with a massive stone plug (now lost); and an external (front) chamber, also bounded by a vertical plate with a similar hole (now split into two parts and lying on the ground).
In general, it is difficult to name a two-chamber structure with accuracy, no overlap over the anterior chamber was found. In addition, there are no high-quality technological joints between the elements of the first and second chambers. Perhaps we are dealing with a kind of semi-covered courtyard, added later.
Upon closer examination, the tomb reveals clear differences from the dolmen culture.
The first is the extreme carelessness in adjusting the slabs (dolmen builders always carefully connected slab joints).
The second is the ill-conceived structure: one side slab rests on the floor slab, and small stones are placed under the other. The falling wall is supported by one buttress. The symmetrical severity inherent in dolmens is absent.
Third, the additional frontal slab does not at all fit into the canons of dolmen construction.
Fourth, for some reason a layer of pebbles was poured over the classic floor of massive slabs.
Interesting fragments were found in the thickness of the mound: three parts of another painted slab (with the symbols of the world tree and mountain). The identity of this artifact has not been established.
Preserved fragments in the National Museum of the Republic of Adygea
Both tombs of mound 39 were a single architectural ensemble.
And both suffered significantly at the hands of a man; loggers crushed some slabs near the tomb with heavy machinery; in pursuit of the treasure, they hooked the roof of the tomb with a cable and tore off both of its slabs …
Until recently, the plug was in place …
One half of the outer front plate
Second half
A few years later, the roof was put back in place. But, of course, for the construction, such a shake-up did not pass painlessly (crack on the front slab, uneven floor level).
Twenty meters to the south of the tomb of mound 39, one can see powerful dumps of another mound.
A mound with serial number 40, in the depths of which two tombs were built. And these are almost real dolmens.
In 1989, Rezepkin uncovered here a huge burial structure made of three-meter slabs.
It looks like a single-chamber portal-type dolmen (the largest in the Caucasus! - in terms of its dimensions it is larger or equal to our megalithic giants - the Dzhubga dolmen, the dolmens of the Novy settlement and the destroyed Bolshoy Adegoy dolmen).
The only and striking difference of this artifact from the dolmen culture was the construction of the chamber. Due to the large size and mass of the cover slab, a unique limestone column with a ribbed capital and a thickening in the middle was used as an additional support for it, resting against a special socket under its base in the floor. The column was located there in the thickness of the mound. It was saved.
There was also discovered another small single-chamber tomb with well-fitted slabs and a round cork, apparently indistinguishable from a dolmen.
The construction is related to the above-described Novosvobodnensk tombs by the absence of a fundamental foundation (the side slabs were dug into the ground according to the scheme already known to us) and a pebble bedding at the bottom of the chamber, reaching the lower edge of the hole.
The investigated megalithic structures of the fortieth mound by archeologists were again covered with soil for preservation.
However, over time, the walls of both tombs are gradually exposed.
Great Tomb Portal Slab
The material is similar to the slabs of the Silver Barrow Tomb (shell rock)
Great Tomb Cover Slab
The ratio of the cover and left side (portal) slabs - one can imagine the colossal dimensions of the building
Covering and right portal slabs (top view)
From what was removed from the area and preserved in the exposition "The Age of Bronze" of the National Museum of the Republic of Adygea, in addition to the three slabs of the painted tomb, there is a stump of an engraved slab from the Serebryany mound (the location of the main part of the slab is unknown), a column from mound 40, square a socket from the multifaceted hip-roofed tomb of mound 39 and two fragments from a slab (stella?) from the strata of mound 39 (the third fragment found is unknown where).
But it could be an interesting excursion object. Even a whole "archaeological reserve".
Vlad Seledtsov