A heavy stone calendar about 3,500 years old, discovered in the east of the Dobropolsky district, became a sensational find of the season in the Donetsk region
For the first time in many years, the employees of the department for the protection of archeological monuments of the Donetsk Regional Museum of Local Lore called journalists to show the "catch" of the year. And they still had something to brag about. I was especially impressed by the solid sandstone layer weighing over a hundred kg. He was photographed and filmed almost like a Hollywood star. But quite recently he rested underground in Popov Yar, which is on the border of the Dobropolsky and Konstantinovsky districts.
- There is a very interesting beam where lightning strikes almost always. The locals are afraid of this place. It seems that some kind of unusual energy is really concentrated in it, - said the head of the expedition, leading researcher of the department for the protection of archeological monuments, candidate of historical sciences Yuri Polidovich.
Scientists have thoroughly investigated five mounds. By agreement with the local authorities, the ancient monuments were not plowed up until the archaeologists finished the work.
- In the largest mound, a burial was found, which is about five thousand years old. Next to the bones of the deceased there is an image of feet painted with red mineral paint - ocher, - said Yuri Bogdanovich. - Probably, the idea of rebirth after death is laid here. There were quite a few burials of children, which is rare. Near the baby's remains, we found two vessels, one of which is decorated with pictogram images, the decoding of which is a matter of the future. We came across a rare pair burial of adolescents, next to which were laid bones from the legs of a lamb or a goat. Children in Mongolia and Kazakhstan still amuse themselves with such "toys".
Photo: Andrey Krivtsun / donbass.ua
Eduard Kravchenko shows the finds of the Sidorovsky archaeological site. On the table in front of him are the vessels found in the burial mounds of Popov Yar.
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The most surprising find is associated with the Late Bronze Age. This is a unique sand slab, dug with neat holes along the perimeter, and in the center it has a number of dashes. She covered one of the burials and became the main sensation of the season.
- We consulted with astronomers, and they confirmed a bold version that this is a kind of calendar, where the number of holes coincides with the cycles of the sun, and the number of features - with the cycles of the moon, - explains Polidovich. - On the back side of the stone, which is about 3.5 thousand years old, there are also similar images, but half-erased, as if there is a rough draft, but here, - he pats his hand on clearly visible grooves, - done clean.
According to archaeologist Anatoly Usachuk, a teenager was buried under this strange slab, possibly a student of the priest. “He was a representative of the first sedentary steppe people - the Srubniks,” explained Anatoly Nikolaevich. - These pagans lived from the Volga to the Dnieper, led a complex economy, built stone and wooden buildings, had chiefs-administrators, smelted bronze. The dead were buried in ground pits with stone ceilings, laying the dead in the sleeping position: on the left side, hands folded at the face.
Of the three burials dating back to the Middle Ages, the one where a warrior, presumably a Polovtsian, fell asleep in eternal sleep, was especially striking. “He was buried with an armor-piercing saber, a quiver. And a comrade-in-arms - a horse. Rationalism was then at its best: the meat was eaten, and the skin with the skull and legs was put in the grave. And the ceremony was observed, and there was enough for the commemoration,”Polidovich smiles.
It is interesting that the last refuge of the warrior, as well as the nearby female burial, was covered from above with … wheels.
A colleague of Polidovich and Usachuk, Eduard Kravchenko, worked at the largest archeological monument in the region (area - more than 120 hectares) - an archaeological complex near the village of Sidorovo (Slavyansky district). There they found many arrowheads, coins of the Arab Caliphate, interesting amulets.
And the specialists of the DOCM visited the Krasnodar Territory, where they studied the famous Scythian mound of the seventh century BC with the St. Petersburg scientists, and with the Moscow scientists they excavated a Christian church of the tenth century on the Sochi territory. The finds turned out to be so interesting that for the sake of them the plans for the Olympic development were even adjusted (as we recall, Sochi is going to host the 2014 Winter Games). And the bones found in the center of the altar (most likely - the relics of the martyrs) were transferred to the Parish of the Cathedral of St. Prince Vladimir being built nearby.