New monuments on the territory of the Ural region
The expedition of the Ural Pedagogical Institute excavated burial mounds in the Vishnevaya Balka tract, 5 km from the village of Krugloozernoye in the Belenov district and Kushum I on the right bank of the Dongulyuk reservoir, 11 km from the “Pervomaisky” state farm, Chapaev district, Ural region.
The burial mounds in the Vishnevaya Balka tract contained material from the Sarmatian period. Burial 4 of kurgan 1 is of the most significant interest. The burial was made in a rectangular pit. The buried in an extended position on his back is oriented to the southwest. A ceramic spindle whorl and a miniature bronze cast cauldron with a spherical body and a round leg without a pallet were found here. Two arched handles are decorated with three protrusions in the form of buttons. A groove runs below the edge, and notches along the widest part of the body. The height of the boiler without the leg is 1.8 cm.
The Kushum I group consists of six mounds stretched in a chain from west to east. Four burial mounds of the Sarmatian period have been excavated. The burials were located in rectangular and side-wall pits, with ledges and mounds. The most characteristic features of the burial rite for the entire group are recorded in barrow 2. Burial 2 in barrow 2 in the side-pit.
The entrance to the lining was closed with vertically dug logs connected by transverse planks. The graves are lined with bark. The buried lay in an extended position on his back, with his head to the east-southeast. The headless carcass of a ram was laid at the feet. The inventory is represented by a ceramic incense burner, a fragment of a bronze mirror with a roller around the edge, agate and glass corrugated beads with internal gilding, a miniature egg-shaped bronze cauldron with a foot-tray.
In burial 5 of the same mound, a processed tubular bone of a large animal was found, probably used as a quiver, as well as two molded vessels (ovoid-shaped with a tuck-handle at the edge and a pear-shaped jug).
Burials near Vishnevaya Balka and in the Kushum I group date back to the 4th-2nd centuries BC, belong to the Prokhorovka culture and are very similar to the South Ural group's monuments of this time.