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How to build a burial mound

The first burial mounds (or “kurgans”) in our Land aspart of a funeral rite were built approximately five thousandyears ago. As far back as one thousand years ago they werestill built over burial places by representatives of differentpeoples who lived at that time on the territory of Ukraine –Slavs, Pechenegs, Cumans. With the appearance and spread-ing of two world religions in Europe – Islam and Christianitythis custom disappeared quite quickly, and ancient burialgrounds and mounds, the related customs and rites (togetherwith treasures buried in them) became part of legends. Canyou be surprised afterthis that the names oftri bes which were thefirst to start buildingburial mounds andcon tinued to do so for afew distant millenni-ums have been comp -letely erased from thememory of people?

Now only exca-vations can give someinformation about thatdistant epoch. Ukrai -

ne is so abundant in burial mounds of different historicalperiods the researches of which have lasted for more thantwo hundred years and in the last half-century even a cor-responding notion appeared: “mound archeology”.

The builders of ancient burial mounds are calledaccording to the archeological tradition based on the typeof funerary buildings: “Yamnyky” (pit), “Katakombnyky”(catacomb) and “Zrubnyky” (timber grave), archeologicalcultures were called accordingly. Their bearers builtmounds over burial places, but the dead were buried eitherin pits of different forms, in catacombs dug in the groundor in special timber graves or even in stone tombs.

H uge and of medium height and sometimes even barely visible embankments on the surface of the ground becamean integral part of the landscape of many regions of modern Ukraine. And not only of landscapes, but also of thefolklore. Almost in every village of Ukraine they will not only show you, but also tell you an appropriate story

about the “Black”, “Cossack”, “Thick” or some other “grave”. The hero of a story will be a Cossack or even a Cossackcolonel, in short – a hero who laid down his life in a bloody battle with enemies (Turks, Tatars, Poles – the list is ratherlong and diverse taking into account dramatic events in the history of Ukraine) and also his faithful fellows who filled thisgrave with their hats in sorrowful silence. This story was even realized on movie in a picturesque and emotional way inan old film “Bohdan Khmelnytsky”. This legend is good, but in reality neither Cossacks nor their hats had anything to dowith building burial mounds-graves. Archeologists have all the grounds to claim that regardless of the legends and even avery convincing reference to a film, these burial mounds-graves were filled (and not with hats) many thousand yearsbefore that epoch which is as legendary when Cossacks went to fight for the freedom of Ukraine.

Ancient burial mounds and their creators

Excavations ofburial mounds in

the Odessa region.The 1960s–1970s of

the 20th century

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Section 6

All such funeral rites are connected with certain viewsabout life after death and the desire to support this life (andthe future rebirth) of the dead and everything was in accor-dance with the social and property status of the dead.

For this purpose, regardless of the rank, the type ofactivity and the level of prosperity of the dead, they put inhis grave utensils, food and drinks, decorations, weaponsand craftsman’s tools. If it was necessary, they put evenmeans of transport, plow cattle and domestic animals. Allthis was done so that a man who passed to the other worldcould have all the necessary things including not onlydomestic animals, but also his own territory where hecould pasture them.

A burial mound built in the steppe reflected certainrights of property for the pastures which guaranteed theexistence of steppe peoples. Mounds served not only asovergrave constructions. Well visible against a back-ground of the steppe landscape, they indicated ways ofmovement of nomads and at the same time were a certainsymbol of the connection of descendants and ancestors,the present and the past.

In those ancient times, with different variations, a cus-tom to build burial mounds was spread from the PacificOcean to the Atlantic Ocean, from Ukrainian (and other)steppes to Egypt and the islands near the shores of Arabia.Tombs and pyramids of ancient pharaohs differ from cata-comb or pit graves only by the quantity (and wealth) ofproperty and by the size of stone “mounds”. Whatever youmay say, but the Egyptian land was much richer at that time.

Life in the steppe

Residents of steppes of the Land in the third millen-nium BC were mainly engaged in nomadic cattle-breed-ing. As for their origin, a lot of spears have been broken indisputes about it, but most likely a certain part of moundcultures was formed in our land from the number ofdescendents of the last Trypillians and also theirneighbors, both the near and distantones, tribes which had existed inthe outskirts of Old Europe andafter their decay received anopportunity of a freemovement to the limitswhich had been inac-cessible before. In gen-eral, descendents ofthe ancient residents ofthe Steppe and alsonewcomers from othereastern and western landswere also here.

The change of the cli-mate which has been men-tioned in the previous section atthe turn of the 4th–the 3rd millenniumBC led to spreading the steppe for hun-dreds of kilometers to the North. For theLand this event appeared to be both a catastrophe (the dis-

Cultures and communities of the early Bronze Age — the 3rd millennium BC

Chapter 1. From Trypillia to the Antes

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appearance of the Trypillian civilization) and benefit, a fan-tastic gift of the destiny for future , distant generations – itis in that period that the well-known Ukrainian black soilwas mainly formed. However, in those ancient times thedecrease of the forest-steppe strip meant the collapse ofall the way of life for ancient grain growers.

As they say in an old proverb, hay does not go a cowitself. It means that cows, horses and other animals mustbe taken to forage and to water as well. The residents ofsteppes started mastering the technology of taking ani-mals to grass in different seasons already in the times ofthe decay of Trypillia. At that time the first routes and theorder of seasonal roaming were also determined.Roaming routes were connected with water because theyhad not only to feed the cattle, but also to water them afew times a day. So, only the area where there is not onlygrass, but also rivers or at least some springs could beconsidered ideal for roaming.

In order to have enough grass,sometimes they had to go quite farfrom the place of their living. So, it

was convenient to have a

dwelling which could be moved from one place to anoth-er. The places of temporary staying are called byarcheologists as encamp-ments. They findmainly garbage (bro-ken vessels, bones ofanimals) and tracesof camp fires there.

But it is im -pos sible to roam allyear long. In winter itis better to settle down in amore substantial way.They needed not only awarmer and strongerdwelling than a hut, butalso some shed for thecattle that could protectthem not only fromfrost, but also fromwind. Such places arealready called as settle-ments, although itwould be more appro-priate to call them as awinter shelter. Oldwinter shelters couldhave not only a build-ing on a stone foun-dation, but also stonewalls-fences which protectednot only the cattle from wind, butalso their owners from the attacks of theirexcessively bellicose neighbors. A similar

Reconstruction of the funeral ritual of the Yamna culture (according to the findings of excavations)

Pottery from the settlements of the early Bronze Age in Dnieper area. The 3rd millennium BC

The view over the location of a well-known settlementof ancient residents of steppes near the village ofMykhailivka of the Kherson region. Picture of the1950s of the 20th century

Pottery from theburial place of theYamna culture.Excavations in theCherkasy region.The 3rd millenniumBC

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winter shelter was excavated in the area of Zaporizhya in the1950s of the 20th century1. Buildings with stone foundationshad wattle and daub walls and probably a roof covered withsod. Such covering preserves heat well, but it can leak. It’sworth noting that the residents of a small town called Troywhich already existed at that time lived in dwellings of asimilar type. However, the walls which surrounded theirtown were much more massive.

However, the tribes of the catacomb culture alsoknew how to construct fortresses. It was them who builtthe first fortification on the island of Baida. They startedexcavating their remains blocked by ramparts of the semi-bastion of the wharf of the times of the Russian empressAnna Ioannovna in the 1990s of the 20th century. And inthe times of the catacomb culture, in the third millenniumBC, in this place there was a ditch and a rampart whichseparated one part of the island. Then residents of theisland dag one more ditch and on top of the rampart whichwas partly faced with masonry they put astone wall. Its height, judging by thewidth of the stone talus, could amountto two or three meters. As the ditchwas dug till the level of the gran-ite rock, the enemy couldn’thope to get behind the forti-fication with the help of asap. The total height ofthe protective structurescould amount to four orfive meters. Of course, itdidn’t look like Troy, but all the sameyou couldn’t jump over it easilyeither.

The fact that there wereattempts to assault the fortificationsof the bearers of the catacomb culturein Baida can be confirmed with thehelp of finds in the cultural layer of flintpoints of arrows and darts, sling stones.They even found a fragment of a part ofthe stone axe-hammer, probably, brokenagainst the head of an enemy. However, thisfortress was intended not only for assaults,but also for standing a siege. Their buildersassured access to water having made stairs in therock which led to the river where this descent was

covered by the rock. So, I may say that the system of watersupply was quite secret2.

To sum up, it’s worth noting that we are speakingabout the place where the famous knyaz Dmytro Baida-Vyshnevetsky built with his Cossacks the first fortressbehind the Dnieper rapids in the 16th century. The knyazdidn’t know then that the history of building fortificationson the island had amounted to more than four thousandyears, but nonetheless he chose a good place.

The way of life of ancient nomads

The life which had turned into eternal travel alongsteppes with breaks for winter required the creation of trans-portable objects of everyday life. Wooden and leather ves-sels became an attribute of a household for the period oftravels. But they couldn’t do it without pots either. The tech-nology of their production was rather primitive: modeling ofclay strips by hand, burning in a fire. They mainly made ves-

sels without any excessive ornaments. Makingfood on fire brought back to life, at least in

the tribes of the Yamna culture, a pot witha rounded bottom which had been

almost forgotten from the times of theNeolithic Age. You can’t put such a

vessel on the table, but it is muchmore convenient to put it among

the coals in a temporary firethan a flat-bottomed pot.

A lot of vessels weremade especially for funeral cere-

monies. The population of the Catacomb cul-ture achieved special success in making

very complex in all respects prod-ucts which suggest the deepestknowledge in the area of

ancient magic of their craftsmen.Take the recipe of prepar-

ing materials for modeling funeralvessels alone! Such a mixture could

In the early Bronze Age they continued to make labor instrumentsof flint upon old tested patterns.Finds from a settlement in Dnieperarea. The 3rd millennium BC

Chapter 1. From Trypillia to the Antes

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1 The settlement was included into the scientific work named “Mykhailivka”. It was founded in the Copper Age and the upperlayer of the early Bronze Age contained the remains of constructions of stone. Details of excavations and also the way of lifeand activities of the residents of this unique settlement are described in the book: Г. Ф. Коробкова, О. Г. Ша пош ни кова.Поселение Михайловка. Эталонный памятник древнеямной культуры. — СLПетербург, 2005. (G.F. Korobkova, O.G.Shaposhnykova. The settlement of Mykhailivka. A reference monument of the ancient Yamna culture).

2 The research of this ancient fortress basing on the rapids is described in the book: С. Ж. Пустовалов Соціальний лад ка та -комб но го суспільства Північного Причорномор’я. — К., 2005. — С. 44—47 (S.Zh. Pustovalov The social order of theCatacomb society of Northern Black Sea Region). This book also contains a lot of information about the bearers of theCatacomb culture and their nearest neighbors.

include not only clayand sand, but alsopounded bones of ani-mals (and maybe evenpeople), and probably it

is better not to knowwhat they used to mix this

mass. Ornamentation of pot-tery by the bearers of the

Catacomb culture makes us remem-ber the golden times of the Trypillian culture. Their potsare covered with mysterious compositions from top tillthe flat bottom inclusive. Multi-ray stars, triangles, cross-es, circles marked with the help of a twisted cord, differ-ent stamps intertwined in fantastic compositions.Decoration is sometimes inlaid with paste of the white orred color the composition of which probably also hadsome magic properties.

Strange as it may seem, but they preserved weavingwhich at first sight doesn’t seem to be typical of nomads.It was revealed that the bearers of the Yamna culture andthe Catacomb culture had had not only a spindle whorl,but they also found the traces and the remains of fabric(in burial places). They used fabric not only to sewclothes, but also to make containers for storing food. Inthe Crimea they excavated a burial place of a bearer of

the Catacomb culture whose caringrelatives had put a real sack

filled with wheat grains.A lot of things were

made of leather. Sometimestheir remains are preserved ina rather good condition in

deep catacombs. On the terri-tory of the Donetsk region theyfound a rectangular leather mat

covered with decoration inthe form of circles markedwith the red paint part of

which were surrounded byblack teeth. In the centerthere was a black suninserted into a multi-rayblack star. It surely belongedto a famous local sorcerer.

The spiritual world ofthe ancient residents of thesteppe of that age wasrather complex andactivity in the sacralfield just like in oldtimes required greateffort. Quite a lot ofamulets, necklacesmade of not onlybones, teeth of ani-mals, but also of metalwere found in graves.

Sacred places of the Steppe

Sometimes they find such mounds under whichthere are no burial places and what is found there can beconsidered as sacrifice. These rather complex structureswere ancient steppe temples with a ritual area on top. In acertain season people gathered near them to honor thememory of ancestors, to make a sacrifice to gods, to cele-brate a holiday.

Judging by the complexity of the construction, thepresence of stone structures – cromlechs, menhirs, theancient sanctuaries and mounds resemble the well-knownEuropean megaliths. The grandiose complex Stonehengein Great Britain became their symbol. Though these struc-tures are less immense and they have been found and stud-ied less on the territory of the Land. One of them wasfound on the island Khortytsya on the Dnieper.

To tell the truth, this name is now associated withevents which are closer to us. But the glorious his-

tory of Khortytsya started at that time, more

The residents of winter shelters wereengaged in weaving. A spindle whorlwas found in a Dnieper area settlement of the early Bronze Age.The 3rd millennium BC

Section 6. Ancient burial mounds and their creators

Cultic funeral vessel – censer.

The Catacomb culture,The 3rd millennium BC

Pottery of theCatacomb culture.The 3rd millenniumBC

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than forty five centuries ago. However, the sanctuaries (orcromlechs which remained from burial places) inKhortytsya just seemed so tiny as compared to the recent-ly found complex in the Luhansk region. First these struc-tures were called by journalists as “the Luhansk pyra-mids”, but recently it has had a more modest name – “asanctuary on the Merheleva Ridge”. Most likely, this veryname will be used for the nomination to be included to thelist of the UNESCO world cultural heritage.

The history of this find started in a rainy autumn of1976 when a group of schoolchildren from Alchevskheaded by their teacher came to the place where theancient structures were situated. On the surface of theridge they noticed a few hills with the height from one anda half to two meters. They were clearly of artificial originand on the slopes and on the mountain they noticed stoneplates, a lot of plates.

Archeological excavations startedonly in 2005. And only then archeolo-gists started to reveal the secrets of theMerheleva Ridge bit by bit. Two of thefour hills appeared to be burial mounds;two more hills which were constructedwith the use of a clay mixture withstone blocks appeared to be huge alters.One of the burial mounds was excavat-ed manually, which is quite uncommonfor the practice of the mound archeolo-gy in the East of Ukraine. That’s whyits study lasted for two years, but in theembankment they found not only morethan a dozen burial places, but also thetraces of ancient sacrifices in the formof small pits with walls strengthenedwith stone plates.

It was determined that this burialmound had been made by a few stages,something like “a long-term construc-tion project” which had lasted almost

“Ukrainian Atlantis”. Excavations of an ancient cromlech which was flooded by the water of anotherhand-made see on the Dnieper. Picture of the 1950s

of the 20th century

The location of three the most important sanctuaries of the early Bronze Agein the steppes of Ukraine

Chapter 1. From Trypillia to the Antes

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for one thousand and a half years! The most ancient bur-ial places were dated to the second half of the 4th millen-nium BC; the dead who had been buried by both the bear-ers of the Catacomb culture and the bearers of the Timber-grave culture in the 2nd millennium BC were also foundthere. Most often children were buried here – perhaps it isnot accidental.

Part of funeral pits was covered with stone plates –they found five of them in the burial mound. Ancient burialplaces were surrounded by a circle of dug stones – crom-lechs. By the way, the bearers of the Timber-grave culturewho filled up the burial mound added their own second cir-cle of stones to the initial one. But the most important thing:it turned out that the burial mound blocked part of a biggerancient structure – masonry on a clay mixture.

It means that the unknown first builders built theirsacred place here as far back as hundreds of years beforethe construction of the burial mound with cromlechs! Andthis construction was carried out at the time when far tothe West, behind the Dnieper, there still existedTrypillians. Now researchers are rather prudent in theirconclusions; besides quite a small part has been excavat-ed to give an exhaustive answer to all the questions. Forexample, the studies on the slopes of the ridge have juststarted. They revealed the traces of ancient terraces. At thebest it may take 10–20 years to study the whole sanctuary.But the most interesting thing is that just like in the casewith the Trypillian prototowns it turned out that we canstill make important discoveries on the territory which hasbeen researched by archeologists far and wide.

Of course, the Merheleva Ridge can’t be comparedto Egyptian pyramids, but it’s worth taking into accountthat this construction in the steppes of the Land started atleast about 600 years before the pyramid boom in AncientEgypt. The recent researches showed that the sacred fireon top of the ridge was already lighted approximately in

the middle of the 4th millennium BC. Thus for that timewhen they were only designing or starting to build well-known Stonehenge3, the sanctuary on the MerhelevaRidge was probably the biggest ritual complex in this partof Europe. It’s worth noting that it was not the only com-plex like that in the East of Ukraine as in the Bronze Agethere appeared well-known Kamyana Mohyla in the areaof Melitopol with images carved on its plates.

Mummies of the local production

Representatives of the Catacomb culture spent theirtime not only on building fortresses, mounds and differentsanctuaries. They observed funeral rituals which werequite uncommon for this land. To tell the truth, the bear-ers of the Catacomb culture never mastered the secrets ofthe production of mummies upon the best Egyptian pat-

Kamyana Mohyla, just like before, was also one of the main sanctuaries of steppe tribes in

the 3rd millennium BC

3 The beginning of the construction of Stonehenge is now dated to approximately 3200 BC

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terns – either the recipes turned out to be not very appli-cable to the local conditions or the priests of the valley ofthe Nile kept their secrets carefully.

However, the bearers of the Catacomb culture managedto preserve the features of the face and partly of the body ofthe dead for millenniums. This practice is known best of allunder the name “the rite of modeling skulls”4, though,according to researches, everything was not limited to skulls.

For the first time such a skull was found duringexcavations of an ancient burial place in the area ofDnipropetrovsk as far back as 1935. For now a few dozenare already known. Most graves with modeled skulls arefound in the area of the river Molochna, which allowedthinking that this area was the place of burial of the localelite of the time of the Catacomb culture.

Just like in Egypt, the process started from separat-ing the head from the body, removing soft tissues and alsothe content of the skull. Then using a mixture made on the

basis of clay of different colors (from yellow to grey andlight blue), ochre, pounded coals, some pitch materialthey reconstructed the features of a person. Complete

“portraits” where eyes andholes in the nose are inlaid with soot,pieces of ochre or even with frag-ments of pottery are known. Thedegree and the quality of renderingportrait features could depend both onthe skills of the performer and on otherfactors which are not always known andclear for us.

It’s worth noting that the head of thedead processed in the mentioned above waywas not always returned to its place. Sometimes they arefound below shoulders and most often near the rightshoulder. In one of the burial places a skeleton clearedfrom soft tissues was completely covered with a mixtureon the basis of clay and turned into a kind of a statue.

Such practice of making portraits of skulls wasknown in Anatolia as far back as the Neolithic Age and inFar Egypt bodies covered with “plaster” are found in bur-ial places of the times of Pharaoh Cheops. The latter andalso some of his ancestors and descendants were contem-poraries of the bearers of the Catacomb culture. Thereremains only one thing, to determine if this tradition wasbrought from Egypt to the Black Sea Region steppes or itssources must be searched for in the depth of the Neolithichistory of the Near East. In any case, the secret of the riteis clearly connected with the eastern antiquities.

Modeled skulls were found not only in burial placesof the Catacomb culture, but of the Yamna culture as well.Besides the mentioned above custom, there are finds ofskulls which are painted or ornamented with ochre. It isknown that the ancient Celts believed that the head of anancestor (by the way, the ancestor who showed his worthduring his life) was capable in some magical way to pro-tect their country from the invasion of enemies. If this isthe case, then we can assume that in the times of theCatacomb and Yamna cultures this property could beassigned to sculptures made on the basis of skulls ofrespectable people from their tribe with the use of appro-priate recipes and spells. As it was the time you alwayshad to be ready to defend yourself, your pastures, yourtribe and your herds of animals.

Adornments and amulets from burial places of theYamna culture. The 3rd millennium BC

4 С. Ж. Пустовалов Соціальний лад катакомбного суспільства Північного Причорномор’я. — К., 2005. — С. 89—94.(S. Zh. Pus tovalov The social order of the Catacomb society of Northern Black Sea Region).

Adornments and amulets from burial places of the Yamna culturemade of bones, teeth of animals and of bronze. The 3rd millennium BC

“Modeled skulls”from burial places

of the Catacombculture. The 3rd

millennium BC

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