Kurgan - Excavated Kurgans

Excavated Kurgans

Some excavated kurgans include:

• The Ipatovo kurgan revealed a long sequence of burials from the Maykop culture ca. 4000 BC down to the burial of a Sarmatian princess of the 3rd century BC, excavated 1998–99.
• Kurgan 4 at Kutuluk near Samara, Russia, dated to ca. 24th century BC, contains the skeleton of a man, estimated to have been 35 to 40 years old and about 152 cm tall. Resting on the skeleton's bent left elbow was a copper object 65 cm long with a blade of a diamond-shaped cross-section and sharp edges, but no point, and a handle, originally probably wrapped in leather. No similar object is known from Bronze Age Eurasian steppe cultures, and the object has been compared to the vajra thunderbolt of Indian Indra.
• The Maikop kurgan dates to the 3rd millennium BC.
• The Novovelichkovskaya kurgan of ca. 2000 BC on the Ponura River, Krasnodar region, southern Russia, contains the remains of 11 people, including an embracing couple, buried with bronze tools, stone carvings, jewelry, and ceramic vessels decorated with red ocher. The tomb is associated with the Novotitorovka culture nomads.
• The Issyk kurgan, in southern Kazakhstan, contains a skeleton, possibly female, ca. 4th century BC, with an inscribed silver cup, gold ornaments, Scythian animal art objects and headdress reminiscent of Kazakh bridal hats; discovered in 1969.
• Kurgan 11 of the Berel cemetery, in the Bukhtarma River valley of Kazakhstan, contains a tomb of ca. 300 BC, with a dozen sacrificed horses preserved with their skin, hair, harnesses, and saddles intact, buried side by side on a bed of birch bark next to a funeral chamber containing the pillaged burial of two Scythian nobles; excavated in 1998.
• The Ryzhanovka kurgan, a 10 metre high kurgan 125 km south of Kiev, Ukraine, containing the tomb of a Scythian chieftain, 3rd century BC, was excavated in 1996.
• The Solokha kurgan, in the Zaporizhia Oblast of Ukraine, Scythian, dates to the early 4th century BC.
• Mamai-gora, kurgan on the banks of Kakhovka Reservoir south west of Enerhodar (near the village of Velyka Znam'yanka). Known as one of the biggest tumulus in Europe. The height of the kurgan is 80 meters. Here were found remains of people from Bronze Age, Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Nogai people.
• The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, near the town of Kazanlak in central Bulgaria, is a Thracian kurgan of ca. the 4th century BC.
• The Aleksandrovo kurgan is a Thracian kurgan of ca. the 4th century BC.
• The Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari, Bulgaria, is a Thracian kurgan of ca. the 3rd century BC.
• The Håga Kurgan, located on the outskirts of Uppsala, Sweden, is a large Nordic Bronze Age kurgan from ca. 1000 BC.
• The Pereshchepina Kurgan is a burial memorial of the Great Bulgaria Khan Kubrat from ca. AD 660.
• Noin-Ula kurgan, located by the Selenga River in the northern Mongolia hills north of Ulan Bator, is the tomb of Uchjulü-Chanuy (8 BC – AD 13), head of the Hun confederation.