Pages:  157-170 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp262157170

In 2025, an archaeological expedition directed by O. V. Sergeeva identified several burials attributed to the Dnieper–Don Babino culture in barrow 2 of the Millerov IV barrow cemetery in the Rostov region. The principal burial was that of a woman (no. 9), with a unique assemblage consisting of three bronze eyeglass-shaped pendants, a necklace of bronze tubes, canines with drilled perforations, and beads sewn onto the clothing. Above it, the first kurgan mound was constructed, into which a later Babino burial (no. 24) without finds was inserted. The final Middle Bronze Age interment in the barrow, burial no. 2, with a miniature bronze knife and carnelian beads of various shapes and sizes, was overlain by an additional mound. The closest parallels to the Babino burials from the Millerov IV barrow cemetery are the complexes discovered in 2017, approximately 40 km to the northwest, in barrow no. 5 of the Burgusta I cemetery. The principal burial in the barrow is a female one (no. 11), whose grave goods are almost identical to the burial from Millerov IV and includes two identical bronze bi-spiral pendants and a necklace of bronze tube beads. According to recent studies by R. A. Mimokhod, similar eyeglass-shaped or bi-spiral pendants form part of female dress and represent a rather rare imported item from Central Europe and the Carpathian-Danubian region, dated to phase I of the post-Catacomb cultural block.

Keywords: Lower Don, Middle Bronze Final, Dnieper-Don Babino Culture, Burial Mound, Burial, Eyeglass Pendants

Information about authors:

Oksana Larenok (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. Moyka River Emb., 48/12, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-3333-5304

Aleksei Kiyashko (Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Southern Federal University. Bolshaya Sadovaya St., 105/42, Rostov-on-Don, 344006, Russian Federation; Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-7666-4477

Oksana Sergeeva (Saratov, Russian Federation).Candidate of Historical Sciences.
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0009-0004-4323-1172