Pages: 526-562

In 1986-1987 five tumuli were excavated near the villages of Mereni and Chirca (Kishinev county), which contained 42 graves related to different historic periods. Seven burials of the Usatovo culture were the most ancient in two kurgans. Almost al of them had vessels as grave goods. Twenty-two burials belong to the Early Bronze Age Pit-grave culture. According to their burial rite they correspond to two chronological groups of this culture in the Carpathian-Dniestr region: Dnestrovskaya and Budzhakskaya, according to the division of V. Dergachev. Other Bronze Age finds in the tumuli are represented by isolated complexes. Two relatively reach Scythian graves of the IV-III centuries B.C. are of a special interest since similar finds have not been evidenced in Central Moldova so far.