Pages: 361-380

Two groups of archaeological material excavated from burial mounds or kurgans in the present-day state of Ukraine are preserved today in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. One collection derives from acquisitions made by Aleš Hrdlička and Adalbert Schuck around 1912 for exhibit in the Panama-California-Exposition of 1915—1917 and for study purposes in anthropology in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. It comprises objects of prehistoric date (Early to Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age), Ancient and Medieval Period, made of clay, bone, metal and stone. The kurgans were located on the northwestern fringe of the steppe. Many objects can be ascribed to the Yamnaya and early Catacomb Grave cultures. The second collection was donated to the Smithsonian, at that time ‘National Museum of the United States, in 1908 by V. K. Korostowetz, a government official in Russia. It consists of material found in ca. six burial mounds dated to the time of the Slavs and located near Kiev in the forest steppe. Very little documentation on the locations and find contexts of the two collections is preserved.

Keywords: North Pontic region, Bronze Age, Yamnaya culture, Catacomb culture, Ancient Russian culture, kurgans.

Information about author:

Emily Schalk (Berlin, Germany). PhD.
E-mail: [email protected]