Pages: 223-256

A number of barrow cemeteries 7th —4th centuries BC (Skorobor, Osnyagi, Marchenki, Pereshchepino etc.) are located around Belsk hillfort that was the largest fortified settlement of Scythian epoch in Eastern Europe. This article presents a comprehensive analysis (typology of burial structures, way of burying and placing the grave goods) of more thean 100 burial complexes from these necropol. It distinguishes 12 specific features of funeral ritual that allow to determine the place of these sites among the antiquities of Early Iron Age in the forest-steppe areas of Ukraine. Among these features are: burying in barrows; funeral feasts; use of fire; uncommon re-use of barrows; predominance of simple pits; wood flooring of graves chambers; construction of “wooden logs” in barrows; the NE-SW and N-S orientation of graves; extended supine inhumation; a variety of orientations; dominance of collective graves: accompanying burials.

Keywords: Poltava Region, Scythian culture, Early Iron age, Bel’sk hillfort, barrow cemeteries, burial structures, burial rite

Information about author:

Sergey Makhortykh (Kiev, Ukraine). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Archaeology Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Geroev Stalingrada Pr., 12, Kiev, 04210, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]