WOODEN VAULTS OF THE EARLYSCYTHIAN TIMES IN THE MOUNDS OF THE MIDDLE DNISTROVIA

The study of the early-Scythian burial mounds in the Middle Dniester region began at the end of the nineteenth century many researchers. The results of their work were summed up in the monograph of T. Sulimirsky, published in 1936. Over the next decades, this work was continued by G. Melyukova, G. Smirnova, L. Krushelnytska, J. Maleev, M. Bandrivsky, A. Gutsal. The burial mounds were explored in the villages of Lenkivtsi, Dolinyan, Perebykivtsi, Vrublivka, Zozulintsi, Kolodiyaka, Kotsiubynchy, Loevtsi, Malinovka, Minkivtsi, Myshkivtsi, Sokilets, Spasivka, Tarasivka, Teklka, Shvaykivtsi, Shutnivtsi and others. The number of mounds studied for the whole period of excavation now exceeds 125. There was an opportunity to more fully understand the peculiarities of the burial rite of the local population of that time, in particular, to assimilate the nature of such burial structures in the mound as a pillar wooden vault. As calculations show, about 38 % of burial mounds contained such buildings. Their construction consisted of wooden piles sunken in the ground, the number of which varied from 4 to 35, and wooden logs or wheels, which were walls and roof, and which were supported by pillars. Such a crypt could be built on the level of the ancient horizon, could be slightly entwined in the ground (up to 0.5 m), or lowered into a pit at 1—1.2 m. Most of the crypts after the completion of all the ritual ceremonies over the burial, burned. The peculiarity of the Transnistrian mounds was that there were stones in all the embankments, which strengthened the mound and was a constructive part of the crypt.