Research at the barrow burial ground Stantsiya Kazanovskaya-1 in 2020

In 2020, the team from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the SB RAS carried out rescue archaeological excavations at Stantsiya Kazanovskaya-1 burial ground of the barrow type (Askizsky District, Republic of Khakassia). In agreement with the project and scope of works, six burial mounds of the Tagar culture were investigated. Samples of wood from burial structures were taken for analysis, and anthropological collection was enriched. The area of4597 m2 was unearthed up to the sterile soil; over a hundred individual finds (bronze artifacts, bones, textile fragments) were discovered in 38 burials (grave pits). All individual and paired human burials were made inside stone fences under stone and wooden covers in earthen grave pits; children were buried in stone boxes. Despite the fact that the burial mounds were robbed in the ancient times, some burials have survived in situ. This has made it possible to establish all features of the funeral rite typical of the Podgornovo stage of the Tagar culture (8th-6th centuries BC). All discovered artifacts well fit this chronological period. Male burials contained bronze daggers, pickaxes, knives, awls, and clothing decoration in the form of hemispherical bronze plaques. Female burials contained clothing decoration in the form of truncated-conical and cylindrical beads, hemispherical plaques, bronze medal-shaped mirrors with the loop in the center, combs, bronze knives, and awls. Large and small pottery and parts of large and small cattle were placed in the grave as funeral food around each buried person. All large vessels were standardized in their shapes and ornamental decor.