New assemblages of the Alan culture from the migration period near Kislovodsk

This paper is a preliminary publication of the burials discovered in the courseof explorations of the kurgan cemetery known as Volchyi Vorota near Kislovodsk, whichwere repeatedly destructed by looters over the past 30 years. Additional excavations werecarried out in the two burials deposited in T-shaped catacombs (kurgans 11 and 17) inthe eastern section of the kurgan group, these burials have also been plundered recently. The catacomb of kurgan 11 is an Alan burial typical for the early stage of this culture; thelong axis of the chamber rectangular in plan and the wide axis of the entrance shaft weremutually perpendicular. The burial in kurgan 17 is typical for the early medieval timesand was made in an oval chamber that could be accessed through a narrow long entrancepit with steps constructed along the width of the back wall. Based on the funeral offeringsfrom kurgan 11 the researchers can refer there-excavated burial to the last quarter of the4th century AD. In terms of the overall context and the retrieved finds, kurgan 17 datesback to the 5th - first half of the 6th centuries AD.