Burial complex of the 1st century ad from Kovalyovka kurgan cemetery

The present article is devoted to the burial complex of Kurgan No. 8 from Kovalyovka Cemetery located in the south of the Volga-Don interfluve, in the basin of the Aksay Yesaulovsky river. In the center of the burial mound surrounded by a circular ditch, archaeologists uncovered an empty grave pit without any skeletal remains or grave goods. In the peripheral part of the burial mound, an interesting Middle Sarmatian female burial was investigated. Grave goods found in this burial include mainly imported things: a pitcher, a red-lacquered platter, a fragment of a mirror pendant, a Roman fibula. They highlight the direction of trade and economic relations of the Volga-Don steppe Sarmatians in the 1st - early 2nd centuries AD. The article hypothesizes that the location of the graves in the middle and in the periphery of the kurgan could be a special ritual typical of high-status burial complexes in the Middle Sarmatian culture and in the initial stage of the Late Sarmatian culture.