Preliminary results from excavations of the Levopodkumsky kurgan cemetery near Kislovodsk

The paper !s devoted to the pretimmary results from excavations at one of the first sties of the early period of the Alarnan culture (2 nd-4 th cc. AD) іп the Mslovodsk depressrnn - the Levopodkumsky-1 kurgan cemetery wtih catacomb burials. The stie was d!scovered during dedphering of aerial photographs and surveyed usmg magnetometry. A geophysdal survey of two sectors revealed no less than 37 burial structures recogrnz-able thanks to the presence of dtiches of roughly square shapes and wtih baulks of various types. Starting out from the results of the magnetic survey, burial-mounds 1 and 2 were excavated, wdch had been erected over catacomb burials. In the entrance ptis of the catacombs disturbed horse burials were found and also some of the grave-goods, wdch had been thrown out of the burial-chambers by tombers. Judgmg from the survrvmg grave-goods, the burials іп catacombs dated from the 4 th c. AD. The burials іп ground bur-!al assodation I contammg two burial-chambers are of somewhat later date and had also been looted іп antiqrnty. The Levopodkumsky-1 kurgan cemetery wtih catacomb graves gtves ground to shape an !dea of how representatives of the Alarnan culture first made theti way mto the Kislovodsk depressrnn and of the mtiial stage of theti settlement there, wMch took place before the mvasmn of the Huns.