New studies at the Shestakovo III burial ground of the barrow type

In June 2023, field studies at the Shestakovo III burial ground of the barrow type in Chebula municipal district of Kuzbass were resumed. The study of the main object of the site - a Tashtyk tomb and the adjacent underground burials and commemorative structures - was finished in 2015. New excavations were aimed at discovering other accompanying objects and obtaining new evidence from this Bronze Age site in its lowest archaeological layers. The study of the area of 20 sq. m adjacent to the old excavation pit gave new evidence from two cultural and chronological periods of the site. The first period was the time when the tomb was made (5th-6th centuries BC). It was represented by objects andfinds which had parallels among the evidence of the Tashtyk culture, such as burial without funeral inventory under the arrangement of stones, which was made according to the rite of cremation in another place, cow and horse jaws and teeth, and individual pottery fragments. Amorphous and scarce accumulations of burnt human bones discovered at the same level belonged to that same period. Particularly notable find was a glass cylindric bead with the heliciform multicoloured pattern. The chemical study has shown that the bead was made of soda-ash glass according to an Oriental recipe and had parallels with elemental composition of the Late Tagar, Tashtyk, and Hunnic artifacts. Distinctive finds from the second period, represented by an early horizon of the site, included pottery fragments discovered as two assemblages close to each other and belonging to a single vessel. This jar was decorated with comb stamp with vertical "herringbone” patern. The vesselfinds many parallels among the evidence from the eastern area ofthe Andronovo culture (17th-14th centuries BC). The evidence confirmed good prospects offurther studies on the peripheral areas ofthe site where the tomb was in the center.