2021 excavations of the tagar mounds at the Uytag-3 burial ground (the Republic of Khakassia)

In 2021, an excavation team from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS carried out rescue excavations at the Uytag-3 burial ground (Askiz district of the Republic of Khakassia). Three burial mounds were examined according to technical requirements of the Preservation project of the archaeological heritage objects during the construction of the second railway line at the Kamyshta - Uytag section of the Krasnoyarsk railway. Five burial vaults in a row were located at the center of kurgan No. 4 fence and three children ’s graves in stone boxes were found to the east. The aboveground structures of the main burials are represented by stone and wood overhead covers. Collective burials of adults and children were found in wooden log constructions inside the grave pits. The overhead wooden covers of all examined vaults bear signs of the integrity violations. Known facts allow us to suggest that this was a part of a certain burial ritual, that is the vaults could be in use for a fairly long period of time. The bones position and the preservation of the grave goods do not allow us to suppose that mounds were robbed. The unearthed collection of artefacts reflects the original composition of the grave goods complex precisely: ceramic dishes, bronze weapons, jewelry. Based on the construction elements and finds a preliminarily date for mound No. 4 could fit within chronological diapason of the 6th-4th centuries BC. One robbed burial of the Podgornovo time and 8 structures (tiered graves) of the Tesinsky time were studied in mound No. 6. The fence form and the assemblage allow the central burial to be dated to the 7th - 6th centuries BC. The tiered burials with burial goods complexes go back to the Tesinsky time and were left by the population arrived to the territory of the Minusinsk depression from Tuva and Altai.