Results of studying a single mound of the Sargat cultural and historical community near the Bolsherechye village in Omsk Priirtyshye

Archaeological research carried out in 2020 at the burial mound Bolsherechye I near the district settlement Bolsherechye, Omsk Region, continued the long-term work of the Omsk scientists at the sites of one of the largest associations of the early Iron Age in the Western Siberia, the Sargat cultural and historical community. Single mound Bolsherechye-I is a part of one of the most significant necropolises of this time on the left bank of Irtysh. As a result of economic activity, most of the mounds have been plowed up and require rescue work; this year, the excavations of this mound were the first. The research resulted in the materials related to the early period of the Sargat cultural and historical community, indicating its movement to the north of the forest-steppe zone along the Irtysh valley. The diameter of the mound site within the boundaries of the discovered ditch was 20 m. During the excavations, two burials have been investigated: one was plundered in the 18th century, while the other was excavated by a local merchant Malakhov in the mid-19th century. Separate fragments of skeletons of the buried people were found in them, as well as accompanying equipment typical of the Sargat burials (bone and metal three-blade arrowheads, plates from iron and bone armor, eye beads, silver waistbands, etc.). In the ditch, fragments of pottery, decorated with large seed-like notches, were found. Based on the obtained material, and on the basis of a comparative analysis with other burial grounds in the Irtysh region, primarily Sidorovka I, this archeological site can be tentatively dated to the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC.