Thirty years of practicing the method of express reconstruction of burial wooden structures

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of advantages of introducing the method of mandatory reassembling of the recovered wooden structures into practice of archaeological research of burials with wooden constructions. The re-assemblage should be based on careful preliminary analyses of wooden constructions in the course of excavations and executed at a specially prepared work site according to all the funerary rites of the culture to which it belongs. This method makes it possible to collect as much information as possible about the process of making a log cabin, mounting all components of the structure during its installation in a burial pit and more accurately understand the order reassembling and fitting elements. The immediate reassembling provides previously unnoted data on the wood working in the narrow grave and additional information on the object under study. Over the years, this method has successfully proven itself in the study of such famous archaeological sites as Kurgan 1 at Ak-Alakha-3, Kurgan 1 at Verkh-Kaljin-2, Kurgan 1 at Ulandryk VI, and Pazyryk 5 in the Altai Mountains; Arzhan-2 in the Republic of Tyva, Olon-Kurin-Gol-6 and -10 in Mongolia, and many others, as described in the relevant field reports and monographs. The entire process of studying wooden burial structures in the course of excavations, express reconstruction of the recovered constructions at the excavation sites, and consequent laboratory analyses of the wooden objects and woodworking operations are described in detail in special papers, monographs, and methodological recommendations.