NON-INVASIVE INVESTIGATION OF BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE BASINS OF THE MURAFA AND RIV RIVERS IN VINNYTSIA REGION IN 2019

Abstract

In 2019, the implementation of the first stage of the field investigations within the project «Podolia as a contact area in the 3rd millennium BC: Kurgans on the rivers Murafa and Riv» began. The project is financed by the National Science Centre, Poland, under no. 2017/27/B/HS3/01444.
 The main goal of the research is to identify the forms and intensity of the intercultural contacts in the region of the middle course of the Southern Buh and the Dnister interfluve. The burial mounds, located between the rivers Murafa (left-bank basin of the Dnister River) and Riv (right-bank basin of the Southern Buh River), are objects of the study. Professional archeological excavations of the burial mounds in the region have not been conducted before. There are only data about unauthorized excavations of several burial mounds by locals at the turn of the XIX—XX centuries, which perhaps contained burials with artefacts of the Globular Amphora culture. More than a century later, archaeologists conducted registration of the burial mounds in the region. M. Potupchyk has surveyed and mapped most of the mound groups.
 In the framework of the project realization, the non-invasive geophysical studies of four burial mound groups, located near the villages of Sloboda Noskovetska, Tokarivka and Sloboda Mezhyrivska of Zhmerynka district and between the villages of Ivanivtsi and Antonivka of Bar district of Vinnytsia region were conducted. The total obtained area is 8.19 hectares. Thirteen burial mounds are located there.
 A number of anomalies inside and outside the burial mounds were found by magnetic survey. Most often, anomalies form circular or square structures that surround mound and can be interpreted as ditches. Mainly in the central parts of the burial mounds, anomalies of various shapes were also found. They appear to be associated with burial objects. Sometimes anomalies outside the burial mounds, but in close proximity to them, are also interpreted as potentially archaeological objects. The latter may be associated with a variety of funeral rites. There were also burial mounds within which no clear magnetic anomalies were observed. This is probably also a reflection of the funeral traditions and construction of the mounds.