The Architecture of Large Kurgans of the Scythians and Their Periphery: A Challenge for Magnetometer Prospections in the Eurasian Steppe Belt

Abstract

The burial mounds of the early Iron Age, which we will refer to below as kurgans, from the nomadic equestrian warriors of Eurasia, form a very complex group of archaeological monuments. Archaeological excavations in Aržan 2 (Siberia) and Aleksandropol (Ukraine) show that the large burial mounds are complex architectural constructions. Such monuments included not only the kurgan mounds themselves but also their immediate surroundings. In the area surrounding the kurgan, further graves, hordes and sacrificial facilities that belonged to the periphery of the large burial mound were uncovered. These results gave birth to the hypothesis that these findings are characteristic of burial mounds of the Scythian period. With extended archaeo-geophysical investigations, we aimed to test this assumption and verify this hypothesis by surveying as many Scythian sites across the entire steppe belt as possible. Here, we present a selection of representative case studies from 24 archaeological sites that support this hypothesis. Our archaeo-geophysical investigations show that similar and previously unknown finds can be found in the periphery of the Scythian-era necropolises in the Eurasian steppe throughout the entire steppe belt. By comparing many magnetometer studies, we gained exceptional new archaeological insights that would have remained hidden for decades using conventional archaeological excavation methods. We uncovered some findings by using a magnetometer survey for the first time. Such parallels of findings indicate intensive contacts of the early equestrian nomads in the east with both the northwestern steppe of Kazakhstan, the steppe of the northern Caucasus and in the steppe region of the Lower Trans-Volga, which forms the corridor between Europe and Asia and the western North Caucasus. Comparable structures with the same magnetic signature may indicate a comparable ritual character. Buildings of these early Iron Age nomadic horsemen presumably served the same rites and established burial rituals. As a result, these groups were possibly already connected by a widespread communication network in the 1st millennium bc, which stretched across Eurasia's entire 4200-km-wide steppe belt.