Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Гомель (курганны могільнік)
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Gomel (курганны могільнік) is a pair of burial-mound cemeteries near the village of Gomel in the Polotsk district of the Vitebsk region, Belarus. The larger cemetery dates from the period of Kievan Rus, to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
The first cemetery preserves 24 mounds, one of which has been excavated; the second has 2 mounds, neither excavated. The site is listed in the cultural heritage of Belarus.
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Article
Гомель (курганны могільнік)
It belongs to the period of Kievan Rus and is dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Cemetery 1 lies 2 km south-west of the village. Twenty-four mounds survive, 1 to 2 m high and 6 to 10 m in diameter. It belongs to the period of Kievan Rus and is dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Cemetery 2 lies 2 km east of cemetery 1, in a field. Two mounds survive. One is 3 m high with a diameter of 16 m; the other is 2 m high with a diameter of 10 m.
Research historySources for this section
Sources for this section
Both cemeteries were surveyed in 1955 by L. V. Alekseyev. In 1972 G. V. Shtykhau excavated one mound in cemetery 1 and again examined cemetery 2. No excavations have taken place at cemetery 2.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, burial mounds mark the territories of the Baltic peoples. Belarusian records of this kind are mostly cemeteries of small mounds recorded in national registers; they are barrow cemeteries and not megaliths.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Baltic barrow cemeteries
Along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, burial mounds mark the territories of the Baltic peoples. In Lithuanian they are called pilkapiai, and the Atlas's Lithuanian and Belarusian records are mostly cemeteries of small mounds recorded in national registers. They are barrow cemeteries and not megaliths.
The deepest root of the tradition is the West Baltic barrow culture of the early Iron Age, from which most of the Western Baltic culture arose. That culture, of the Bronze Age and Iron Age along the southern coast of the Baltic, was ethnically Baltic and shared similar monuments and funeral rites; its tribes included the Old Prussians, Galindians, Yotvingians and Skalvians. Further north, the Curonians, a medieval Baltic tribe of the fifth to sixteenth centuries CE, lived on the coast of what are now western Latvia and Lithuania, and their neighbours the Samogitians lived inland to the east. Mounds of the broader barrow tradition, the kurgans, had spread into eastern and northern Europe as early as the third millennium BCE.
Because a cemetery is made up of many small mounds, it records an ordinary community and not a single ruler. Many of these mounds have not been excavated, so the Atlas gives them a broad range and does not claim a date.
When visiting, look for a group of small round mounds under trees or on a river terrace, and note how the mounds are laid out along the terrace or ridge.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Western Baltic culture, Wikipedia: Curonians, Wikipedia: Samogitians, Wikipedia: Kurgan, Wikipedia: Tumulus · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1955
Знаходзіцца за 2 км на паўднёвы захад ад вёскі. Захаваліся 24 курганы, вышынёй 1-2 м, дыяметрам 6-10 м. Абследаваў у 1955 годзе Л. В. Аляксееў. У 1972 годзе Г. В. Штыхаў раскапаў адзін курган. Адносіцца да эпохі Кіеўскай Русі, датуецца XII—XIII стагоддзямі.
Source - 1955
Знаходзіцца за 2 км на ўсход ад могільніка-1, у полі. Захаваліся 2 курганы. Вышыня аднаго кургана 3 м, дыяметр 16 м, другога — 2 м, дыяметр 10 м. Абследавалі ў 1955 годзе Л. В. Аляксееў, у 1972 годзе Г. В. Штыхаў. Раскопкі не праводзіліся.
Source - 1985
27-48 Полацкі раён // Збор помнікаў гісторыі і культуры Беларусі. Віцебская вобласць / рэдкал.: С. В. Марцэлеў [і інш.]. — Мінск : БелЭн імя П. Броўкі, 1985. — С.
Source - 2002
Археалагічнае вывучэнне Полацка // Памяць: Полацк : гісторыка-дакументальныя хронікі гарадоў і раёнаў Беларусі / рэдкал : Г. П. Пашкоў [і інш.]; склад. С. С. Чарняўская; навук. рэд.: Г. В. Штыхаў, С. В. Тарасаў; мастак Э. Э. Жакевіч. — Мінск : БелЭн, 2002. — С.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Where it stands
Belarus
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 55°18′54″ N, 28°46′07″ EFor a GPS or map app: 55.31507, 28.76866
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Шо (курганны могільнік)
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Чарневічы (курганны могільнік)
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Звязда (археалагічны помнік)
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Курганны могільнік-1, курганны могільнік-2, курганны могільнік-3
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Курганны могільнік перыяду ранняга сярэднявечча
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Свіла 1 (археалагічны помнік)
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Беразіно (археалагічны помнік)
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Забор’е (курганны могільнік)
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q90668858wikidata.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Шо (курганны могільнік)38 km SW
- Чарневічы (курганны могільнік)44 km W
- Звязда (археалагічны помнік)45 km S
- Курганны могільнік-1, курганны могільнік-2, курганны могільнік-347 km SW
- Курганны могільнік перыяду ранняга сярэднявечча48 km SW
- Свіла 1 (археалагічны помнік)54 km W
- Беразіно (археалагічны помнік)60 km SW
- Несцераўшчына (курганны могільнік)63 km SW
- Ліпск (курганны могільнік)63 km SW
- Бірулі (археалагічны помнік)64 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Гомель (курганны могільнік)" (Belarusian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors