Курган (h=1 м, d=70 м)

A kurgan is a burial mound built over a grave, often a single body with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic-Caspian steppe, kurgans spread across Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the third millennium BCE. The earliest date to the fourth millennium BCE in the Caucasus, and the Maykop culture there is one of the early sources. Some researchers associate early kurgans with the Indo-Europeans, a debated link; the Yamnaya culture of the steppe is the best known of the steppe cultures that built them. The word comes from a Turkic term meaning fortified place, embankment or high grave. The regional background, “Eurasian kurgans”, is given below.

No date has been published for this site.