Nesterovskaia Burial Ground

a cemetery dating back to the sixth to fourth centuries B.C., near Nesterovskaia station, in Chechen-Ingush ASSR. The Soviet archaeologist E. I. Krupnov excavated the site in 1939 and 1940 and again in 1946. Fifty-three graves, some of them under burial mounds, were investigated. Most of them contained a single corpse in a flexed position lying on its side; the corpses face various directions. The graves yielded bronze and iron bracelets, grivnas (ancient monetary units), buckles, rings, swords, spearheads, and clay vessels. The burial rites and the objects found in the graves are characteristic of the Eastern variant of Koban culture. In some of the graves, the corpses were in a supine position, with their heads pointing west; the enclosed objects were typical of Scythian culture. Scythian objects, such as akinakes (short iron swords), were also found in other graves. The combination of local and steppe forms of culture and burial rites in the Nesterovskaia burial ground attest to the mutual influence between the Scythians and the ancient North Caucasian tribes.