Shestovitsy Kurgans

three groups of ancient Russian burial mounds dating from the tenth and early 11th centuries, located on the right bank of the Desna, 16 km southwest of the city of Chernigov, near the village of Shestovitsy. About 150 mounds were excavated by P. I. Smolichev (1925–27), Ia. V. Stankevich (1946), and D. I. Blifel’d (1948, 1956–58). The burials, with cremations or inhumations, yielded weapons, horse harnesses, Arabic and Byzantine coins, and Scandinavian fibulae. Members of the military aristocracy were buried in chambers (“timber-frame” tombs and rectangular pits) together with their female slaves and horses. Located nearby are an ancient Russian fortified settlement and a small village with the remains of semisub-terranean dwellings. The Shestovitsy Kurgans resemble other military necropolises of the early feudal period in Rus’ (Kiev) and Scandinavia (seeBIRKA).