Bechi

the site of a fortified town, a shelter of the early Iron Age near the village of Bechi in Zhitkovichi Raion, Gomel’ Oblast, Byelorussian SSR. It has been repeatedly excavated, beginning in the 1880’s. It has two small areas (2.6 and 6.8 hectares), fortified by a rampart (1,410 meters long, 1.5–2 meters high and 9–12 meters wide), and a moat. Between the two areas was another wall. The archaeological site has almost no cultural stratum. On the basis of isolated finds (modeled ceramics, iron lance heads), Bechi dates from the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. to the first centuries A.D. It belongs to the Milograd culture and the early stages of the Zarubinets culture. A series of ancient village sites from the same period has been discovered a few kilometers from Bechi.