county. The ethn burial mounds were located on a vast plain on the banks of the Berezna River; they constituted 2 separate groups (one of 4, the other of 2 mounds) and, in addition, 3 mounds lay secluded at a considerable distance from these groups. In two mounds of the first group, only shards from clay vessels, fragments of burnt bones and a sinker made of burnt clay were found; in the third mound there was a whole layer of clay vessels, up to 50 in number; These vessels stood tightly adjacent to each other, but they were all crushed, so that not a single one of them could be obtained whole; the shards are made of brown or reddish clay, without ornaments; At the bottom of each vessel there was a significant amount of ash mixed with burnt bones, among the fragments of which the following things were found: a fragment of a folding bone comb, the component parts of which were fastened with a bronze nail, a bronze belt buckle, a bronze nail or pin, and several unidentified bronze fragments. Finally, the fourth mound of this group did not contain any things, but represented the peculiarity that its entire mass consisted of seven layers of rotten wood and seven layers of ash, coal and burnt bones; These layers regularly alternated with each other. Of the two mounds of the other group, only shards and coal were found in one, in the other 5 skeletons, located in an original way: two lay with their heads to the west, two to the east and one to the north. The legs of the skeletons almost touched in its center and in this place stood a vessel (5 September high) with a wide neck, made of brown clay containing many grains of quartz, made without the help of a potter's wheel and covered with an ornament consisting of deep scratches made with a fingernail. Judging by the two completely preserved skulls, they are clearly of a brachycephalic type; one of the skeletons was undoubtedly female, the other male, the other three could not be identified.
Of the three separate mounds, in one, called “Ghoul,” two sandstone grindstones and shards from a clay vessel were found at a depth of one meter; a skeleton lay 1 1/a meters deeper, with its head to the west; on its left side stood two vessels (12-15 centimeters in height), decorated with an ornament of winding curved lines and next to them a pile of burnt
V. V. ANTONOVICH,
solid bones, several folded vessels, a bronze pin, a flat, square piece of dressed bone, with a hole in the middle, and 3 flint scrapers made using large dents; Finally, a polished stone hammer was found under the skeleton. In another, separately located mound, at a depth of 1/2 meter, there was a skeleton, head to the north, in a birch plank coffin with a three-sided bronze arrowhead; at his feet lay another skeleton, with its head to the west; this skeleton was missing the bones of its right arm, and on its left side, at its feet, lay the skeleton of a dog. At the head of the first skeleton lay a third skeleton, with its head to the northeast and next to it a vessel filled with coal and ash. Under the middle skeleton, a horse skeleton was found and with it iron: a bit, a stirrup, a horseshoe and a fragment of a knife. Finally, the third, separate mound turned out to be a grave of a later time: a firearm was found near the skeleton (the muzzle and lock of a pistol).
In July of this year, D. Ya. Samokvasov dug up 2 groups of mounds lying at the mouth of the Rasava River, which flows into Ros, on the border of Kanevsky and Cherkasy districts; one of these groups (10 mounds) is located between the villages: Yablunov and Gamarneya, the other (11 mounds) between Gamarneya and Kononcheya. In each of these groups, Mr. Samokvasov opened four kirgaps.
In the first group, the mounds turned out to be two-story; in the upper layers of the mound there were later graves containing human and horse skeletons; The riders had various iron weapons and harnesses: parts of chain mail, helmets, bits, stirrups, iron arrows. Below, much deeper, there were other, more ancient graves, in which there were burnt bones, as well as a significant amount of gold objects: plaques, earrings, buttons, beads, pendants, fragments of a crown made of patterned gold plaque, mini-
*) The details of this excavation were borrowed by me from a diary, very accurately compiled by Mr. Popovsky and necessarily communicated to me by him. The items found are kept in a collection belonging to the city of Popovsky (village of Zalivashtsina, Podolsk province, Vinnitsa district).
archaeological and expeditions and excavations in Kyiv Guv. 1876 259