Important Russian excavations

Press, 27 October 1982, Page 15

Important Russian excavations

The land.on both banks of the Kuban River, in the Ukraine, has numerous historical monuments. More than 3000 of the sites are protected by the state: included among them are the burial mounds in the steppe, dolmens in the mountains, and sites of the ancient Greek cities.— Phanagoria, Hermonasa, Kepa. Gorhyppia. and Tmutarakan. The Caucasian Expedition of the Oriental Arts Museum, led by the famous archaeologist. Alexander Leskov, has been working in the outskirts of the Ulyap, village on the territory of the Adygei Autonomous Region for two years. Forty burial mounds were found around this village:

eight of them have been dug out. The scientists discovered under a thin layer of soil a site where Scythian funeral feasts were held. The discoveries included a valuable golden vessel for wine, a silver vessel decorated with a golden head of Pegasus, a golden grivna (unit of currency, in medieval Russia), and golden plates used as decorations, shown in the photograph above. The excavations are continuing.

The photograph left shows a museum worker, I. V. Ksenofontova, pointing out to the expedition leader, Leskov, and another worker, F. R. Balonov, some of the discoveries from mound No. 4.