The Ulskii Tumuli. Cultic and Burial Complex of the Scythian Period in the Northern Caucasus

Vladimir Erlikh, Ljudmila Galanina, Irina Ksenofontova, Alexandre Leskov, Rafael Minasyan, Elena Perevodchikova

Corpus Tumulorum Scythicorum et Sarmaticorum. Vol. 2

Paleograph Press;

Deutsches Archäologisches Institut;

Institut des recherches sur l'Antiquité et le Moyen-Age «Ausonius» CNRS, Université de Bordeaux III;

Center for Comparative Study on Ancient Civilizations, Russian Academy of Sciences

Berlin, Bordeaux, Moscow, 2015

224 pages, including:
40 plans and b/w photographs
26 plates with line drawings of finds
16 plates with colour photographs of finds

54.00 Euro (+postage) for one volume;
49.00 Euro (+postage) with the subscription to at least three volumes of Steppenvölker Eurasiens or Corpus Tumulorum Scythicorum. (with 10% discount for each volume)

The book presents complete publication of the famous Ulskii burial-mounds located in Adygea in the foothills of the Western Caucasus and dated to the 6–5th century BC. Ulskii burial-mounds as well as prevoiusly published Kelermes and Krasnoznamenskii burial-mounds are the main sources for the Scythian archaeology in the Northern Causasus.

The finds from Ulskii burial-mounds are now kept in four Russian Museum: Hermitage (Sankt-Petersburg), State Historical Museum (Moscow), Museum of Oriental Art (Moscow) and State Museum of the Repaublic of Adygea (Maikop) and the publication of this volume has been prepared thanks to the joint efforts by members of staff of these museums.

The book presents a complete catalogue of all the finds from Ulskii burial-mounds and a detailed description of excavations of N. Veselovsky of 1898, 1908, 1909, as well as modern excavations carried out by A. Leskov in 1982–1983 and by V. Erlich in 2007.

In separate chapters authors discuss details of horse harness, weapons, Greek imports, finds made in Scythian animal style, technology of metal production. Special chapters are devoted to the chronology of the burial-mounds, and ehnic and cultural interpretation of the complex. It should be noted that the authors do not always agree in their interpratations and conlusions.

Fig. 5. Burial-mound 1/1898. Plan of the central part of the trench with Veselovskii’s comments (distances are in sazhens). AIIMK, Fond 1, File 60/1898, Page 17. Fig. 6. Burial-mound 1/1898. Central structure of the burial-mound. Reconstruction by N. I. Veselovskii. OAK 1898, 30.

Fig. 11. Burial-mound 10/1982. 1. General plan of the central structure. Lower level. 2. Profiles along the sections through the western ridge of the central structure of the Burial-mound. Fig. 12. Burial-mound 10/1982. Reconstruction of the central structure of the Burial-mound.

Fig. 34. Burial-mound 1/2007. General plan. A. Plan of the remains of the tent-like structure. Fig. 35. Burial-mound 1/2007. Profiles of the baulks.

Plates 10 and 11.

Plate 30. Cat. 109. Plate 31. 1. Cat. 39; 2. Cat. 67.

Plate 38. Cat. 126, detail. Plate 39. Cat. 126, detail.

Ulskii preview.pdf [3.8 megabytes]:

Title pages (p.1–6);
Table of Content (p.7);
Introduction (p. 9–11);
Excavation of the Ulskii Burial-mounds in 1898, 1908 and 1909 (p. 12–14);
Excavations of a Burial-mound of the Ulskii Group in 2007 (p. 129–130);
Catalogue 139–140;
Plates 17, 18, 35, 36.

Table of Contents:

Sample Screenshots:

Sample Downloads:

Other volumes of Steppenvölker Eurasiens and Corpus: