gh THE BRONZE AGE OBSERVATORY ON THE BANK OF THE OKA RIVER

The archeological dig in Spasskaya Luka, in the middle of the Ryazan Region (Central Russia), where two rivers, the Oka and the Pronya, interflow, is carried out by the research expedition under the guidance of Ilya Akhmedov of the Department of Archeological Monuments, State Historical Museum. For several years the archeologists have been excavating the Finno-Ugric burial ground in this area dating back to the beginning of A.D., the times of the Great Resettlement of Peoples. Last summer, when starting the research of the highest point of the hill, the archeologists came across an unusual monument - the half a meter thick pole and seven big poles were installed at equal spans around a large but rather shallow pit, two pairs of poles being set in the shape of gates. A vessel was found in the pit, with a bronze awl in a birch bark casing lying under the vessel near the altar of animal bones. The circle formed by the poles was about seven meters in diameter.

The scientists have already finished preliminary data processing and can refer this monument to the observatory type installations, it is estimated to date back to four thousand years - the end of the third - beginning of the second millenium B.C. The dating was determined by the kind of the vessel in the central pit. This is a small ceramic jug decorated by a fine ornamental pattern - small lines highlighting the zigzag, which reminds of the Sun rays, and the rows of wavy lines - a symbol of water - are on the top. The most surprising thing is that the Sun-vessel is made a compliance with the traditions of the steppe peoples who used to populate the South of Eurasia at that time. According to Ilya Akhmedov, similar crockery was found in Sintashta, legendary town of ancient Aryans in Siberia. The vessel has evident similarity to the vessels of the Abashevo culture spread in the Volga region and near the Urals.

Two more pits surrounded by poles were found at the distance of fifteen meters from the sanctuary, probably there had been four pits there but the location was ruined by a ravine. Two more vessels of absolutely different in appearance were found in these pits - the vessels are big, thin-walled, with a round bottom but without ornamental pattern, they are rather crudely made as compared to the steppe jug. Such crockery used to be made by balanovtsi - the forest people of the Bronze Age. The unusual thing is that the goods of different traditions were stored in the same place. In the middle of one of the pits the researchers found human bones accurately laid near the 'forest' jug fragments - two fragments of arms and legs and part of the lower jaw. Those are the traces of a sacrifice.

It is interesting to note the fact that the Finno-Ugric tribes which lived in the area about two thousand years later and arranged their cemetery in place of the ancient one did not affect it in any way - Mordvinian burials are places precisely around the ancient ones. Apparently, the religious installation rose above the relief as a hill, but in contemporary times the area is ploughed. No wonder that archeologists came across the unusual monument only by chance.

"Nothing similar to that has ever been found in the Ryazan Region or in the forest area", says the head of expedition. The Ryazan sanctuary of such venerable age is unique. Similar installations are known in the steppe zone and trans-Ural tundra, but hey are not so beautiful and complicatedly arranged. Similar sanctuaries including poles started to spread throughout the European part since the end of the first millenium B.C., they can be found in Czechia and Slovakia, where Celtic people used to live. "Parallel can be drawn to Stonehendge, which is close to our monument in terms of the erection date and initially was also made of wood", - theorizes Ilya Akhmedov. However, no blood relationship could have existed between the peoples who erected Stonehendge and the Ryazan observatory. The latter evidently indicates the influence of alien population from the South-East of Eurasian steppe.

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