GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORD OF THE BARROWS STRUCTURE OF THE KOMAROV CULTURE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-01-08

One of the largest concentrations of the Bronze Age Komarov culture is the burial mound in Bukivna, where the surface studies documented 59 barrows. The area is located on the right side of the Dniester River, in the South-Podolian Upland (west Ukraine). Micromorphological soil studies on and below the barrows allow to state that they were created under different environmental conditions. The soils under the barrows show the features of leached black earth soils developed in the conditions of the forest steppe, under the grassy vegetation, in a temperate warm climate with enough precipitation. The black earth character of the soil-forming processes is confirmed by numerous molehills indicating activity of soil fauna. On the surface of the barrows, on the other hand, there are turf-podzolic soils with clearly visible eluvial and illuvial levels and the hardpan layer. This proves the change of environmental conditions between the period in which the communities of barrow builders functioned and the period of the formation of the modern soil profile on the barrow surface. The nature of the soil-forming processes related to the development of modern soil influenced the

state of archaeological remains in the barrows as well as the mineral and geochemical composition of their embankments. The mounds of the barrows are dominated by the silt fraction with admixtures of clays and very fine-grained sands. There is a similar deposit in the upper layers of the barrows, but with larger proportions of sandy fraction and a smaller of the clay fraction, usually better sorted. In the Ukrainian soil-related literature, attention is paid to podsolization as a process contributing to the transfer of clay elements from the eluvial layer and their washing into the illuvial layer. Geochemical analyses indicate the diversity of the content of micro- and macroelements in the barrow sediments.


Author(s): Hildebrandt-Radke, Iwona - Makarowicz, Przemyslaw (Adam Mickiewicz University) - Matwiishina, Zhanna Nikolaevna (National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine)