Sentence:  In 1897 N. I. Veselovskii excavated the very large, nearly 11 meter high Oshad <WSD>kurgan</WSD> or barrow in the town of Maikop in the Kuban region near the foothills of the northwestern Caucasus (the present-day capital of the Adygei Republic)....This discovery stimulated the excavation of other large <WSD>kurgans</WSD> located in the same general region, some of which seemed royal-like in their dimensions and, when not robbed in antiquity, in their materials. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A prehistoric burial mound once used by peoples in Siberia and Central Asia.