Casual Findings of the Late Bronze Age Materials on the Left Bank of the Lower Dniester Region

Abstract

The first information about the sites of the Late Bronze Age on the left bank of the Dniester Valley in the vicinity of the city of Tiraspol dates back to the 90s of the 19th century, when I.Y. and L.S. Stempkovsky excavated here 412 burial mounds, containing, among other things, materials of Babino and Belozerka Cultures. In 1970-1978 ten burial complexes of the Babino cultural circle were studied near the village of Butor, Grigoriopol District. In 1982, near the village of Glinoe, Slobodzeja District a burial mound was excavated, built over the burial of Belozerka Culture.

The last decades the systematic researches on the Lower Dniester Left Bank are carried out by the Dniester Archaeological Expedition (DAE) of the Pridnestrovian State University named after T.G. Shevchenko (PSU). During the work of the expedition, a number of Bronze Age burial mounds were excavated near the villages of Glinoe and Blijnii Hutor in Slobodzeja District, containing, among others, the burials of the Late Bronze Age (Babino, Sabatinovka, Belozersk Cultures).

To obtain the complete picture of the microregion, the DAE also conducted the prospecting researches in the areas adjacent to Tiraspol. Over the past decade, the PSU Museum of Archeology of Transnistria has been enriched with a number of casual findings related to the Late Bronze Age, found on the left bank of the Dniester near the villages of India and Tokmazeia, Grigoriopol District, the villages of Caragas, Nezavertailovka, Parkany, Ternovka, Slobodzeja District. 20 items have been introduced into scientific circulation: ceramic pottery, bronze produced items (knives, piece of dagger blade, «razors», sickle, awl, fluted adze, punch, fishing hooks, pins, knob) and stone items (pestle-mortar, pestle). The findings relate to Babino, Sabatinovka and Belozerka Cultures. The range of the presented findings is much wider than in the studied burials, and they significantly supplement the specific features of these cultures in the Lower Dniester Left Bank microregion.