What are burial mounds? The meaning of the word "mound"

When we hear the word "mound", our imagination, as a rule, draws a picture of an earthen hill covered with grasses, under which an ancient burial is hidden. This is due to the fact that it was burial mounds that proved to be the most interests of mankind. Ancient people, believing in the afterlife, turned graves, in fact, into treasuries, which later attracted the attention of archaeologists, treasure hunters and black diggers. So what are barrows? For what purpose they were built?

What does the word "mound"

Dictionaries in different ways interpret the meaning of the word "mound", translating it from one or another language. In literal translation from the Turkish barrow means "fortress". Sometimes it is called a hill over an ancient burial, a burial ground, a hill or a small hill. In the Tatar understanding, the word "mound" may simply be a hill and a pile of mounds; Ancient grave; An ice slide, rushing along the sea (an iceberg); A metal jug that has a spout, a handle and a lid; Kubgan, or kungan, and even more correctly - kumganom; Bacaldina with water.

In translation from the ancient Turkic language, the meaning of the word "mound" is "hill" or "mound". The Sumerians called the bulk hills the words "kur-en" and "kur-gal," that is, "the mountain of the sky" or "the great mountain." And also barrows - it's maaris, hills, Lithuanian graves.

In Russian, this word denoted the border, between, the watchtower. Why so? But because behind the barrows began foreign lands. In addition, for Rusich this word was a way out, astrakh, babylon, cellar and cellar with a complex device.

Barrow - what is this?

Believe that this is just a burial, it is mistaken. Then what are the mounds? They organized not only burial grounds, but also public premises, and storerooms-storages. Inside the mounds, churches were equipped with an altar and magnificent acoustics. They were supplied with royal doors and prayer rooms.

In the barrows, where there are no temple attributes, it seems that dwellings were arranged. They were an old kind of house. Barrows are stone structures erected without the use of binding solutions. The earth was poured on such dwellings with the aim that rain does not get inside the building. The earthen hill served as a kind of roof for these buildings.

And what are the mounds built on Russian lands? In the Russian villages to the present time there are surviving exits-the Babylons, more precisely the cellars-storages of small sizes, similar in structure to typical barrows. The chambers are made of stone or wood and sprinkled with earth. The main purpose of the cellar is the storage of vegetables, fruits, pickles and other. If a glacier is built in the cellar, perishable food is stored in it, like in a refrigerator, for example meat, milk.

Device

So, what are barrows? These are earthen mounds over ancient buildings of different purposes. The first of these relate to the late Neolithic and the Aeneolithic. Such hills archeologists found on all continents (except for Australia). In mounds, as a rule, a spherical shape. However, there are structures with a rectangular or oval base.

Their magnitude is different. Large hills diameter is more than 100 meters, and the height exceeds 20 meters. Long hills are like an elongated mound. The earth was filled with solitary graves and mass burial places. Their internal premises have different devices. They were built in the form of crypts, catacombs, wooden log cabins, stone or earthen chambers.

The burial grounds were filled with utensils, weapons, ornaments, food. In them, along with the deceased, were buried their wives, slaves and horses. Mounds are mostly formed by whole groups of hills. Giant cemeteries are formed from several thousand mounds. Although there are separately standing mounds. All of them differ in the size and richness of the interior decoration.

History of Matvey-burial mound

Mateveev Kurgan is a rural settlement in the Rostov region. Its name comes from a tradition, according to which once in those places traded robbers. Ataman they had Matvey. The murdered leader of the gang, robbing merchants, was buried on a mound located on the coast of the river Mius.

This place, Matvey-burial mound, historians are associated with "The Lay of Igor's Host ...". It was on the expanses of the eastern vicinities of the village that the preliminary battle of the Polovtsians with Prince Igor happened. Here the commander was captivated by nomads who used the "Greek fire".

In 1942, at the height of the village, bloody battles were fought between three naval brigades and fascist invaders. Now on the mound, above the mass grave, there is a memorial ensemble to Soviet wars, who gave their lives during the Great Patriotic War.

Mamaev kurgan

This name arose a very long time ago. But, apparently, it can not be connected with the name of the commander Mamai. There is an opinion that the name for the mound was the Turkic word, translated as "hillock", "elevation". However, according to another version, in the place of this mound there was an outpost built by Khan Mamai. Therefore, the hill received the same name.

In 1942-1943 years. In the center of Volgograd for two hundred days rumbled fierce battle of Stalingrad. Soviet soldiers defended the height of 102.0, repulsing it from the Germans. After the Great Patriotic War Mamayev Kurgan became a place of memory and sorrow. A memorial complex was erected on the hill in honor of the warriors-heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad. In the composition center of the ensemble there is a sculpture "Motherland".