MAIASP. 2023. No. 15 Yu.G. Kokorina ( “The digging of the mound is an anatomical preparation” (a newly
discovered manual by Ivan E. Zabelin on the excavation of the DOI: 10.53737/7274.2023.34.89.019 Access this article (PDF File) Pages: 590—603 |
The activity of the outstanding Russian historian
I.E. Zabelin as an archaeologist is evaluated
ambiguously in the history of the discipline. The previously unknown record,
I.E. Zabelin’s handwritten manual on the excavation
of the barrow mounds in the North Pontic Area,
provides some new insights on his field research approaches. I.E. Zabelin recommended to take
apart the mounds completely, from the top to
the bottom, and it was only the modest funding and the lack of time which
forced him to dig isolated trenches. I.E. Zabelin
insisted that the finds were left in situ and gave some seminal advices on
how the chief grave must be found and recovered. The archaeologist demanded
to use a compass as well as to be sure to draw a plan and sections of the
barrow and mark the location of the finds in the mound. The manual requested
that the field journal was necessarily kept to make entries about all the
details ever observed, with the descriptions of all the skeletons of humans
and horses and the grave goods precisely registered. I.E. Zabelin
drawn up his manual while generalizing his own experience of excavating
mounds of |
Key words: |
Received February 20 2023. Accepted for publication March
15, 2023. |
About the author: Kokorina Yulia Georgievna ( E-mail: kokorina@inbox.ru
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