На території Середнього Подністров'я досліджено понад сотню курганів ранньоскіфського часу.
Стаття присвячена характеристиці стовпових дерев'яних склепів, які розміщувалися в насипах і виконували роль не тільки поховальних споруд, а були й храмами, де здійснювалися різного роду ритуали.
The study of the early-Scythian burial mounds in the
Middle Dniester region began at the end of the nineteenth
century many researchers. The results of their
work were summed up in the monograph of T. Sulimirsky,
published in 1936. Over the next decades, this
work was continued by G. Melyukova, G. Smirnova,
L. Krushelnytska, J. Maleev, M. Bandrivsky, A. Gutsal. The burial mounds were explored in the villages
of Lenkivtsi, Dolinyan, Perebykivtsi, Vrublivka, Zozulintsi, Kolodiyaka, Kotsiubynchy, Loevtsi, Malinovka,
Minkivtsi, Myshkivtsi, Sokilets, Spasivka, Tarasivka, Teklka, Shvaykivtsi, Shutnivtsi and others. The number
of mounds studied for the whole period of excavation now exceeds 125. There was an opportunity to more fully
understand the peculiarities of the burial rite of the local population of that time, in particular, to assimilate
the nature of such burial structures in the mound as a pillar wooden vault. As calculations show, about 38 % of
burial mounds contained such buildings. Their construction consisted of wooden piles sunken in the ground, the
number of which varied from 4 to 35, and wooden logs or wheels, which were walls and roof, and which were supported
by pillars. Such a crypt could be built on the level of the ancient horizon, could be slightly entwined in the
ground (up to 0.5 m), or lowered into a pit at 1—1.2 m. Most of the crypts after the completion of all the ritual
ceremonies over the burial, burned. The peculiarity of the Transnistrian mounds was that there were stones
in all the embankments, which strengthened the mound and was a constructive part of the crypt.
