The stone tombstone of the Drutsk burial mound has no analogues in Eastern Europe - NAS of Belarus

October 22, Vitebsk / Sergey Kotovetov - BELTA /. A stone tombstone from the collective burial mound of the Drutsk kurgan (Tolochnsky district), discovered by archaeologists this summer, has no analogues in Eastern Europe. This was announced today in Vitebsk at the conference "Vitebsk Antiquities" by Olga Levko, Head of the Center for the History of Pre-Industrial Society of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Doctor of Historical Sciences, according to a BELTA correspondent. Stone tombstones are characteristic of burials near or inside churches, while scientists attribute kurgan burials to pagan traditions. "We are not aware of similar finds in kurgans, and perhaps this fact indicates the parallel coexistence of pagan and Christian traditions," said Olga Levko. According to preliminary data, a child aged 7-8 years was buried in a grave with a stone tombstone in a wooden coffin. The kurgan is a collective burial, with the remains of 38 people discovered there in total. During the excavations, burial inventory was found - remnants of clothing (collars) embroidered with gold and with an ornament of the Byzantine pattern, fragments of fabrics, again of the Byzantine pattern, gilded and one silver button. All finds indicate that both noble people, and possibly their servants, as well as warriors, were buried in the kurgan. Scientists associate this find with one of the sad pages of history, when hostilities were conducted on the territory of Drutsk - this is indicated by arrowheads in the remains of two people. The information obtained so far is insufficient to determine who the buried were - local residents or conquerors. Archaeologists will continue their research in the territory of ancient Drutsk and hope that they will have more chances to specify the dating of the stone tombstone. Currently, scientists date the find to the second half of the 12th - the first decade of the 13th centuries. The last event recorded in the Old Russian chronicles in the second half of the 12th century was the campaign against Drutsk by the united forces of the South Russian and Polotsk princes, as well as Lithuanian detachments under the rule of the Polotsk princes. During that period, an alliance between Drutsk and Smolensk was planned, which the Polotsk princes did not want to allow. "They intended to keep Drutsk and its appanage principality within the borders of the Polotsk land, although it was heading for its disintegration," explained Olga Levko. If we talk about the beginning of the 13th century, then the discovered finds may be related to the period of the establishment of the power of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in these places, during which its territory began to form. All finds in kurgan burials may subsequently help to clarify the history of ancient Drutsk, one of the centers of the Old Russian principalities in the territory of Belarus.-0-