Student of Altai State University takes part in international expedition

26 August 2019 Department of Political History, National and Religious Relations

This summer Karina Krikunova, a student at the Faculty of Mass Communications, Philology and Political Science majoring in Regional Studies, took part in international archaeological expedition in Tyva. The site of the expeditionary work, the Tunnug mound, is located on the southern bank of the Uyuk River, in its floodplain, and is surrounded by impassable swampy terrain.

Karina shared her impressions of the expedition:

“The Tsar’s mound was known long before work began there. Excavations have been carried out for three years. Employees of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Geographical Society work on the mound. Tunnug-1 is an international project led by Timur Sadykov, Yegor Blokhin and Gino Caspari. About 60 scientists are daily involved in excavations – not only archaeologists, but also anthropologists, geologists, and surveyors. Volunteers from the Russian Geographical Society, including me, work together with the specialists. In July 2019, representatives of such countries as Mongolia, Colombia, America, Denmark, Uzbekistan, India, Estonia, Kazakhstan and Switzerland participated in the excavations. Every month new specialists and volunteers come to the site. There are those who arrived in May and will stay there until fall. The mound is one of the largest ones among the famous Scythian mounds, its diameter is 140 m. Under it in the center there are wooden structures – the main burial. In July 2019, the excavations reached the logs that were taken for examination. According to the leaders of the expedition, the work here will be carried out for another 4–6 years.”

Karina also noted:

“Participating in this project was very exciting. When working at the site, we were able to ask archaeologists any questions about the mound, and they always explained everything clearly. Since this mound is still little studied, it is of genuine interest to everyone, including specialist workers. This is probably why the workflow did not get boring. The leaders themselves were sometimes surprised at the discoveries made on the site. Among the volunteers there were students majoring in liberal arts, history and other areas. Communicating with them was very informative; all the guys were smart and interesting. I got into archeology last summer, when I was able to take part in the Krasnoshchekovsky archaeological expedition in the Chineta village under the leadership of the head of the Department of Political History, National and Religious Relations Petr K. Dashkovsky. There we explored the mounds of the Scythian era, but they were of a smaller size.”

It is to be recalled that in the framework of training in the field of Regional Studies first-year students undergo summer practice in the framework of the Altai Summer Ethnocultural School as part of an archaeological expedition. The expedition takes place in the picturesque places of Altai Mountains and is aimed at studying the historical monuments of the Chineta archaeological micro region.

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