On the typology and chronology of some forms of mounds in the Long Kurgan culture (with particular reference to the Nadozerie and Zalahtovie cemeteries)
t is thought that in the North-West of Russia the kurgan ritual formed in the Long Kurgan culture area in the second half of the Ist millennium BC. According to the predominant developmental scheme, the cremations in urns or pits were followed with burials on specially prepared grounds delimited with small ditches. Indeed, the core of each long kurgan is formed by sub-rectangular or round burial grounds. The burials in modified sand hillocks of natural origin should probably also be dated to the early stage of the culture.
The forms of the Long Kurgan culture barrow mounds are diverse. There are long «pancake-like» flattened mounds of round or oval shape without noticeable ditches; sub-quadrangular and sub-rectangular mounds with circular, overlapping or corner ditches, etc. The semi-spherical barrows are usually considered the latest ones, though there are some indications of their early appearance.
It is still impossible to arrange them chronologically. Some forms of barrow mounds might have existed simultaneously. For the time being, however, this cannot be proved, because most barrows lack chronologically diagnostic finds, and only some radiocarbon dates allow placing them on the calendar scale. It is exactly due to these dates that two barrows from the cemeteries of Nadozerie-1 and Zalakhtovie (Gdov district of the Pskov region) could be assigned to the early stage of the Long Kurgan culture.