The Great Salbyk barrow in Siberia (archaeoastronomical aspects of its studying)

Abstract

The article The Great Salbyk Barrow is the best known of the megalithic monuments in Siberia. Archaeologist S.V. Kiselev excavated the Salbyk-barrow, the largest barrow in Khakasia in 1954-1956. The expedition of the State Hermitage Museum researched Salbyk valley in 1992-1998, 2008 and 2010. A barrow height is more than 20 m and originally it was pyramid-shaped (Fig. 1). Under the mound was a square "fence" (71 x 71 metres) made of huge stone slabs placed vertically and horizontally and weighting some tonnes (the average size was about 5 metres - Fig. 1-2). The construction of big barrows in Salbyk having multiple functions (funeral, socio-political, religious, astronomical, architectural, and others) probably was based on the astronomical knowledge of their time. The installation of the fence slabs is connected with the main moments of the rising and setting of the Moon and Sun on astronomically significant days. Signs in the form of circles, crescents and other figures situated on significant astronomical direction lines were discovered on the barrow's slabs. On the basis of the new analyses, the Great Salbyk barrow is dated to the 7th century BC.

Keywords

• archaeoastronomy
• megalithical monuments
• moon
• sun
• barrow
• petroglyphs
• siberia
• khakasia
• salbyk