Nechaeva Mogila – the last Scythian royal giant barrow in the Black Sea Scythia

Abstract

Nechaeva Mogila is the only remaining Scythian royal giant barrow in the Northern Black Sea region. It has been known to Russian archaeologists since 1853. Presently, it is 14–15 meters in height. Over the past two centuries, the barrow has undergone significant changes. In the middle of the 19th century, hollows were noted in the embankment, a deep well was excavated at the top, which was later filled up, and a gazebo was constructed at its site. The barrow played a particularly tragic role during the Great Patriotic War, when it was one of the key strongholds of the Wehrmacht troops in the Nikopol-Krivoy Rog offensive of the Red Army in December 1943 - January 1944, which ended in a defeat for the Krivoy Rog-Nikopol group trying to keep hold the Nikopol manganese and Krivoy Rog iron ore basins at all costs. More than fifteen hundred Soviet soldiers died in battles for Nechaeva Mogila. The barrow itself, and especially its top, was covered with dugouts and trenches, as well as hundreds of shell craters. After the war, the top of the barrow was completely rearranged, and a triangulation station of the highest category was installed. All facts indicate that in an earlier period the barrow was one of the largest Scythian royal barrows of the Northern Black Sea region and was at least 20 meters in height.

Keywords

• archaeology
• scythians
• royal barrow
• great patriotic war
• nikopol-krivoy rog offensive of the red army
• “height 167.3
• nechaeva mogila”
• b.n. grakov
• g.l. sereda
• a.i. terenozhkin
• b.n. mozolevsky
• looters