Lecture “The Chungul Kurgan Grave Goods in the Black Sea Steppe of the Thirteenth Century”

November 9, 2019

Dr. Renata Holod

Professor Emerita and Curator in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania

This presentation interprets as trophies many of the grave goods excavated from the burial of a steppe leader  –  likely a Polovtsian ‘prince’  –  within the Chungul Kurgan in the steppes of southern Ukraine. Written sources about the culture of the Eurasian steppe of the 11th-13th centuries CE, comparative study of items in European collections, and the archaeological details of the exact manner of deposition have allowed the reconstruction of the meanings of these finds in daily life, and in the burial ritual. The grave goods allow us to propose a possible identity for the deceased, and his activities in the early 13th century