Excavations at Sara Burial Mound by D.I. Zakharov in 1929: to the Solution of one Study Case of the Early Iron Age Archaeology

The article enhances the scholarly discourse with previously unknown archive materials that explain why the Southern Urals Early Iron Age archaeology has faced a source-studies case while researching Sara cemetery in the Eastern Orenburg region. In the late 1920s D.I. Zakharov, a researcher of the Orenburg Museum, conducted excavations at the cemetery. The explored materials were introduced in the scholarly discourse by K.F. Smirnov. However, some published materials do not originate from kurgan 7. It was proven for sure by V.K. Fedorov in 2019. The archive studies establish that the materials under dispute were obtained by D.I. Zakharov in his second year of the monument research, viz. in 1929. The article offers the full text of the 1929 report and the excavation author's illustrations. We believe, D.I. Zakharov studied burial mound 2 of the cemetery. The kurgan contains graves with weapon items (sword, arrowheads) and horse harness elements. Some finds are admitted rare (shield boss, golden earring). The burial rite includes burying a horse, that is why the grave reveals horse harness elements previously attributed to the grave in kurgan 7. Kurgan 2 burial rite and inventory demonstrate similarity to the materials from kurgan 3 studied in 1993 by V.K. Fedorov and V.N. Vasilyev. These features are distinctive for 500s–400s BC nomads. The best description of the Sara cemetery burial rite can be given subject to the complete publication of all available materials from the associated excavations. It will allow to finalize the challenging issue of studying this monument.