Medieval Cemetery Uncovered in Ukraine

KYIV, UKRAINE—A 1,000-year-old cemetery has been discovered in Ukraine, according to a Live Science report. Vsevolod Ivakin and Vyacheslav Baranov of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine said that most of the 107 graves in the cemetery contained wooden coffins. Some of the men were buried with axes, spearheads, or swords, while a few of the women were buried wearing elaborate neck rings, thought to have been used as markers of their status. Wooden buckets found at the feet of some of the individuals may have been used in funerary rituals, the researchers added. Such buckets have been found in other burials in the region. A stone altar, bracelets, beads, and traces of possible food offerings including chicken bones and eggshells were also uncovered in the cemetery. The altar may have been used for Christian or pagan rituals, or even both, the researchers explained, since it dates to the period when people in Ukraine were converting to Christianity. Some of the artifacts recovered from the graves resemble objects found in graves in the Baltic, indicating that some of the dead may have traveled to Kyiv to serve in the military under Volodymyr the Great, who ruled from A.D. 980 to 1015 and converted to Christianity around A.D. 987, and Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled from A.D. 1019 to 1054. To read about the Cossack capital city of Baturyn that Peter the Great destroyed in 1708, go to "Ukraine's Lost Capital."