Maria Otchir-Goriaeva
(Kalmyk Institute of Humanitarian Research,Russian Academy of Sciences Elista, Russia)
Republic of Kalmykia in Russian Federation namely is occupied the arid steppe on the right (west) bank of the Lower Volga in the North-Western Caspian Steppe between 45.00 and 48.00 deg N and 44.00 and 47.00 deg E. The total square of the Republic is 75,9 thousands km. Kalmyk Republic has a very low density of the population – 2,4 per square km. The vast territory and less husbandry activity resulted to the unique preservation of the archaeological sites and archaeological landscape. The real quantity of archaeological sites on this huge territory is not still accounted. Currently in Kalmykia archaeological evidence from the Late Neolithic (IV millennium BC) to Medieval periods comes exclusively from burial-mound sites, the so-called kurgans and only a few settlements. The real big problem is the lack of the registration of the archaeological sites and their management. Traditionally the heritage management in the republic was limited only rescue excavations. As a first step towards to the cultural resource management we have mapped all archaeological sites, which were excavated on the territory of the republic from 1929-1998. Altogether the digital map contains 107 points and information about 3871 graves and settlements. Additional to the extract spatial information of the archaeological sites the map is provided by data base, which includes – the name of the author of the excavations, year of the excavations, name of archaeological site, list of the kurgans and graves, the cultural identification of the every grave, publishing data, and museum number of the artefacts. The map of the archaeological sites with excavation data base is also good basis for any archaeological research.
*The Project is supported by RGNF Grant 01-05-01524a.