By Oleksandr Halenko | Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine

Overview

Chungul Kurgan is one of thousands of burial mounds (kurgan) left by the pastoral nomads in the Ukrainian Steppe. In 1981, together with some other kurgans, located near village Zamozhne, Zaporiz’ka oblast’, it was excavated and removed according to the irrigation plans of Soviet government. It was unimpressively 5,8 m high and 68 m in diameter, while the tallest mounds, built by the Scythians, surpassed 20 m height. Yet discovery of an elite burial underneath made it famous and brought the name after the small river Chingul, which it overlooked from the right bank. The burial was collectively attributed to the Kıpçaks, the confederation of nomadic tribes of Turko-Mongolic origin that dominated the western half of the Eurasian Steppe (known as Deşt-i Kıpçak the Kıpçak Steppe) since the 11th century until the Mongol conquest in 1240. The name Chungul follows closely the original name of the river, etymologized as Turkish çöngül (meaning “quagmire”).

The excavation, carried out with laudable care, determined that Chungul Kurgan was a complex memorial structure, built in several stages. The very choice of the site demonstrates careful planning, as it fell on an ancient kurgan 1,5 m tall that already contained nine burials spanning from Eneolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The construction began with the encircling of the ancient kurgan by the ritual moat, interrupted by several passages. After that, on the perimeter of the old kurgan a massive 6 m tall circular rampart was built out of the blocks of sod. The five gaps led through the rampart inside the encircled area. There is a 5 m deep spacious grave pierced through the center of the old kurgan. Upon the interment and sealing of the grave the interior of the rampart was filled up with soil in two stages. Each of the last two stages was marked by the building of a structure with stone pavement, which must have been in service for a considerable period of time. Shards of purposely broken ceramic, ashes, fragments of stone platforms, as well as human and dog remains indicated the ritual feasting at every stage of the construction.

The completed memorial formed a round platform with a flat top up to 45 m in diameter and steep sides. One or more stone statues and horse scare-crows must have complemented the scene. Over the past centuries erosion filled up the trench with soil, rounded and somewhat lowered the platform giving it usual domed appearance. The statues were habitually removed by the agricultural settlers in the 19th century.

Although the burial suffered from natural decay, it sustained fairly little damage from looters. Already in the distant past treasure-hunters penetrated the mound, despoiled and destroyed one out of five horses, placed around the cover of the grave-pit. Yet this attempt provoked the inner collapse of the mound into the hollow grave-pit that seemingly scared away the robbers and saved the grave from the wholesale pillage. This collapse, however, squashed the coffin together with the objects inside it and messed up the whole interior of the grave. The Next time looters managed to loot and destroy another horse during the excavation in 1981. Doubtless, with the two horses disappeared authentic samples of nomadic artisanry. Yet additionally, as nomads typically sported on their mounts their military trophies, the loss likely included evidence of the historical achievements of the buried person.

Laid to rest in the grave was a man about 55 years of age. Wounds on the skull, healed and fatal ones, bespoke the life and death of a warrior. His body, fully dressed up in richly decorated fur-trimmed silk attire and strewn with precious objects, lying in a huge coffin, covered by the silk standard on the spear. Alongside were placed a big silver gilt covered cup and a belt, several sets of lavish silk garments, decorated with gold embroidery, and a full set of arms, typical for heavy steppe cavalryman, but featuring a dazzle gilded helmet and sheathed in gold and silver quiver and bow-case. Two wine amphoras, a glazed bottle, and a medicinal jar stood by the coffin.

This rich inventory featured objects of known provenance. The silver gilt covered cup and three belts were West-European artifacts from the 12th-13th centuries. Of the same provenance was the rock crystal, which originally was at the center of an altar cross, but reworked into a decorative pendant for one or the buried horses. The silver gilt belt cup with champlevé enamel decor was manufactured in Byzantium, as were the amphoras and the bottle. The glazed medicinal jar (albarello) arrived from Islamic Syria. A fragment of embroidered icon showing the donor and eight Cyrillic letters belonged to Christian Slavic periphery of the Byzantine Empire, perhaps Rus’. A silk cloth densely decorated in gold embroidery, guilt plaques and showing faces of a saint (St. George), that adorned the outer kaftan on the deceased, likely was the Byzantine imperial regalia, loros, that is known from figural representations, but otherwise has not survived.

Besides notable artistic values, the treasures from Chungul Kurgan provide material evidence for historical phenomena, in particular Kıpçaks’ engagement in trade and diplomacy with the Byzantine world, incursions to Rus’, and relationships with the rest of Eurasian Steppe.

A large group of items, comprising West-European valuables (3 belts, a covered cup, rock crystal center of altar cross) together with the objects belonging to imperial regalia (like the loros of Byzantine emperors and woven electrum belt of the steppe rulers), reveal for the deceased a victory over the Crusaders and a status of an emperor. Both claims are granted by the unique and well-documented victory that Kıpçaks gained for Kaloyan of Bulgaria (1197-1207) in the battle near Adrianople (now Edirne, Turkey) in 1205 against the Crusaders under the command of Baldwin I, the first Latin emperor of Constantinople himself. Thus, the discovery of Chungul Kurgan sensationally provides material evidence, linking the region of Ukraine with the Fourth Crusade.

Furthermore, written sources provide arguments for identification of the deceased with Yurii, son of Konçek, the leader of the Kıpçak confederation in Eastern Europe, defeated together with Rus’ allies by the Mongols army in spring 1223.

Key Issues and Debates

The discovery of Chungul Kurgan in 1981 provoked a sensation in Ukraine, then a province of the Soviet Union. Although Soviet policy of historical memory was hostile to and neglectful of the Eurasian nomads, another valuable archeological catch refreshed the reputation of the Ukrainian Steppe as a treasure field in the eyes of both the locals and their Russian rulers. The gorgeous silver-gilt covered cup immediately upon discovery was proudly put on display in the local museum in the nearby town of Tokmak. Eventually, all precious metalwork, along with ceramic vessels, became part of permanent exhibition at the Treasury of the National Museum of History of Ukraine.

But unlike Scythian kurgans loaded with gold, which have been regularly unearthed in the Ukrainian Steppe since the 19th century, the Chungul Kurgan belonged to a completely different economic-metallic world of the High Middle Ages and included only a few objects of solid gold. These quite ordinary chains, wand and rings, were no match to massive, elaborate and exotic Scythian masterpieces, such as golden comb, pectoral, or yet silver amphora. What made this particular burial truly valuable, was not so much richness, as its well preserved and meticulously unearthed setting, which exposed practical and symbolic meaning of each object in perception of the nomads themselves. These items tell us about the personality of the deceased himself, historical events with his participation, his followers, earthly life and burial rituals of the nomads. So rich informative potential together with available written evidence about the Kıpçaks promised attribution, unthinkable for the ancient Scythian burials.

The evidence from the objects, however, remained unexplored for over two decades. The experts guessed the date of the burial following personal tastes. Those dealing with ancient Rus’ associated it with the Kıpçak confederation prior to the Mongol conquest of Eastern Europe around 1240, whereas researchers of the post-Mongol period readily included it in their own subject. They all, however, believed that such a rich burial could only belong to a khan, i. e. emperor of the nomads, but nobody voiced the name of the possible candidate. Only Ukrainian archeologist Vitaliy Otroshchenko, who supervised the excavation, assertively associated the deceased with Tegak, a Kıpçak leader, whose name was mentioned once in a chronicle of the Western Ukraine sub anno 1252. However, Tegak was neither mentioned as khan, nor even theoretically could bear this title of sovereign ruler under the Mongol rule. Therefore a humble Mongol collaborator hardly suited the candidacy for mighty victor. Unsurprisingly, without sound and impressive attribution the sensation of Chungul Kurgan soon faded.

The inattention to the finds at the initial stage of debate manifested first of all lack of expertise in history of arts, characteristic of Soviet and post-Soviet humanities. Sadly, this deficiency transpired already during the excavation, as the Moscow-based textile conservator present there due to wildly negligent treatment of the surviving clothing from the burial dismembered now-uncertain number of silk garments. The archeologists and historians superficially attributed the grave goods to material culture of the nomads and therefore often misidentified them. The West-European covered cup, for example, was mistaken for an incense burner of the nomads on account of charred pollen, found inside. An electrum wire-woven belt, put around the neck, was confused with chain, while the straightened golden wand, inserted in the right hand of the deceased, has been interpreted as a scepter. The chrono-typology of West-European belt-buckles and horse stirrups, mistakenly used for dating of Chungul Kurgan to the second half of the 13th century, proved flawed. An egregious example from the work by Ilse Fingerlin “Gürtel des hochen und späten Mittelalters” (Munich, 1971), being the belt relic of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, which should be dated prior to her death in 1231. Fingerlin rejects such a dating on the grounds that such buckles do not appear in dateable figural representations until about 1240.

Misidentification of objects also stemmed from disinterest of debate in nomadic culture and turkology. The advocates of the khan status for the deceased, for example, failed to indicate the regalia of the khan’s rank, let alone to ponder, whether it reflected the status of the deceased, or simply was a booty, remuneration for service, or a purposefully fabricated token of memory about victory over some emperor. The wand, interpreted as a scepter, is known only as ordinary jewelry. Actually, the one, found in the Chungul Kurgan, belongs to the Bronze Age and is one of many reused objects.

The reuse of objects was a nonexistent problem for initial debate. This is why Christian sacral objects were misinterpreted as a proof of the Christianity of the deceased. Such is the fragment of the embroidered icon, sewn to the funerary garment, although the tailor cut off the hands of the praying donator figure. A detail of the altar cross, found on the horse, reveals even more pronounced contempt for the Christian religion. In fact, it illustrates the well-documented nomadic habit of decking their mounts with souvenirs of their victories, first attested by Herodotus for the Scythians in Ukraine, with the scalps of slain enemies being the prototype. The first dictionary of Turkish from the 11th century explains the word monçuk as a lion’s claw (another honorary trophy) or a jewel, appended on the horse harness. The rock crystal pendant from Chungul Kurgan combines attributes of a jewel with a symbol of personal feat and tells a story of an altar cross that was so much coveted by the Kıpçaks, that their leader had it disassembled and divided between his associates, reserving for himself the lion’s share. Interestingly, the name of the popular Turkish glass talisman boncuk derives from monçuk, whereas another its derivative bunçuk in Ukraine referred to the military standard of the Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian Cossacks and represented a horse tail on a stick, thus reminding the prototype. Actually, Chungul Kurgan confirms other descriptions of the nomadic habitus, often dismissed as literary topoi borrowed from Herodotus or other antique authors.

The group of researchers, consisting of two American art historians and two Ukrainians, one archeologist, and another turkologist, with the support of a Getty Collaborative Grant (2006-2008), initiated the interpretation of the finds. The studies published by this group have brought the rich finds from Chungul Kurgan to the international audience.

Further Reading

Gold der Steppe: Archäologie der Ukraine. Schleswig: Archäologisches Landesmuzeum, 1991.

The exhibition catalogue of “Gold der Steppe” at Archäologisches Landesmuseum of Kiel University (June-September, 1991) and collection of studies, including some representing finds from Chungul Kurgan. The book offers a panorama of initial, but still current misinterpretations of the burial.

Holod Renata, Rassamakin Juriy. “Imported and Native Remedies for a Wounded “Prince”: Grave Goods from the Chungul Kurgan in the Black Sea Steppe of the Thirteenth Century.” Medieval Encounters 18 (2012): 339–381.

The article discusses the provenance and use of containers for wine and drugs, found in Chungul Kurgan. These objects illustrate exchange of luxury material and fabricated objects between the Kıpçaks, Mediterranean Europe, the Middle East and northwest Europe, as well as nomadic medicine, pharmacology, feasting, and funerary rituals.

Woodfin Warren, Rassamakin Juriy, and Holod Renata. “Foreign Vesture and Nomadic Identity on the Black Sea Littoral in the Early Thirteenth Century from the Chungul Kurgan.” Ars Orientalis 38 (2010): 155–186.

The authors identify elements of foreign origin, such as loros, embroidered icon, and belts, utilized on funerary attire of the nomadic warrior from Chungul Kurgan. Their reuse reveals that nomads incorporated the symbolic language of power and prestige that these insignia conveyed among the neighboring courtly cultures while preserving a distinctive, nomadic sartorial identity.

Pickett Jordan, Schreck John, Holod Renata, Rassamakin Juriy, Halenko Oleksandr, and Woodfin Warren. “Architectural Energetics for Tumuli Construction: The Case of the Medieval Chungul Kurgan on the Eurasian Steppe.” Journal of Archaeological Science 75 (2016): 101–114.

The assessment of labor investment and timing for each phase of the tumulus construction. It is also indicative of a polity, most probably a tribe or loose tribal confederation, which controlled the area and commanded necessary human resources. This estimation, very much in line with written evidence about Kıpçaks, places the burial before the Mongol conquest.

Woodfin, Warren T. “Within a Budding Grove: Dancers, Gardens and the Enamel Cup from the Chungul Kurgan.” The Art Bulletin 98, no. 2 (2016): 151–180.

This study explains the motives of spring garden and female dancers, decorating the belt cup from the Chungul Kurgan, by the trends in Byzantine secular art of 11th-12th c. Close similarity in technique and spirit between the Chungul cup and the Crown of Constantinos Monomachos provides a weighty argument in favor of the latter’s much-disputed authenticity.

This contribution was sponsored by the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross.