V.P. PETROV – A RESEARCHER OF THE KOSANOVE GRAVE FIELD, THE CHERNYAKHIV CULTURE.

The Cherniakhiv culture grave field near Kosanove village, Haisyn district, Vinnytsia region, was investigated by V. Petrov and N. Kravchenko in 1961-1964.

Viktor Platonovych did not take part in the excavations of 1964, as evidenced by the records in the diary of Nadiia Mykhailivna Kravchenko for 1964. The report for the first year of research was a collaboration, and the reports for 1962-1964 are published only under the name of N. M. Kravchenko.

Over the course of four years, about 800 m2 of the cemetery was excavated. The researchers investigated 39 burials, two urn burnings, 16 burnings with a compact arrangement of burnt bones, and 63 complexes of so-called ‘flat burnings’. In 1967, the materials of the research were published by N. M. Kravchenko in the Soviet periodical “Materials and Research on the Archeology of the USSR” No. 139 (Kravchenko 1967, pp. 77-135). The materials of this cemetery formed the basis of N. M. Kravchenko’s dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences. Later, in the early 2000s, O. Petrauskas republished the materials of this cemetery in accordance with the requirements of modern archaeology (Petrauskas 2003, S. 225-351).

The significance of this site in the study of the Chernyakhiv culture is difficult to overestimate. It is important to note that the materials from Kosaniv are formed the basis of the current chronology of the culture; the classical type and phase of the Chernyakhiv culture’s flourishing are identified by researchers as “Kosanivsky” and “Kosanivska,” respectively.

The archive of V. P. Petrov (Fund No. 16) contains documents related to the study of this monument – File No. 51, 247.

Oleh Petrauskas