The First Results of Remote Sensing Studies of Mounds with “Mustaches” in Northern Kulunda, Southwestern Siberia

Abstract

In 2019, a group of previously unknown mounds with “mustaches” was discovered in the north of the Kulunda steppe. They are quite unusual: all of the mounds are ground and located on floodplains. In 2023, a set of remote sensing methods (aerial photography, electromagnetic profiling, and electrical resistivity tomography) was used at Karasuk-1 and Troitskoye-1 to assess the design of the mounds and see if additional features were present on their periphery. For this type of structure, geophysical methods were employed for the first time. Maps based on aerial photography data have made it possible to record the relief features of objects in high detail. Troitskoye-1 consists of five rather than four mounds. Using the electrical tomography method, the composition of the mound platforms was shown to be homogeneous. On geoelectric sections, they correspond to conductive areas ca 0.5 m thick. At both sites, the central mounds do not have “walls” on the eastern side. Apparently, no removal of soil was carried out on that side, in order to provide access to the ritual areas from the space enclosed by the “mustaches”. According to the results of aerial photography, at Karasuk-1 cup-shaped depressions were discovered on the surface of the western ends of the “mustaches”. They can be tentatively associated with the design of the mounds. The northern “mustache” is markedly broken. No additional features were identified inside or near the mounds. The results suggest that both complexes were built at the same time and are autonomous.