The last kurgan: a thirteenth-century prince's burial in the black sea steppe [in 1981, archaeologists unearthed the chungul kurgan in southeastern ukraine, revealing the richly furnished burial of…

The last kurgan: a thirteenth-century prince's burial in the black sea steppe [in 1981, archaeologists unearthed the chungul kurgan in southeastern ukraine, revealing the richly furnished burial of a qipcaq prince dating to the early 13TH century. Grave goods of extraordinary range and value?spanning byzantine, germanic, and islamic origins?testify to the qipcaqs? International ties before the mongol conquest. The burial mound?s ritual features, including animal sacrifices and gold ornaments, evoke earlier nomadic traditions. This project, culminating in the first book on the chungul kurgan, aims to reconstruct the burial context, date the site, and argue for the identity of the deceased as yurii, SON of konchak. Working to undo past historiographical distortions and to reevaluate the evidence of the artifacts and their archaeological context, the book will provide a detailed analysis of material culture and burial ritual to reassert the historical significance of the qipcaq and the interconnected world they inhabited.]