Early Bronze Age ritual complex from the left bank of the Lower Dniester

In 2015 the employees of the Pridnestrovian State University conducted rescue excavations of three barrows from the group ?Sad? near Glinoe Village, Slobodzeiya district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. In the barrow 4, in addition to the seven secondary Early Iron Age graves, the burial of a small child and related constructions were found: 11 round ritual pits with animal bones and a fi replace located on the ancient horizon in a certain order, surrounded by a ring ditch with two gaps. Two pits contained dogs' burials, and the one pit ? a young specimen of small cattle. Funeral practice and inventory of the main burial and features of the under barrow constructions allow to attribute this monument to the earliest stage of Usatovo culture ? to the time, when its carriers had active contacts with the population of the Yamna cultural-historical community. Barrow 4 of the group ?Sad? near Glinoe village is preliminary dated to the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC. The interpretation of this barrow as a sanctuary of Early Bronze Age, probably associated with the ritual sacrifice of animals and humans, is the most reasonable.