Archeologists of the Chelyabinsk State University have unearthed an ancient ritual complex in Kartalinsky District of the Chelyabinsk Region.
      
      According to researchers, it is the first find of the kind in South Ural steppes. Altogether in the course of the prospecting trip they managed to find out about 30 new, i.e. earlier unknown archeological monuments.
      
      The expedition dug out quite a number of new archaeological objects, including burial grounds, settlements, avenues of menhirs, and ritual complexes. All of them will be registered and taken under the state protection.
      
      Thus, in the vicinity of Snezhny Settlement the archeologists found a burial ground consisting of barrows of different epochs. Nearby Neplyuev Settlement archeologists came across a Bronze Age settlement, where stone labour tools and ceramics were found. They also managed to find two avenues of menhirs.
      
      Not far from the Settlement of Annensky they found a menhir complex of an obviously ritual character; it consists of the central upright stone over two meters height, surrounded by recumbent granite plates and several large stones at some distance, oriented to the four corners of the earth. The construction needs to be studied further. Closeness of railway lines might have an adverse affect on the condition of the monument.
      
      Source: nr2.ru
Author: Vera Ivanova