Kamennyye Mogily East Sandstone Plateau
Кам'яна Могила — Східне плато · Kamyana Mohyla East · Kamiani Mohyly East Ridge
Eneolithic to Early Bronze Age·Sredny Stog, Yamnaya·🇺🇦 Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Melitopol Raion, Molochna valley, Ukraine
About
About Kamennyye Mogily East Sandstone Plateau
Eastern conglomerate plateau 400 m east of the main Kamyana Mohyla island-hill, comprising three low sandstone outliers (4–7 m high) with 18 shallow grottoes and 140+ pecked panels on desert-varnished slabs. Unlike the main dome's deep vaults, east plateau panels are exposed horizontal slabs with Eneolithic–Early Bronze pitting (Sredny Stog to Yamnaya, c.4500–2500 BCE) — stag herds, foot-soles and 'mushroom' anthropomorphs — executed with quartzite punch and chalk infill. Recorded 1952–1978 Mykhailov Atlas, the slabs preserve the only stratified sequence linking Mariupol cemetery styles to Catacomb geometric masks. Threatened by ploughing before 1965 reserve; now fenced.
Why it mattersEast plateau key for Sredny Stog–Yamnaya iconographic transition and foot-sole ritual interpretation.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Meaning of paired foot-soles oriented south
- 02Link to Caucasus Novosvobodnaya stelae
Theories
- 01Steppe spring-cult pilgrimage node
- 02Territorial marking of Yamnaya clan segments
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.4500–2500 BCE (Eneolithic to Yamnaya)
- Period
- Eneolithic to Early Bronze Age
- Culture
- Sredny Stog, Yamnaya
- Builders
- Pontic steppe pastoralists
- Purpose
- Seasonal clan aggregation and solar calendar marking on steppe island-hill
- Abandoned
- c.1200 BCE with Srubnaya abandonment
- Rediscovered
- 1889 Veselovsky note; 1952 Mykhailov east plateau survey
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.4500 BCE
Earliest stag peckings
c.3000 BCE
Yamnaya foot-sole phase
1952
Mykhailov east plateau recording
1986
Reserve fencing and protection
On the ground
Structures & features
46.9515° N · 35.4735° E · 172 m · 2 mapped features
East Slab — Stag Herd Frieze (Slab E-7)
petroglyph panel12-m sandstone slab with 14 naturalistic stags, hinds and calf in procession, Eneolithic naturalism
46.9520° N · 35.4740° EEast Grotto 3 — Foot-Sole Gallery
petroglyph panelLow vault ceiling with 22 paired foot-sole peckings oriented to winter solstice sunrise
46.9510° N · 35.4730° E
Gallery