Vladimir A. Sarapulkin
Belgorod State National Research University, Russia (sarapulkin@bsu.edu.ru)

Keywords: Dmitrievka cemetery, catacomb burials, Alans, man’s sculptures.
The archaeological expedition of Belgorod State University carried out the excavations of the Dmitrievka cemetery of the Saltovo-Mayatskoe culture in the Shebekino district of the Belgorod oblast in 2004. Among the complexes under investigation there was a catacomb where two half-length anthropomorphic sculptures carved in chalk had been encountered. Two more fragments of such sculptures were found in the layer of the cemetery. Moreover, the paper publishes a figurine from a destroyed catacomb of the Dmitrievka cemetery kept at the museum of the Dmitrievka secondary school. The author draws attention to the similarity of the Dmitrievka chalk sculptures and monumental stone statues of the early and medieval nomads of Eurasia and suggests the presence of similar ideological prerequisites determining stylistic traits of these images.