Field season 2017. Dropha graveyard.

On the basis of the Order of the Ministry of Culture of Khabarovsk Krai № 175/01-15 from 26.06.2017, employees of NILAIP together with employees of the Department of Experimental Archaeology from 11.07. to 25.07.2017 were carried out rescue work on the identified burial ground in the vicinity of the village. Drofa, which was subjected to illegal excavations.

As a result of the work performed, an area of about 250 square meters, damaged by trespassers, was examined. The result of these illegal excavations was the destruction of the cultural layer and the displacement of archaeological materials from their original locations.

During the work was repeatedly sieved soil in all areas, as was laid a small excavation (17 square meters), to clarify the stratigraphic situation and the thickness of cultural deposits, and 3 pits, to identify the boundaries of the burial ground. 

In the course of the work, scattered paste beads, several series (of varying numbers) of well-preserved iron arrowheads, and several bronze plaques were identified and recovered in the redeposited state. In addition to the above finds, fragments of polychrome and monochrome Chinese-made saws, a series of bronze pipes and several scattered metal fragments related to horse harness were found. Unfortunately, no funerary complexes could be found.

The obtained material (coin of Qing Dynasty emperor Kang Xi, fragments of polychrome pial, arrowheads, pipes, etc.) allows us to tentatively date the burial ground to the period of the mid-17th to mid-18th century AD.