Sungir

Sungir is an Upper Paleolithic archaeological site beside the village of Sungir in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, noted for exceptionally rich human burials dated to the Late Pleistocene.

The site includes at least three primary burials - two children and an adult - accompanied by grave goods such as long spear shafts, carved ivory objects and thousands of small mammoth-ivory beads. Excavations also recovered stone and bone tools and evidence of elaborate funerary treatment, making the site important for studies of social behaviour and ritual in Gravettian-era hunter-gatherers.

Sungir was brought to archaeological attention in the mid-20th century and has been excavated in a series of campaigns that revealed its burials and associated artefacts; those finds have informed interpretations of Upper Paleolithic mortuary practice in northeastern Europe.

The site lies roughly 10 kilometres northeast of the city of Vladimir on the East European Plain, within the river plain and mixed-forest landscape of Vladimir Oblast.

• Date: Radiocarbon dates place the burials at roughly 32,000-34,000 years before present, making Sungir one of the key Upper Paleolithic sites in Eurasia.
• Burial goods: At least three richly furnished primary burials were recovered, including two juveniles and an adult, accompanied by long spears, carved ivory and thousands of small mammoth-ivory beads.