Satellite imagery of Russian troop movements in eastern Ukraine indicate that several Ukrainian archaeological sites have been damaged by the Russian offensive, according to a team of researchers out of the University of Virginia.
The archaeological sites are burial mounds called kurgans, which can be up to 65 feet (19.81 meters) tall and which contain human remains and artifacts dating back to about 3000 BCE.
The team’s report—published earlier this month by the Ukraine Conflict Observatory—suggests that Russian armed forces may be using the kurgans as advantageous places for fighting. The report describes geospatial data analyzed since February 2022.
“With this report, we’re able to offer insight into what’s happening in occupied Ukraine in areas that Russia has invaded and still controls,” said Fiona Greenland, a researcher on UVA’s Cultural Resilience Informatics and Analysis Lab team, in a university release. “Our analysis reveals damage to these sites from military action, but also possible theft or vandalism, which must not be ignored.”
The team found evidence of damage to archaeological sites in two locations in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast. As reported by the team, “the damage includes the construction of military infrastructure at the archaeological sites and the creation of a large, lewd geoglyph in the shape of a phallus in an adjacent field.”
Satellite imagery and other open source tools provide a window into the state of Ukraine’s archaeological sites in an active warzone, where a typical “boots on the ground” approach is obviously not possible.
“We’re able to provide a look at an occupied area, Zaporizhzhia, through satellite imagery,” Greenland said. “We were able to carefully reconstruct a timeline beginning from before the full-scale invasion through to the arrival of Russian military units in the area and the corresponding impacts they continue to inflict on these ancient burial mounds.”
The oblast is under control of Russia’s 429th Motor Rifle Regiment, according to the Virginia release, and the report concludes that the troops may have violated the Hague Convention, which has certain requirements for respect for cultural artifacts during periods of conflict.
According to Kate Harrell, an archaeologist at CURIA Lab, said that there may be other sites like the recently reviewed kurgans that may be damaged by Russian activities.
“There are thousands of burial mounds and, in this report, we only examined two sites in Zaporizhzhia oblast,” Harrell said. “Further documentation needs to take place.”
The front lines are a dangerous place for civilians and infrastructure, of course, but they also expose the irreverence with which military units treat sites of ancient cultural importance.
