A Slovak-Polish team of archaeologists made an extraordinary find in the Hatalov village (district Michalovce) at the Rydzyna location. Very well-preserved skeletal remains were discovered during the research of the mound embankments. According to archaeologists, the young male individual aged 16 to 18 was a member of the oldest Indo-European population of the pit culture from 3300 to 2600 BC. Research in Hatalov brought the first indisputable evidence of the presence of these people in our territory.

Experts from the Institute of Archaeology SAS in cooperation with colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences have been investigating since 2021 the steppe influences in the Carpathian region in the 3rd millennium BC. They focused on several pre-characterized mound embankments in the landscape of the Eastern Slovak Lowland and have examined five of them so far.

Archaeological research of the mound embankment near Hatalov began in 2024. The excavation work was preceded by a non-destructive geophysical survey, which confirmed its anthropogenic origin and specified its parameters.

“The mound originally had a diameter of 22 meters, was bordered by a channel up to 4 meters wide, and there was a grave pit at its centre. In addition to the discovered skeletal remains, we found a charred wooden structure around the grave and partly in its filling, the purpose of which was to cover the grave pit,” explains Eva Horváthová from the Institute of Archaeology SAS.

When dating the find, the experts jointly agreed that it was a representative of the social elite of the so-called pit-grave culture. This is confirmed not only by the extent of the mound embankment but also by the construction of the grave pit with wooden elements, the method of laying the dead in a supine position with bent legs at the knees pointing upwards, and the presence of red dye near the buried body.

The original territory of this population was located between the Don and the Volga rivers. They subsequently moved from the steppe region of the Black Sea coast along the Danube and Tisza rivers to the Pannonian Basin. These people practised a nomadic way of life under the leadership of chieftain groups. The pit-grave culture economy was based on animal husbandry, fishing and gathering. They used wheeled carts for transportation.

“Studies of DNA samples obtained from the bones of individuals of the pit-grave culture indicate that this society caused a change in the genetic structure of the population in Europe,” emphasizes the archaeologist.

In their work, the researchers use the most modern natural science methods, for example, molecular genetics, radiocarbon dating, strontium, oxygen and nitrogen isotopic analyses, based on which it is possible to determine the resettlement during the life of the studied individual and the composition of its diet.

“The data obtained in this way will help us better assess the archaeological material from the examined mounds. We will also be able to use the data when solving geographically and culturally more broadly understood topics related to research into chronology, genesis, steppe influences and interventions of foreign populations of the pit-grave culture and corded ware culture in the region of Northeast Slovakia,” explains the scientist.

The findings of the Nyírség-Zatín culture from the Late Eneolithic (2200–2050 BC), the serial burial site of the Košťany culture from the Early Bronze Age (1800–1600 BC), as well as a ceramic kiln from the early Roman period (400 AD) are evidence of the dynamic processes related to the use of the mound embankment in Hatalov also in the following periods of development.

The research is part of the National Science Center Poland project (2020/37/B/HS3/03816) a VEGA 2/0056/22.