The study addresses remains of two peculiar graves unearthed at the site Mikulin 9
in the Dobuzek Scarp (Pol. Skarpa Dobuzanska) area in Western Volhy- nia. Unique character
of the burials under consideration consists in the peculiarity of funeral ritual performed,
scenario of which was basically divided into two acts of burning of the deceased -
once on cremation pyres, and then in the eventual places of their interment (grave
pits). Both the graves under consideration as well as ana- logical finds from the
western part of the Lublin-Volhy- nian Upland and its northern foreland can be connected
with an impact form the Pontic area and dated back to the Early Scythian Period. Historically,
their presence is com- monly considered as a result of westward migrations of forest
-steppe people form the area of nowadays Ukraine triggered by the appearance of Indo-Iranian
Scythian tribes. In the case of the presented burials no less signifi- cant from the
peculiar eastern burial rite performed seem their localization. When discussing the
Dobuzek Scarp area as a destiny point of one of such migrations, clearly Pontic character
of the escarpment's physiography should be taken into consideration. The local conditions
of the already unsettled loess paha of Dobuzek escarpment must have peculiarly attracted
pastoral communities arriving from the east. Moreover, the graves were placed in a
very exposed point within the preexisting prehistoric landscape, to wit - they were
dug into today non-existent but then domi- nating the area long barrows of the Funnel
Beaker Culture. It seems likely that by the act of burying their kinsman into the
exposed Eneolithic mounds the incomers tried to create an ancestral tie with the area
and thereby justify their presence "here and now".