Ancient Burials Found Under a Road in the Lviv Region (photos)

In Kulykiv, Lviv region, archaeologists uncovered 25 human burials while examining the area near the Church of St. Nicholas. This is reported by Hlavkom citing a post by Lviv City Council member and volunteer Ihor Zinkevych on Facebook.

Ihor Zinkevych noted that at least one-fifth of the remains belong to children. The burials, according to preliminary estimates, date to the 18th–19th centuries. In one of them, archaeologists found a 15th-century coin.

Burials uncovered during works in Kulykiv

Photo: Ihor Zinkevych/Facebook

The excavations will continue, but they do not plan to change the road route due to the find.

“Excavations may continue for up to a month and a half more. They will not relocate the road: the remains will be exhumed and reburied in the local cemetery, after which the section will be repaved,” Zinkevych said.

In the comments on Zinkevych’s post, scientific associate of the Lviv Historical Museum Oleksiy Petruin noted that the found burials are likely not connected to executions.

Petruin explained that victims of executions are usually buried in common graves. Instead, in Kulykiv, separate burials were found where skeletons lie in one direction. Moreover, near the burials there are no items typical for such graves — buttons, clothing fragments, bullets, or other personal belongings.

“Here we see that people lie in separate graves and the skeletons are laid in one direction. And right near the church. That is, these are remnants of a cemetery where parishioners of this church were probably buried,” Petruin explained.

Screenshot of Oleksiy Petruin’s comment under Ihor Zinkevych’s Facebook post

The historian suggested that the burials ended up close to the surface due to road construction during Soviet times. Then part of the hill could have been shaved off, making the graves shallower.

The exact age, sex, and cause of death of the people will be established by experts. Petruin noted that 200–300 years ago mortality was high, in particular due to infectious diseases and the low level of medical care at that time.

Earlier, Hlavkom reported that in Poland archaeologists studied an unusual XVII‑century burial linked to so‑called anti-vampire rites. A girl researchers named Zosya was buried with an iron sickle around her neck and a lock on her leg. Scientists suppose that such items were meant to prevent the deceased from returning from the grave. The excavations helped researchers learn more about contemporary beliefs about death and the supernatural.