Karelian archeologists have prepared a report on the rescue operation carried out in the Muromsky wildlife area of the Pudozhsk District of the Karelia Republic.
Scientists fought for preservation of valuable ancient monuments affected by a hurricane of 2010.
Money for saving excavation was allocated from the republican budget and the federal center only in 2012. Meanwhile the wildlife area harboured dozens of petroglyphs, more than seventy settlements of people from the Mesolithic era till the Middle Ages, as well as a burial ground of the late Stone Age.
Lots of these monuments badly suffered from elements, which befell Karelia and the Leningrad Region in 2010. Areas of the settlements were filled up with woods, cultural layers were damaged, and ancient artifacts were quite often found in wrenched roots of trees.
Now rescue of monuments becomes complicated because it is hardly possible to take out from the wildlife area the wood tumbled down by the hurricane: heavy machinery cannot work at the reserved territory and there are actually no roads there.
Author: Vera Ivanova