Last weekend, developers intending to build a shopping center bulldozed the cultural layer of the Shcherbinsky settlement of the Dyakov archaeological culture. Almost entirely.
And this monument is valuable. The area of the settlement was 3 thousand square meters . m . It towered over the Pakhra River at 15 m., was surrounded by circular ramparts, attracted attention and was revered by local residents, who respectfully called it the “Big Mound”. The thickness of the cultural layer in places reached 3 m .
They began to study the settlement in the 1920s: an employee of the Moscow Regional Museum of Local Lore, an archaeologist Konstantin Vinogradov, conducted a study of the shafts and uncovered part of the cultural layer. From 1961 to 1964, the Moscow expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences conducted rather large-scale excavations at the Shcherbinsky settlement under the leadership of Alexandra Dubynina and Irina Rosenfeldt. Then about 60% of the territory of the settlement was excavated. Studies have shown that people have lived here for almost a thousand years: since the IV. before our era by VI century AD. It was the pre-Slavic population of the Moscow region, presumably the ancestors of the Finnish Merya people. Pastoralists, hunters and highly skilled metallurgists and jewelers: 5 treasures with objects made of ferrous and non-ferrous metals including were found on the excavated area of the settlement.
Shcherbinsky settlement is considered a reference monument of Dyakov culture, its description and materials are included in specialized textbooks on archeology. Moreover, they have been described in popular literature. The finds of the settlement are described in detail in the book “Moscow Treasures” by the chief archaeologist of Moscow, Professor Alexander Wexler, who at one time was read by many literally to the holes.
But in case even someone has not read and does not read books, there is a document explicitly prohibiting all kinds of excavation work at this place. Because the monument has the status of an identified object of archaeological heritage (Decree of the Government of the Moscow Region of 30.09.2004 No. 596/38).
“The northern part of the settlement was not affected by the excavations,” says a leading researcher at the Department of Archaeology of Moscow Rus of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Nikolai Krenke. — Just now it has been destroyed. The history of attempts on the Shcherbinsky settlement is long-standing. Encroaching on it began in the 1980s. I examined this monument in 1985 and recorded traces of destruction: then the landfill of household waste cut off part of the settlement for its needs. So the anxiety for this monument has never left us, one might say, ever. Our colleague Mikhail Gonyany also fought for the Shcherbinsky settlement, for its safety , a native of Podolsk, an employee of the Department of Archeology of the GIM, unfortunately, who died in July last year. However, despite all our efforts, no clear security zone was made, no forbidding or informational signs were put up. And this is not our flaw. We made a passport for the settlement a long time ago. This is a flaw of the security agencies. In addition, developers in the Pakhra Valley behave impudently and audaciously, preferring to solve the issues of acquiring enviable plots of land with the help of bribes and deception.
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Moscow Region organized an inspection and initiated the initiation of a criminal case under Part 1 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Destruction or damage to cultural heritage objects”). However, the destroyed monument, part of our history, will never be returned.
