As they decoded aerial and space photos of the Caucasus foothills, geoinformation specialists paid attention to mysterious images scattered on hillsides. The images were animal-shaped: now a wide fish, now a turtle shell. Thorough geo-encoding and decoding of archival aerial photos revealed pictures that measured tens, and sometimes hundreds of meters. The archaeologists made a conjecture that most probably those were ancient villages.

Nasledie State Unitary Enterprise of the Ministry of Culture of Stavropol Krai sent a small reconnaissance expedition to check if those were really ancient settlements, and if they were, to attempt their approximate dating.

Using the most advanced technologies such as GIS and GPS, and the good old Russian army jeep, the expedition soon found all routed points. What they saw there surpassed all expectations: the images really proved to be ancient settlements of the Koban culture. Not only their number was surprising, but their locations – some villages were found at 1,900 meters above sea level. On clear day, virtually each village offered a great view of Mount Elbrus – our ancestors were not devoid of the sense of beautiful.

In autumn of 2005, an archaeological expedition from Moscow began to excavate one of the discovered villages. The geophysical complex LOZA-B georadar was used for detailed preliminary analysis of the structure of the village and the adjacent space.

The following was examined:

– the main square:
Apart from the earthen wall that crosses the square and had a gap in the middle, two more objects were found (fig. 1), one of which, located on the upper plane of the main square section, stands out by its rounded shape (fig. 2).

– the nearest kurgan:

– the space between the village and the nearest kurgan, to see if any other burials or domestic objects can be found there.

– a detached object south of the main village.

The research of the ancient Koban culture village will continue
in spring 2006.