Slab Graves

(plitochnye mogily; sometimes called the Slab-Grave culture), graves from the end of the Bronze and beginning of the Iron ages (seventh to third centuries B.C.), discovered in Transbaikalia and Mongolia. The graves are surrounded by stone slabs and often by high stelae, sometimes decorated with carved figures of leaping deer (deer stones). The slab graves were left by stock-raising tribes whose material culture, exemplified by tools and weapons made of bronze and objects decorated in the animal style, had a great deal in common with the cultures of Southern Siberia, such as the Karasuk and Tagar cultures.