Archeologists of the Chelyabinsk State University have unearthed an ancient megalithic complex in Kartalinsky District of the Chelyabinsk Region (Russia). According to researchers, it is the first find of the kind in South Ural steppes. Altogether in the course of the prospecting trip they managed to find out about 30 previously unknown archeological monuments.
     The expedition found a fairly large number of archaeological objects, including burial grounds, settlements, avenues of menhirs, and ritual complexes. All of them will be registered and taken under the state protection.
     Near the Snezhny settlement the archeologists found a burial ground consisting of barrows of different epochs. Near the Neplyuev settlement archeologists came across a Bronze Age settlement, where stone tools and ceramics were found. They also found two avenues of standing stones.
     Not far from the Annensky settlement they found a complex of standing stones they think has had an obvious ritual character; it consists of a central upright stone over two meters tall, surrounded by recumbent granite slabs and several large stones at some distance, oriented to the four cardinal points. The site needs to be studied further, but as it's located near a railway line, this may have an adverse affect on the condition of the monument.
     
Edited from Russia IC (20 october 2010)