The territory of the Velykyi Luh (“Great Meadow”) boasts a huge number of mound necropolises (Table 1). The terms “barrow” or “grave” mean a round or long mound of earth erected over one or more burials. The first barrows emerged in the steppe zone of the Northern Black Sea region in the 4th millennium BC and existed until the 1st half of the 2nd millennium AD. The long-term use of such embankments as necropolises gave rise to barrow groups. The barrows contain layers of several historical eras. Burials carried out at different depths are divided into main and inlet burials. Each time, the barrow was filled in, stone stelae and wooden pillars were installed on its top. The barrow was repeatedly used during trizna – rites related to honoring the souls of buried ancestors.

Archaeological research in the territory of Zaporizhzhia region was carried out in the 1970s and 1980s during the heyday of excavations associated with the growing construction of land amelioration structures. The same period marked the beginning of the inventory of cultural heritage sites.

Barrow 2 of the barrow group (protection No. 914) was first examined by V. Peshanov, the director of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Museum of Local Lore, in 1968. In 2014, it was re-examined by A. Seredin, the deputy director of the communal institution Zaporizhzhia Regional Center for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council. In the certificate of the site dated 1982, the mound necropolis is designated as the mound necropolis of the Huzeiko barrow (Table 2; 3).

In 1971, the Executive Committee of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council of Workers' Deputies decided to include the barrow in the barrow group under protection number 914 in the list of archaeological sites of local importance (№ 55 of February 10, 1971). In the registration card of the site and on the land use map of the 1980s of the municipal institution Zaporizhzhia Regional Center for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council, the mound necropolis is mistakenly marked under protection number 945.

The barrow meets the criteria of authenticity and is also associated with historical events, beliefs and the development of culture in this area.

According to the site’s records, barrow 2 is a barrow mound that is oval in plan and semispherical in cross-section. It is located 30 meters northeast of barrow No. 1 (Tables 2; 3). Mound parameters are as follows: height – 1.0 meters, diameter – 25 meters.

In the space images from July 25, 2020 from the Google Earth Pro server (https://google-earth-pro), it is clearly visible that the barrow had no significant damage (Table 4).

According to the map of the war chronology, during the southern offensive, in March 2022, Polohy district was occupied by Russian troops (Deep State map https://deepstatemap.live).

According to the war history map, the attack on the town of Polohy was conducted by the Akhmat unit, which occupied Melitopol and Vasylivka (https://deepstatemap.live)

In 2022 and 2023, the following units were stationed here: the 114th Motorized Rifle Regiment, the 1430th Motorized Rifle Battalion, the 291st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, the 71st Motorized Rifle Regiment.

Thanks to high quality images, it can be established that part of the hemline of barrow 914.2 of the Mohyla Huzeiko group was destroyed by a dirt road (Table 5) (Sentinel-2 L2A satellite image from https://eos.com on July 6, 2024).