While surveying the vestiges of a Slavic town near Lyubytino, outside Novgorod, students and professors of the university's archeology department came across a ring built from granite slabs, presumably in the 10th century, and a cemetery nearby. This indicates that stone circles were built by Slavs to fence off burial places rather than detach areas for ritual practices, as some scholars would contend.
The fact that the slabs found at the Lyubytino site are burned evidences that local inhabitants would have made fires inside the circle to commemorate their deceased relatives. Fragments of ceramic pottery unearthed near the ring suggest that the fires may have also been used to cook funeral repasts.
The newly discovered stone belt is to become part of a local outdoor museum of 10th-century Slavic settlements.
