Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1889, from Russian, originally a Tatar word.
Wiktionary
n. A prehistoric burial mound once used by peoples in Siberia and Central Asia.
Wikipedia
A kurgan is a tumulus, a type of burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, often of wood. The Russian noun, which is already attested in Old East Slavic, is borrowed from an unidentified Turkic language, compare Modern Turkish kurğan, which means "fortress". They are mounds of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Associated with its use in Soviet archaeology, the word is now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology.
The earliest kurgans date to the 4th millennium BC in the Caucasus, and are associated with the Indo-Europeans. Kurgans were built in the Eneolithic, Bronze, Iron, Antiquity and Middle Ages, with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia. Kurgan cultures are divided archeologically into different sub-cultures, such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish and Kuman- Kipchak.
Many placenames contain the word "kurgan".
Kurgan is a tumulus or burial mound in Eurasia, but especially in Russia and Ukraine.
Kurgan may also refer to:
Toponyms-
Kurgan, Kurgan Oblast, a city in Russia
- Kurgan Airport, its airport
- Kurgan West, a former nearby airbase
- Kurgan Oblast, a federal subject of Russia
-
Kurgan, name of several rural localities in Russia and the former Soviet Union
- Kurgan, Tver Oblast, a village (khutor) in Russia
- Tillya-Bay-Kurgan, a town in Kyrgyzstan
- Yar-Kurgan, a town in Kyrgyzstan
- Chim-Kurgan, a village in Kyrgyzstan
- Kzyl-Kurgan, a village in Kyrgyzstan
- Sufi-Kurgan, a village in Kyrgyzstan
- Uchkurgan (town), a city in Uzbekistan
- Uch-Korgon, Kyrgyzstan, a village in Kyrgyzstan
- Andrey-Kurgan, a village (khutor) in Stavropol Krai, Russia
- Verkhny Kurgan, a village in the Chuvash Republic, Russia
- Zelyony Kurgan, Moscow Oblast, a settlement in Moscow Oblast, Russia
- Zelyony Kurgan, Ulyanovsk Oblast, a settlement in Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia
- Katta-Kurgan, a town in Uzbekistan
- The Kurgan hypothesis, one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins
- Kurgan (Highlander), the villain in the movie Highlander
- Kurgan (cattle), a breed of cattle that originates from Russia
- Ring name of wrestler Robert Maillet
Usage examples of "kurgan".
They were in her lab-orb at Receiving Spirit, where Kurgan had first spied on Nith Immmon and Gul Aluf.
Kurgan thought he smelled the beginning of a conspiracy, a subversion of the status quo, and it interested him, for subversives, by definition, had secrets to hide.
Perhaps his madness made him the popular painter he had become among the Bashkir and even several of the higher-echelon Khagggun, though Kurgan could see no talent there.
Kurgan saw that he was approaching a heartwood door bound in bands of thick bronze incised with Kundalan runes.
Though his younger brother Terrettt had been incarcerated there for many years, Kurgan had not once come to see him.
All she saw were hump-backed burial kurgans rising out of the dun-colored steppe.
He just had time to identify them as belonging to Kurgan and Terrettt Stogggul when he became aware of a subtle change in the bio lab's atmosphere.
He put his long, lupine face so close to Kurgan's that Kurgan could smell the mingled scent of clove oil and burnt musk corning off him in waves.
Kurgan watched sourly as his father held aloft the trophy Kinnnus Morcha had secured for him.
She slammed Kurgan onto his back, saw his eyes flutter, knew that he was losing consciousness, and she rolled over him, down the Hagoshrin's fleshy embankment, following the path of least resistance the banestone had taken.
Without further thought, Kurgan dipped the first two fingers of his right hand, Sarakkonian style, scooping up rings of the cephalopod and its sticky jelly.
Kurgan could feel the tremorings of the creature as if they were seismic shocks transmitted up the taut line and down the searay rod.
Kurgan had failed to find his weak spot, and so had yet to get the better of him in a deal.