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 kurgan, which means "fortress". These 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.