Welcome to Stepnoye: Five weeks await on the Eurasian forest steppe

For this summer, I got an amazing opportunity to work on a five-week excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement site near the tiny village of Stepnoye in Plastovsky District, Chelyabinsk Oblast, located in the forest steppe on the border between the Ural Mountains and Siberia and Europe and Asia in rural Russia.

I left Denmark on May 28th at 10 minutes past midnight along with three Americans; Jim, our excavation leader, and archaeology students Erin and Ken. The rest of the team, Eva, Bri and Mikkel from Denmark will join us on Saturday.

Midnight is a strange time to fly. All day it hadn’t felt like I was travelling that same night, but at 10 PM I found myself in the airport in Copenhagen, ready to set off. Luckily, we all had three seats each and I spent the entire flight spread out and asleep! Unfortunately, the flight only lasted 2,5 hours so I was exhausted when we landed in Moscow for our layover. Three hours later, we finally boarded the flight to Chelyabinsk. Leaned up against the window, I passed out straight away and slept through the entire 2,5 hour flight. Getting our bags was quick and smooth, and then we met Mikhail and his wife Svetlana, whose house we’re staying at in Stepnoye, and drove towards Stepnoye.

The first hour or so took us through the city of Chelyabinsk, which is the 7th largest city in Russia with a population of 1,2 million people. Looking out at the enormous Soviet style apartment blocks, I was glad we weren’t stopping there. I wanted to experience the Russian countryside, and luckily that was where we were headed.

The drive from the airport in Chelyabinsk to the village took about four hours with a few stops along the way. We stopped at a supermarket, so we could stock up on food, and I was surprised to find A LOT of vegan products!

Flying into Moscow

Chelyabinsk Airport

Driving through Chelyabinsk

The vegan-friendly supermarket in Chelyabinsk!

Soon after, we entered the forest steppe zone and drove through endless grasslands and forests with tiny run-down villages dotted about in the landscape.

Shortly before getting to Stepnoye, we stopped in the nearby city of Plast to register ourselves. This process took very long and it got to the point where Erin, Ken and I were wondering whether we would have to leave the country after all. What if there was some problem with our visas? But thankfully it all worked out and we could get on the road again, towards Stepnoye.

Driving through the forest steppe

Small village on the steppe

Getting registered in Plast

We drove through extensive woodlands and as soon as they ended, there was Stepnoye, surrounded by rolling hills. It looked very beautiful and just like I’d imagined. Stepnoye is home to 4000 people, and is divided into two parts with a river separating the two. There are a lot of animals in the village; cows, chickens, ducks and dogs, and I was really excited to also spot a few cats.

We’re staying in a huge house right in the outskirts of the village. It’s a beautiful place with lots of space for all of us, and it looks much nicer than the majority of the other village houses. The only notable differences from my privileged life in Denmark is the fact that we cannot flush toilet paper, so it all goes in a small waste bin with an unpleasant smell, and the wifi situation as we had to purchase a device to get a few days of wifi during the five weeks we’re here. It’s a very comfortable place, and much much nicer than I’d ever imagined.

For breakfast and dinner, we go to Mikhail’s café located a kilometer from the village. In the beginning, I wasn’t able to eat much as a vegan, but Mikhail has been very kind to me and has made sure that there’s a vegan option for me. I also did bring a lot of food with me, and I also bought a lot in the supermarket in Chelyabinsk, so I will survive just fine here.

Welcome to Stepnoye!

Mikhail’s beautiful home

Mikhail’s café

You’ll find us in this queue twice a day for the next month!

Vegan food for meee!

Adorable kittie outside the café!

Unfortunately, we’ve been told that there’s a lot of petty crime in the village, so we’re not allowed to leave the house alone. To be honest, I feel very safe in the village, and if I was here as a tourist, I would definitely be walking around alone and I would feel safe as I’ve travelled as a solo female in much worse areas (hey Jakarta and Lima, I’m talking about you!).

But Mikhail has been kind to drive us around a bit, and we also went for a long walk with Jim on our first full day as we didn’t yet have a truck to get us to the excavation site. The walk took us through the village to the main square, where we looked inside the two small shops, and then further out to the landfill area, which is located on top of a Late Bronze Age site. Stepnoye is a cute little town with many colourful and detailed houses, and I can’t wait to explore it further in the upcoming weeks.

Stepnoye