Erechim vs Kurgan

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Erechim or Erexim is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. A regional center in the northern portion of the state, it is the second most populous city in the region with 105,059 inhabitants, second only to the city of Passo Fundo. The municipality ranks 17th in total gross domestic product in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Erechim was one of the first planned modern cities in Brazil. City planners were inspired by urban concepts used in the design of Washington, D.C. (1791) and Paris (1850). These were characterized by very wide streets and bold outlines, with diagonal streets converging at important points.

Key elements of its design include a perpendicular grid of streets cut by diagonal avenues, blocks of regular dimensions and a promenade around its perimeter. The municipality is located north of Rio Grande do Sul, in the Upper Uruguay, on the ridge of the Serra Geral. The origin of the name of Erechim refers to the ancient indigenous inhabitants of the region, and comes from "Caingangue, which means "small field"; it probably was given this name as the city was surrounded by forests at the time.

Source: Wikipedia

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A kurgan (Russian: курга́н) is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic-Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.The Russian noun, already attested in Old East Slavic, comes from an unidentified Turkic language, compare Modern Turkish kurğan, which means "fortress". Kurgans are mounds of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Popularised by 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 researchers associate these 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. Archeologists divide kurgan cultures into different sub-cultures, such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish and Kuman-Kipchak. Many placenames contain the word kurgan.

Source: Wikipedia