LIPETSK, June 22 (RIA Novosti) - Major archaeological excavation work has started in the Lipetsk region's Zadonsk and Khlevnoye districts (Central Russia), where Hun settlements used to be in ancient times.

"Four archaeological expeditions, involving a hundred people each, have started excavation work on the banks of the Don and the Voronezh rivers on the sites of former settlements of the Huns," Mikhail Ryazantsev, an archaeologist at the State Department for Cultural Heritage Protection, told RIA Novosti.

The Huns were nomadic tribes between the second and fourth centuries A.D.

Experts of Lipetsk's Arkheolog scientific and social organization and Lipetsk State Educational University arranged the expeditions. Schoolchildren and students will assist the archaeologists.

Excavation work has been going on in this region since 1995. Archaeologists have found bone artifacts dating back seven thousand years and bone-carving workshops from the Iron Age. A Scythian settlement, the furthest north ever found, and a Slav settlement dating back to the fifth century A.D. were also discovered. Moreover, the digs revealed archeological objects from the Bronze Age and the resting-place of a Hun maiden. Ryazantsev said only several tombs like this had been discovered in Europe.

The excavation will last until mid-August.