Search

Introduction. The paper deals with analyzing the Sarmatian burial complex investigated in 1990 in the barrow 1 of Kotlovina I cemetery located on the western shore of the lake Yalpug, 3 km from the village of the same name in Reni district of Odessa region. Materials. The mound was surrounded by a circular ditch with a single gap in the south. Similar ditches were recorded on the Sarmatian sites of the North-Western Black Sea region, as well as on the territory of Hungary and in the Don region. The burial was made with an offset from the geometric center of the mound, apparently, in order to avoid robbery. The main and only grave was done in a pit with an undercut. The buried man laid under the western wall of the funeral chamber in an elongated position on his back, his head to the north. The accompanying inventory is represented by a red clay pottery jug, which was covered by a handmade lid-bowl, as well as a large handmade pot. A large onehanded red clay pottery jug is of particular interest. Such vessels were widespread in the North Black Sea region, and their findings are known both in funeral complexes and in ancient settlements of the Roman time. The large size of the handmade lid-bowl, as well as the presence of traces of fuliginosity makes it possible to assume its dual purpose: as tableware during life and as a lid of the pottery vessel for the internment. The handmade pot is distinguished by an ornament in the form of impressions on the upper part of the body, forming a triangle. Conclusions. The analysis of the features of the funeral rite and the time of the inventorys existence make it possible to date the barrow to the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. Grave 1 from barrow 1 of Kotlovina I cemetery clarifies the historical picture of the stay of Sarmatian tribes in the North-West Black Sea region, in particular, on the left bank of the Lower Danube.

The article publishes and analyzes materials obtained during the study of the Scythian barrow 11 of the “Garden” group excavated in 2018 near village Glinoe, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester, for the first time.The barrow was surrounded by a circular ditch and contained four burials – one infant and three female. The tools from the barrow are represented by knives, spindle-whorls, needle. The only piece of tableware was found and it was a wooden bowl. The adornments (a pair of earrings, two bead necklaces, one bead bracelet, two “elbow bracelets”) were also discovered. Earrings with conical bulges on one of the endings testify to the Thracian influence on the material culture of the Scythians of the North-West Black Sea region. All female graves contained mirrors. Two of them are identical, and both were laid under the body of the buried. One of the mirrors has handle aforethoughtly broken in antiquity. The cult objects are a pendant made of a dog’s tooth and a stone slab, the arrowheads are the only weapons. The barrow dates back to the second half (preferably the third quarter) of the 4th century BC. Finding a quiver set in the grave 4 of barrow 11 of Glinoe/”Garden” group made the authors to analyze the burials of the so-called Scythian “amazons” of the North Black Sea region. It turned out that many of them were attributed with flagrant violations of scientific methods as burials of women-warriors, which is nothing more than modern “myth-making”. As a result, the authors claim that an open-minded analysis allows us to distinguish three groups of Scythian burials with weapons: 1) containing weapons, placement of which reflects certain “ethnographic” features of the rite or the special status of buried; 2) containing arrowheads that may indicate hunting; 3) the burials of warriors with diverse and numerous weapons.

The group of barrows called “Glinoe/Orchard” contained the barrow mound No.1 where the catacomb grave (No.11) of a rare type with a set of three dice made of red deer antler tines has been discovered. Before now, only five graves attributed to the Ingul Catacomb Graves Culture containing such gaming paraphernalia were reported. Also, a friable and deliberately burned shaft-hole axe-hammer head made of a volcanic rock found in the grave seems to be rather special for the Middle Bronze Age culture in question. The antler surface modifications may suggest that unusually big dice have been in short use. In the past, in order to engrave symbols on dice, some copper or bronze tool was applied.

Introduction. The article publishes and analyses the materials obtained during excavations of Scythian barrow 9 of the group Vodovod near the Glinoe village, Slobodzeysk district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The barrow was surrounded by a ring ditch and contained two burials of medieval nomads - the main one, the Scythian, and the secondary, the inlet one. Methods. The mound was excavated by the method of parallel trenches, leaving stratigraphic profiles. When analyzing the materials obtained, a comparatively typological method was applied. Analysis. The main burial was made in a catacomb of unusual construction. The entrance well of the catacomb was filled with stone slabs and boulders characterized with utmost accuracy of production. Despite this, in antiquity the burial was robbed three times: through the entrance well, through the roof of the funeral chamber and through the robbery mine, which went to the burial chamber from the north-eastern floor of the mound. The preserved grave goods are represented with a handmade pot, an iron knife, an iron needle and an awl, a lead finial, a stone slab, a burned pebble, a piece of mineral paint, a wooden kneader, a bronze horse harness and golden pendants. The stone slab was made very carefully, and the wooden kneader is the second such find in the North-West Black Sea region. Bronze items of horse harness have no analogues in the Scythian burial complexes of the North Black Sea region. The construction of barrow 9 of the group Vodovod dates back to the second half of the 5th century BC and is determined on the basis of gold pendants, which analogies are known only in the Malyy Chertomlyk barrow in the Lower Dnieper region. Results.The most important is the fact that the studied barrow was found in the microzone (near the Glinoe village of the Slobodzeya district), where at the moment not only the Scythian burial sites of the 5th - 2nd centuries BC are known, but also a settlement of that time. This testifies to the continual dwelling of the Scythians on the left bank of the Lower Dniester River during this period.

The article deals with the new attribution of the materials from barrow 20, excavated in 1975 near Semenovka village on the right bank of the Dniester liman, Belgorod-Dnesterovsky district, Odessa region, Ukraine. The only burial of this barrow was still considered as the monument of Babino culture (aka Multi-Cordoned Ware culture) of the first quarter of the 2nd millennium BC. The ceramic and metal artifacts found under the barrow were considered during the study of the material culture of the Scythians of the last third of the 1st millennium BC. The thorough analysis of the stratigraphy, planigraphy, funeral rite and artifacts showed that barrow 20 near Semenovka village was built instantaneously, and in fact it is Scythian. A cenotaph was the main complex of the barrow. It came with not only the armament items (iron-socketed arrowheads, spearheads and sockets of spears), horse harness (bronze frontlet with axe-shaped blade and a hook, bronze ringed beads, iron bits and iron snaffle ring, iron round pendants), glass cup, remains of the funeral feast as a ceramic breakage (Rhodes, Sinop, Cos, Cnidus amphorae, two pottery jars and molded vessel), but also with the burial of a dependent person lying crouched on his left side, his head in the eastern sector, in the catacomb. Depth of the fixing of these findings corresponded to the level of the ancient horizon on which the two-sided mainland ejected from the burial construction. Based on the Rhodes amphora marked with the eponym Άγήσιππος of - manufacturer - Έπίγονος 1, the barrow dates back to the last third or last quarter of the 3rd century BC.