Scythian Burial-Mound 7 in the “Vodovod” Group in the Lower Reaches of the Dniester River

Abstract

Materials obtained during investigation of Scythian burial-mound 7 in the “Vodovod” group in 2017 near the village of Glinoye in the Slobozia District on the east bank of the Lower Dniester are published here for the first time. The burial-mound contained five burials – four in pits and one in a catacomb. The burials in pits had been deposited at the turn of the 4th century BC and the catacomb burial dated from the first third of the 3rd century BC. The graves belonged to ordinary members of the community but contained a fairly distinctive range of grave goods. It was made up of weapons (arrowheads and an axe) and horse harness (a bit and a cheek-piece), vessels (a wooden dish, hand-moulded pot and a hand-moulded bowl), tools (knives, awls, a needle, spindle whorls and an abrasive tool) and jewellery (rings, a metal bracelet, beads, pendants made of shell, oolitic limestone and canine teeth of dogs). In addition tassel-holders, a bronze mirror and a flint strike-a-light were found. A bronze ring from burial 7/2 reflects La Tène influence and the hand-moulded cup from burial 7/4 reflects Thracian influence on the material culture of the Scythians in the North-West Pontic region. In general the funerary rite and range of grave goods demonstrate the transformation of Scythian culture during the second half of the 4th and first half of the 3rd century BC.