NEW FINDS OF THE MIRRORS OF SCYTHIAN AND SARMATIAN AGES FROM TRANS-KUBAN REGION

Abstract

In recent years, on the territory of rural areas adjacent to the city of Armavir (Russian Federation), historically representing the Zakubanye (Trans-Kuban) region (i. e., the area of the left bank of the Kuban River), the number of bronze mirrors of Scythian and Sarmatian Ages have been found by chance. They entered the museums and museum corners of some cities and villages or were recorded in the private collections with subsequent fixation by local historians. The purpose of this paper is to publish the finds of this category which form a small but quite interesting and expressive series. The earliest of the presented specimens are finds from the village Uspenskоe. The first mirror from the Uspenskoe village (fig. 1: 1, 2) can be attributed to section I, type I, option 1 (mirrors with a central handle, round flat disc with a rim and segment loop) after T. M. Kuznetsova, and can be dated to the 7th—6th centuries BC. The second mirror from the village Uspenskoe (fig. 1: 3, 4) belongs to the 3rd variant of the indicated type, with a trapezoid loop. According to T. M. Kuznetsova, most of these mirrors are dated to the 6th century BC. Mirror 1 (fig. 2: 3, 4) from stanitsa Chamlykskaya can be considered to belong to type II, option 2 (according to I. I. Marchenko), which attributes the mirrors of this option to the 3rd—2nd centuries BC. The findings of modern Russian archaeologists make it possible to confirm the total dating of mirrors with scallops, similar to the published sample 2 from stanitsa Chamlykskaya (fig. 2: 1, 2) as 3rd—1st centuries BC.
 Mirrors 1, 3, 4 (fig. 2: 5, 6; 3: 3—6) from stanitsa Voznesenskaya and mirror 3 from the village Uspenskoe (fig. 1: 5, 6), in our opinion, can be included to the number of copies of type III, version 1 by I. I. Marchenko. The date of the mirrors of this version, according to this author, is the second half of the 4th—3rd centuries BC. Mirror 2 from stanitsa Voznesenskaya (fig. 3: 1, 2) belongs to type I, option 2 according to I. I. Marchenko. The archaeologist dates the finds of type I option 2 to the second half of the 4th — 2nd centuries BC. The mirrors presented in the publication complement the geography and characteristics of the early Iron Age mirrors found in the eastern part of the Trans-Kuban region.