The Sarmatian Burial from “Kirpichnyy” Barrow in Kuban Region

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the rich Sarmatian burial from the destroyed mound. The burial was a pit with overlapping of narrow wooden poles or boards. The skeleton was laid stretched on its back, the skull was oriented to SSW. Sheep bones and an iron knife were located at the feet, near the pit wall. The assemblage of grave goods is quite various and informative: a bronze mirror, gold bracelets and earrings, necklaces with cornelian and chalcedony beads, glass beads on the legs and arms, flint nucleus, “whetstone” (assay stone), clay spindles, iron arrowheads and small grey clay bowl of Maeotian production. Cast mirrors of Prokhorov Type are often found in Sarmatian burial mounds of the Kuban region of the 3rd – 1st c. BC. The bead types are typical for the Hellenistic period. The gold earrings are late replicas of the “lionheaded” earrings of the Northern Black Sea group. The magical items (nucleus, assay stone) have the closest analogies in Sarmatian assemblages of the early 1st c. BC. The bronze fingerings of the late Latin type with spiral shields were spread in the Northern Black Sea region and among Kuban Maeotian tribes in the Roman period. However their appearance in this region probably refers to an earlier period. The gold jewellery, rich necklace, full quiver of arrows and items related to cult activities make it possible to attribute this assemblage to the category of elite burials of the Siracian nobility.