The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla is an ancient

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

treasure discovered in a burial

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...

at a site called Tovsta Mohyla in 1971 by the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

archaeologist Borys Mozolevskyi. The Tovsta Mohyla burial mound, meaning fat barrow, is located in present day southern

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

near the city of Pokrov in

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

region.Kuzych and Bekhtir, "The golden pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla.". Pektoral111

History

The ancient

Scythians The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved f ...

were a semi-nomadic

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

people that lived around the northern area of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

with territory that stretched up into the

Ural Ural may refer to: *Ural (region), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural Mountains, in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural (river), in Russia and Kazakhstan * Ual (tool), a mortar tool used by the Bodo people of India *Ural Federal District, in Russia *Ural econ ...

and Altai Mountain region. Their culture is thought to have lasted almost 1000 years, during which time they traded regularly with many

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

n cultures including the ancient

Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...

, the ancient

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

and the ancient

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

. The golden

pectoral Pectoral may refer to: * The chest region and anything relating to it. * Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest * a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget * Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt * Pectorali ...

breastplate A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. A breastplate is sometimes worn by mythological beings as a distinctive item of clothing. It is ...

is thought to have been ordered by a Scythian chieftain, made either by the native Scythian artisans, as some modern scholarly opinion maintains, or as usually thought, by ancient Greek metalworkers probably located in

Panticapaeum Panticapaeum ( grc-gre, Παντικάπαιον , from Scythian , "fish-path") was an ancient Greek city on the eastern shore of Crimea, which the Greeks called Taurica. The city lay on the western side of the Cimmerian Bosporus, and was found ...

which is in present day

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

on the

. At any rate the style is certainly Greek, although the imagery reflects Scythian interests. The

is made of solid 24 carat gold, with a diameter of 12 inches (30.6 cm) and weighs just over 2.5 pounds (1150 g) It is in the shape of a

crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

and can be stylistically broken down into three sections.Pidvysotska and Samina, "SCYTHIAN KING'S GOLD PECTORAL". The top section, which is widely agreed to be the main focus of the piece, reflects Scythian daily life. The middle section is believed to represent Scythian connection to nature. Being that there are so many delicate details in this section the artisan(s) chose to solder all of the individual elements to a solid gold plate which serves as a backing for structural support.Reeder (ed.), "Scythian Gold: treasures from ancient Ukraine". The third section is thought to represent Scythian belief in the

cosmos The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...

and their mythology. It is believed that the pectoral was created by soldering together dozens of individually cast figures and elements.

Notes

References

* {{Cite web , url=http://ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1999/459929.shtml , title=The golden pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla , author=Ingert Kuzych and Volodymyr Bekhtir , publisher=The Ukrainian Weekly , work=FOCUS ON PHILATELY , date=November 7, 2009 , access-date=February 24, 2015 Scythian art Iranian archaeological artifacts History of Dnipro 1971 archaeological discoveries 1971 in the Soviet Union Gold objects