Tovsta Mohyla (

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 ...

Товста Могила) 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 ...

burial mound or

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 As ...

and treasure discovered in 1971 by the

archaeologist Borys Mozolevski. The Tovsta Mohyla burial mound, meaning "fat barrow", is located in 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 region.Kuzych and Bekhtir, "The golden pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla.".

History

The ancient

Scythians 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 ...

were a semi-nomadic

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...

Iranian-speaking 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, Rom ...

with the territory that stretched up into the

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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 Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

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 are ...

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

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. Classical Scythians dominated the

Pontic steppe Pontic, from the Greek ''pontos'' (, ), or "sea", may refer to: The Black Sea Places * The Pontic colonies, on its northern shores * Pontus (region), a region on its southern shores * The Pontic–Caspian steppe, steppelands stretching from no ...

from about the 7th century BC up until the 3rd century BC.: "The Scythians lived in the Early Iron Age, and inhabited the northern areas of the Black Sea (Pontic) steppes. Though the 'Scythian period' in the history of Eastern Europe lasted little more than 400 years, from the 7th to the 3rd centuries BC, the impression these horsemen made upon the history of their times was such that a thousand years after they had ceased to exist as a sovereign people, their heartland and the territories which they dominated far beyond it continued to be known as 'greater Scythia'." In Ukraine, whose territory

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

described in his story of the Scythians, found perhaps the largest and most significant burial places of that era.

Excavation

A large royal Scythian kurgan of the 4th century BC named Tovsta Mohyla was excavated in 1971 by Borys Mozolevsky. He unearthed two burial vaults of Scythian nobles. The central vault had been looted, but the side vault, dating from the later period, was intact. The central vault contained remains of a Scythian nobleman; the side vault contained five skeletons, with the main ones belonging to a Scythian noblewoman and a child. Pektoral111

The skeletons in the mound were generously covered with gold. Among the weapons, various ornaments, and items of clothing, the Golden Pectoral stood out. The style of the ornament is certainly Greek, although the imagery reflects Scythian interests. The

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 ...

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). To the east of the central tomb were found two horse graves with the burial of six horses. Their armor is richly decorated with gold, silver, and bronze jewelry. The horses in the afterlife world were to be served by three slain servants. The noble dead were accompanied to the afterlife world by four slain servants. At the entrances to the grave, there were wheels from disassembled hearses, in a separate utility niche - a bronze cauldron and a frying pan. Above one of the entrance pits, a large set of bronze ornaments from a funeral procession was found. Among them are six openwork bronze tops made of the corral, decorated with stylized images of deer and griffins. The collection is now housed at the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine in Kyiv.Скіфи (Viii Ст. До Н.Е. – Iii Ст. Н.Е.) - Музей Історичних Коштовностей України
/ref> The finds of the Tovsta Mohyla are another convincing evidence of the high level of the material culture of the whole steppe Scythia. Scythian sculptures from the Tovsta Mohyla kurhan

Scythian sculptures from the Tovsta Mohyla kurhan

Scythian female headdress from the Tovsta Mohyla kurhan

File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 1).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 1) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 2).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 2) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 3).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 3) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 4).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 4) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 5).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 5) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 6).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 6) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 7).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 7) File:Scythian gold pectoral Tovsta Mohyla (detail 8).jpg, Scythian Pectoral (detail 8)

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 History of Ukraine 1971 archaeological discoveries 1971 in the Soviet Union Gold objects