:''Solokha is also the name of a witch in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

.'' :''Solokha is also a hamlet at .'' Scythian comb

The Solokha ()

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) 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 mu ...

is on the left bank of the

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

, 18 km from Kamianka-Dniprovska, opposite Nikopol, in central

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It has a height of 19 m and a diameter of about 100 m, dating to the early 4th century BC. The burial mound contained two royal

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

tombs, the central tomb had been robbed already in antiquity, but still contained the remains of a female ruler and two horses in rich attire, while the side tomb was found intact by the 1912–13 campaign by the Russian archaeologist Nikolay Veselovsky. The intact lateral tomb yielded spectacular treasures. It contained the remains of a male ruler, completely covered in gold. He had been buried with his weapon bearer, a servant and five horses. He was armed with bronze greaves, a bronze helmet, and a sword in a sheath covered with gold sheets and a quiver covered in silver containing 80 bronze arrowheads. The most notable find in the grave, however, was a golden

comb A comb is a tool consisting of a shaft that holds a row of teeth for pulling through the hair to clean, untangle, or style it. Combs have been used since prehistoric times, having been discovered in very refined forms from settlements dating ba ...

with an extremely detailed group of three fighting warriors worked in gold. The comb, as well as other finds, are part of the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and holds the large ...

's holdings of

Scythian art Scytho-Siberian art is the art associated with the cultures of the Scytho-Siberian world, primarily consisting of decorative objects such as jewellery, produced by the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian Steppe, with the western edges of the region vag ...

. The site appears to have confirmed the historicity of an account of

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

.Piotrovsky, 30 It is in an area where according to Herodotus the "royal Scythians" buried their kings, the land of Gerrhos, corresponding approximately to the modern

Zaporizhzhia Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast (), commonly referred to as Zaporizhzhia (), is an oblast (region) in south-east Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Zaporizhzhia. The oblast covers an area of , and has a population of The oblast is an import ...

Notes

{{Reflist

References

* Piotrovsky, Boris, et al. "Excavations and Discoveries in Scythian Lands", in ''From the Lands of the Scythians: Ancient Treasures from the Museums of the U.S.S.R., 3000 B.C.–100 B.C.'' The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 32, no. 5 (1974)
available online as a series of PDFs
(bottom of the page).

Literature

*Schiltz, Véronique, ''Kelermès et Solokha'', Les Dossiers d'archéologie ISSN 1141-7137, no 259 (2000–2001), 20–23. * Алексеев А.Ю. К идентификации погребений кургана Солоха //Тез. докл. междунар. конф. «Проблемы скифо-сарматской археологии Северного Причерноморья», посвящ. 95-летию со дня рождения профессора Б.Н.Гракова. – Запорожье, 1994. – II. * Алексеев А.Ю. Гребень из кургана Солоха в контексте династической истории Скифии //Эрмитажные чтения памяти Б.Б.Пиотровского. Тез. докл. – Санкт-Петербург, 1996. * Кузнецов C. В. Щиты на золотом гребне из кургана «Солоха» //Проблемы ски-фо-сарматской археологии Северного Причерноморья (К 100-летию Б.Н.Гракова). – Запорожье, 1999.Мозолевський Б.М. Солоха // Мозолевський Б.М. Скіфський степ. – Київ, 1983. - С. 83-94 * Манцевич А.П. Гребень и фиала из кургана Солоха //СА. – 1951. – XIII. * Манцевич А.П. Золотой гребень из кургана Солоха. – Ленинград: Изд-во ГЭ, 1962. * Манцевич А.П. Горит из кургана Солоха //ТГЭ. – 1962. – Т.3. * Манцевич А.П. Курган Солоха. Публикация одной коллекции. – Ленинград:Искусство, 1987. * Половцова С. Объяснение изображений на драгоценных вещах из Солохи проф. Свороносом //ИАК. – 1918. – Вып. 65. * Русяева М.В. Золотой гребень из кургана Солоха //VI чтения памяти профессора В.Д.Блаватского. К 100-летию со дня рождения. Тезисы докладов 21-22 мая 1999 г. – М., 1999. – С.96-97. * Русяева М.В. Сцена охоты на чаше из кургана Солоха // V Боспорские чтения. Боспор Киммерийский и варварский мир в период античности и средневековья. Этнические процессы. – Керчь, 2004. – С. 301–306. * Русяева М.В. Серебряная чаша из кургана Солоха // Боспорские исследования. – Вып. IX. – Керчь, 2005. – C. 112–126. * Фармаковский Б.В. Горит из кургана Солоха //ИРАИМК. – 1922. – II.

External links

*http://hermitage.informbureau.com/the_hermitage_-_the_department_of_prehistoric_culture.htm __NOTOC__ Scythians Archaeological sites in Ukraine Archaeological collections of the Hermitage Museum Iranian archaeological sites Kurgans