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Serghey Agulnikov, Sergiu Popovici, Stanislav erna, Denis Topal
(Chi inu )
A scythian barrow near Purcari village (Republic of Moldova)
In 2011, an expedition of the Center of Archaeology of the
Institute of Cultural Heritage
(Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova) excavated a
barrow (no.7) near the village of
Purcari (tefan Vod region). The burial mound was located 2,5 km
south-west from theoutskirts of the village and was a part of a
group of small barrows investigated in 19781980
(Jarovoy 1990). The barrow was intensively ploughed,
representing a small hemispherical
mound with the height of 0,75 m and a diameter of ca. 36 m at
the time of the excavations. Three
graves have been investigated, one of them belonging to a
Medieval nomad (no.2). The other
two graves (no.1 and the main central burial no. 3) are of
Scythian origin.
The main burial (no. 3) was found in the central part of the
mound. The burial pit had a
rectangular shape (with a step), 3,61,2 m large (fig.1, A). The
burial chamber, oriented on the
east-west axis, was originally covered with wooden beams ca. 0,2
m in diameter. The walls of
the burial pit were smoothed and covered with white clay. The
burial contained the skeleton of a
male, 3035 years old1, extended on the back, with the head to
the west. In the SW part of
burial chamber a red-clay amphora (fig. 1, 1) with 2 iron
spearheads (53,5 and ca. 40 cm) and 2
javelins (46 and ca. 50 cm) were placed (fig. 1, 2). The
attribution of the amphora is determined
by a stamp in two lines, bearing the inscription P | (E ()),
typical for the
Heraclea Pontica ware. The stamps ofEurydamos belong to the
so-called Early manufacturing
group and are dated from 390s B.C. (Monakhov 1999) to the end of
5th 90s of 4th c. B.C.2 (Katz
2007). Near the right shoulder was located a small Attic
black-glazed bowl asaltcellar with
concave walls and recessed underside. The gloss is of quite good
quality (fig. 1, 4). The
saltcellars with concave walls can be divided in two series, one
with recessed underside and onewith flat underside. The latter is
more common in the late archaic period, going down to ca. 450
B.C., whereas the shape with recessed underside mainly belongs
to the 4th century (Sparkes,
Talcott 1970: 136137, no. 936938).
An iron sword (akinakes) decorated in Animal Style was placed
across the hips (fig. 1, 6),
with the hilt at the left hand. The point of the sword laid over
a heap of bronze arrowheads and
an iron knife with bone handle (fig. 1, 7, 12). The pommel
extends on each side into two semi-
abstract bird heads (griffins?) set back-to-back. The
double-edged sword did not preserve
completely and came out in fragments, but the length could be
determined as ca. 62 cm.
Analogies for this akinakes are spread over a vast big territory
from lower Danube to Southern
Ural (including such Scythian Royal barrows as Solokha and
Velika Belozerka) within a
chronological framework of 450350 B.C. (Smirnov 1961; Meljukova
1964).
A pair of anatomically shaped unornamented bronze greaves
(cnemidae) were found on
the legs (fig. 1, 9). Under the bronze sheet were identified
remains of leather or felt which could
serve as a base for attaching the greaves. One of the greaves
was repaired. Such Greek greaves,
1 The identification of sex and age of the human remains was
processed by Dr. of Biology A. Varzari (National
Center of Reproductive Health and Medical Genetics).
2 We would like to express our gratitude to Vladimir Katz, who
shared the most detailed and fresh information about
stamped amphorae of Heraclea Pontica. In his personal message,
V. Katz insisted on an early date of the stamp from
Purcari due to the presence of a single name of
manufacturer.
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being much more lightweight and effective in comparison to the
Scythian ones, emerged in the
5th century B.C. and are widespread in the Scythian warrior
graves of late 5 th early 4th c. B.C.
(Chernenko 1968). On the chest of the deceased were identified
several fragments of iron plates
which could represent the remains of a flat body armor (and
probably a flexed shield) made of
leather covered with iron plates. Also, the burial yielded ca.
110 bronze arrowheads concentrated
in different locations near the sword (fig. 1, 12), on the
spearheads and javelins, on theremains of funeral feasts in
south-eastern (fig. 1, 11) and north-western corners (fig. 1, 3) of
the
burial chamber. These arrowheads are typical for Scythian graves
of late 5th 4th c. B.C.
(Meljukova 1964). So, the preliminary chronological analysis of
the grave goods shows that the
construction of barrow no.7 near Purcari could be dated back to
the late 5 th c. B.C. early 4th c.
B.C. However, due to the new chronological data for the Heraclea
amphora stamps, the most
convenient chronological framework is the late 5th c. B.C.
Fig. 1. Purcari, barrow 7, grave 3.A plan of the grave;B grave
goods: 1 amphora with stamp; 2
iron spearheads and javelins; 3 bronze arrowheads from NW
corner; 4 - black-glazed saltcellar; 5 bronze
buckle and plaques from skull; 6 iron sword (akinakes); 7 iron
knife with bone handle; 8 remains of the iron
body armor; 9 bronze greave; 10 iron details of spear shaft; 11
iron knife with bronze arrowheads from SE
corner; 12 bronze arrowheads near the sword; 13 bronze
arrowheads and iron fragments from the fill of burial
chamber.
Topal Denis. University High Anthropological School Zimbrului
10a str., MD-2024 Chi inu Republic of
Moldova. Email: [email protected]
erna Stanislav , M.A. University High Anthropological School
Zimbrului 10a str., MD-2024 Chi inu Republic
of Moldova. Email: [email protected]
