IA RAS

Scientists from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, during excavations in the Rostov region, discovered an untouched Sarmatian burial of the 1st century, where a noble woman was buried - gold and silver jewelry, household utensils and other finds will help scientists better understand the culture of the Sarmatian nomads, who closely interacted with the inhabitants of the Black Sea antique polities.

Since the spring of 2015, the Sochi expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences led by Roman Mimokhod and Pavel Uspensky carried out security excavations in the construction zone of the Yuzhny airport in the Aksai district of the Rostov region. In total, scientists examined 29 mounds. Some of the burials belong to the Catacomb and Srubna culture of the Middle and Late Bronze Age, several burials belonged to medieval nomads (12-14 centuries). But the overwhelming majority of the excavated complexes date back to the 1st century and belong to the Sarmatians - Iranian-speaking nomad cattle breeders who, from the early Iron Age, inhabited the steppes from the northern Black Sea region to the Sea of ​​Azov.

“Unfortunately, most of these burials were plundered in ancient times. But we were lucky, in mound 1 of the Chebotarev V burial ground, we discovered an untouched and very rich burial of the Sarmatian period. Judging by the composition of the grave goods, the burial belonged to a noble woman,” says Roman Mimokhod.

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Gold earrings with pendant chains were found next to the skull of a Sarmatian woman; a bronze mirror lay at the left shoulder. The collar of the buried woman's clothes was decorated with stamped gold plates made of gold leaf in the form of a stylized ram's head. The sleeves of the dress are embroidered with multicolored beads in combination with gold triangular corrugated and hemispherical plaques. Each hand has a gold bracelet. A variety of beads were cleared on the chest of the buried woman, among which the find of a gem with a one-line Phoenician or Early Aramaic inscription should be especially noted.

At the basin of the buried woman lay a golden bottle, at the right hand - fragments of a wooden dish and an earthen mug. At the feet of the buried woman were fragments of a bronze ladle with floral ornaments combined with the image of a gorgon's head on the handle. In the northeastern part of the burial pit, there were four ceramic vessels.

In the western wall of the grave pit, a small cache was made, in which various iron objects were found: knives, hoes, a blank sword with a currency-like pommel, as well as a silver vessel with a zoomorphic handle and fragments of two brooches.

“The main surprise for us was not even that the robbers tried to rob the grave and did not reach only 7 centimeters to the wooden floor (thanks to which the grave remained intact). It is surprising that in this burial there were things from the end of the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. Such a combination has been encountered for the first time and is of undoubted interest from the point of view of the dating of the burial, ”Mimokhod notes.