Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia

Abstract This article is devoted to the publication and analysis of a previously unpublished artefact - a gold plate with a depiction of a recumbent wild boar held in the Museum of the Historical Treasures of the Ukraine. On the basis of a visual examination, the authors have interpreted the article as the facing of a Scythian ritual wooden vessel. On the basis of an monographic analysis of the depiction of the wild boar, they have dated it to the 5th century BC, possibly to its second quarter. The depiction is discussed in relation to other depictions of a wild boar in Scythian art and an attempt is made to piece together the process of how the motif of a recumbent boar appeared in the Scythian Animal Style of Eastern Europe. Together with its close parallels, the authors attribute this depiction to the “Aleksandrovka - Arkhangel’skaya Sloboda” stylistic type for the depiction of recumbent boars dated to the period from the late 6th to the early 4th century b c . The authors also attempt to piece together the process of the appearance of the motif of the recumbent wild boar in the Scythian Animal style of Eastern Europe as the result of the convergence of the Near-Eastern motif of a recumbent wild boar and the Saka-Siberian design of a “sudden breaking” wild boar.