scholarly journals THE TERRITORY OF THE CENTRAL SCYTHIA (FROM SOLOKHA TO CHORTOMLYK)

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Boltryk ◽  
V. M. Okatenko ◽  
G. M. Toscev

This article is devoted to the extensive description of the environment of the two largest settlement structures of the Eastern European steppes — the Kapuliv and Kamyanka which date V—III centuries BC. These two powerful settlements appeared on the opposite banks near the ancient crossings through the Dnipro. They formed the main core of the Scythian state, in which Kapuliv served as the capital and Kamyanka was its economic partner. Intense life here has arisen from the time of Ariapet’s rule to the life of the descendants of King Ateus. The Scythians chose the best place in the Pontic steppe, where in the zone of floodplain meadows and forests there were numerous straits with lakes surrounded by magnificent pastures. Therefore, along with these two main settlements, on the banks and partly in the floodplain, there were many settlements of the second order. The importance of this zone is emphasized by the accumulation of kurhans and graveyards placed almost symmetrically on different shores. In the immediate surrounding of the settlements there are almost equal in importance burial mounds of the ordinary population. Among them are the burial ground near the village Kut, the Nikopol mound field and the burial ground of Mamay-Gora. The last one is the largest in the Eastern Europe in terms of the number of excavated burials. This graveyard is unique due to five large kurhans, located in one line: three long kurhans and two round in plan. It is possible that there was a general Scythian cult center. Further from the Dnipro there were burial memorials of representatives of the higher social stage, among which were the largest burial mounds of Scythia — Solokha and Chortomlyk. There is a noteworthy mound alley (1.6 km long), which retreated to the west of the Solokha kurhan and turned slightly to the north, where it probably connected with a part of another smaller kurhan alley. Not far from a smaller alley there was the recently opened manufacturing settlement Sorokina Balka. The time of its existence (all IV BC) is recorded by the findings of the coins of the cities of the North Pontus, the Marmara Sea and Macedonia.

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-292
Author(s):  
S. I. Kruts ◽  
T. O. Rudych

The anthropological composition of the population buried at the cemetery of the Scythian Age near Svitlovodsk city (Kirovograd region) is analyzed in the paper. The burial ground is located on the border of the Forest-Steppe and Steppe Zones of the Right Bank of the Dnieper. The anthropological material under study comes from cemetery without mounds. Archaeologists date the main massif of burials to the 4th century BC. The anthropological composition of the population that was buried at this burial ground was not homogenous. The male series of skulls is characterized by a long, medium-wide, high, dolichocranic skull. The face is of medium size, it is mesognathic. The horizontal profile of the face at the upper level is medium, but with a tendency to the sharp; at the middle level, the face is strongly profiled. The orbital and nasal indexes are medium. The bones of the nose are moderately protruding. The average characteristics of the male population fit into the range of variations of the Scythian series. The male series belongs morphologically and statistically to the circle of the steppe Scythian groups. The male group from the burial ground near the city of Svitlovodsk is close to the series from the Nikolaevka burial ground on the Dnister River, the group of skulls from the burial mounds near the village of Shirokoe (Left Bank of the Dnieper River), the group of skulls from the burial mounds near the village of Vyshchetarassivka, a series of skulls from the Mykhailivka burial ground. Of the forest-steppe series, only the combined group of skulls from the Trypillya region is somewhat close to it. All these statistically and morphologically similar groups originate from different territories. This illustrates the specifics of the settlement and demonstrates the mobility of the Scythian groups. The female series from the burial ground is characterized by a long, narrow, medium-high skull, mesocranic in shape. The size of the face is small, it is mesognathic. The horizontal profile of the face at the upper level is moderate, at the zygomaxilar level it belongs to the category of sharp, but with a tendency to moderate. The orbital index is medium, the nasal index belongs to the large category. The bones of the nose are medium protruding. The female series from Svitlovodsk burial ground turns out to be the most gracile among the Scythian series in Ukraine. For this reason, it differs significantly from the entire massif of the steppe Scythian series. The closest to the Svitlovodsk series is a group from mounds near Nikopol.


1913 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 133-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Scutt

The area over which the Tsakonian dialect is spoken lies on the east coast of the Peloponnese between the Parnon range and the sea. Its northern boundary is roughly the torrent which, rising on Parnon above Kastánitsa, flows into the sea near Ayios Andréas, its southern the torrent which, also rising on Parnon, passes through Lenídhi to the sea. A mountain range stretches along the coast from end to end of the district, reaching its highest point (1114 metres) in Mt. Sevetíla above the village of Korakovúni. Between Tyrós and Pramateftí, the seaward slopes of this range are gentle and well covered with soil. Behind these coast hills there stretches a long highland plain, known as the Palaiókhora, which, in the north, is fairly well covered with soil, but gradually rises towards the south into a region of stony grazing land, and terminates abruptly in the heights above Lenídhi. The high hill of Oríonda rises out of the Palaiókhora to the west and forms a natural centre-point of the whole district. Behind it stretching up to the bare rock of Parnon, is rough hilly country, cut here and there by ravines and offering but rare patches of cultivable land.


1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 309-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. L. Christie ◽  
S. M. Elsdon ◽  
G. W. Dimbleby ◽  
A. Saville ◽  
S. Rees ◽  
...  

The ancient village of Carn Euny, formerly known as Chapel Euny, lies on a south-west slope just above the 500 foot contour in the parish of Sancreed in West Cornwall (fig. 1). The granite uplands of the region are rich in antiquities, as a glance at a recent survey shows (Russell 1971), not least those of the prehistoric period. The hill on which the site is situated is crowned by the circular Iron Age Fort of Caer Brane (pl. 27). Across the dry valley to the north-west rises the mass of Bartinny Down, with its barrows, while in the valley below the site near the hamlet of Brane is a small, well preserved entrance grave and other evidence of prehistoric activity. To the south-east about one mile away is the recently excavated village of Goldherring dating from the first few centuries of our era (Guthrie 1969). From later times, the holy well of St Uny and the former chapel which gave its name to the site, lie nearby to the west. The village contains a fine souterrain, locally known as a fogou, after a Cornish word meaning a cave (Thomas 1966, 79).Nothing appears to have been known of the settlement or Fogou before the first half of the 19th century when the existence of an unexplored fogou at Chapel Uny is first mentioned by the Reverend John Buller (1842), shortly followed by Edmonds (1849) who described to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society an ‘Ancient Cave’ which had been discovered by miners prospecting for tin.


1950 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 261-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Cook ◽  
R. V. Nicholls

The village of Kalývia Sokhás lies against the base of one of the massive foothills in which Taygetus falls to the plain three or four miles to the south of Sparta (Plate 26, 1). It is bounded by two rivers which flow down in deep clefts from the mountain shelf. The hillside above rises steeply to a summit which is girt with cliffs on all but the west side and cannot be much less than four thousand feet above sea level; this von Prott believed to be the peak of Taleton. Its summit is crowned by the ruins of a mediaeval castle which was undoubtedly built as a stronghold to overlook the Spartan plain; the only dateable object found there, a sherd of elaborate incised ware, indicates occupation at the time when the Byzantines were in possession of Mystra. The location of the other sites mentioned by Pausanias in this region remains obscure, but fortunately that of the Spartan Eleusinion has not been in doubt since von Prott discovered a cache of inscriptions at the ruined church of H. Sophia in the village of Kalývia Sokhás. In 1910 Dawkins dug trenches at the foot of the slope immediately above the village and recovered a fragment of a stele relating to the cult of the goddesses and pieces of inscribed tiles from the sanctuary. The abundance of water in the southern ravine led von Prott to conclude that the old town of Bryseai with its cult of Dionysus also lay at Kalývia Sokhás; but no traces of urban settlement have come to light at the village, and the name rather suggests copious springs such as issue from the mountain foot at Kefalári a mile to the north where ancient blocks are to be seen in the fields.


Author(s):  
MARCIN SAR

The author comments on the dynamics of Moscow's effort to reconcile its pursuit of control over Eastern Europe with its interest in a viable Eastern Europe, one that is stable and capable of self-sustaining development. Although Moscow has always exercised control in military matters, it allowed some Eastern Europeans economic independence in the 1970s. Changing circumstances in the 1980s, however, have caused the Kremlin to rethink its relationships with its Eastern European “satallies”— half satellites, half allies. Moscow faces dilemmas in areas such as energy, agriculture, the Eastern European states' relations with the West, economic reforms occurring in Eastern Europe, and integration within COMECON. How Moscow resolves these dilemmas lies at the core of its future relationships with Eastern Europe. Other important factors include the lessons learned from Poland, East Germany's evolving relationship with the Federal Republic of Germany, and China's growing economic and political initiatives vis-à-vis Eastern Europe.


1951 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles C. Dipeso

The Amerind Foundation, Inc. spent the first three weeks of December, 1948, excavating a ball court at the archaeological site of Arizona:BB:15:3, which is located in Cochise County, Sec. 20, T15S, R20E. The actual village area is located on the west bank of the San Pedro River twenty-two miles north of the city of Benson at an approximate elevation of 3300 feet.The ball court was located in the north half of the village on a terrace some forty feet above the river channel. It appeared as a shallow but conspicuous oval depression which was overgrown with mesquite trees and other desert flora of the Sonoran plateau type. Fortunately the court had not been disturbed by any previous excavations nor by erosion (Fig. 86, a).


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Abay Meiramovich Seitov

The paper is devoted to belt buckles of the early Sarmatian period of the Turgay steppes. Turgay deflection is a vast territory located in the north-western part of Kazakhstan. In the north, Turgay deflection turns into the west Siberian lowland, and in the south it turns into the Turan lowland. In the west, the bend touches the Trans-Ural plateau, while in the east - the Kazakh hills. Three buckles originating from burial № 5A of mound 1 of the Karatomar burial ground and mound 1 of the Kenysh 3 mound group are analyzed. The paper deals with the cultural and chronological position of Turgay belt buckles in the context of the distribution of such products of the belt headset on the territory of Eurasia. The problem of the origin and chronology of these items is also touched upon. Buckles similar to the Karatomar one have so far been found only on the territory from Central Asia and Kazakhstan to the Lower Volga region. Kenysh buckle finds an analogy from the Volga-Don interfluves to the north of China. In General, types of buckles, similar to Turgay, existed in the II-I centuries BC. The studied buckles should be considered in the context of the general fashion for wearing a belt headset made of metal, bone and stone, associated with the military activity of the Huns.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-132
Author(s):  
M. A. Plavinski ◽  
M. I. Stsiapanava

The complex of archaeological monuments near the village Kastyki of the Viliejka district of the Minsk region consists of an Old Rus’ barrow cemetery and an open settlement, which functioned from the late Neolithic period to the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD. The complex of archaeological sites under the question is located in the eastern part of the village Kastyki in the upper reaches of the Vilija, on its right bank, 2.5 km from the confluence of the Servač River into Vilija River. For the first time, studies at Kastyki were carried out by K. Tyszkiewicz in 1856, when he excavated here one partially destroyed mound, containing neither traces of burial nor burial goods. In 1973, J. Zviaruha conducted a study of the barrow cemetery in Kastyki and excavated here 7 burial mounds. This article is devoted to the publication of materials from the Kastyki barrow cemetery, which took place in 1973 under the direction of J. Zviaruha. The focus is on rethinking the results of the 1973 excavations in the light of new research conducted in 2016 and 2018. The analysis of materials from the excavation of the burial mound, carried out in 1973, suggests that the necropolis functioned during the middle of the 11th—12th centuries. It belonged to a group of residents of the Polatsk land, who made burials according to the rites of inhumation on the basis of burial mounds, with their heads directed to the west. This, in turn, suggests that the members of the Old Rus’ community, which left the necropolis in Kastyki, had a certain understanding of the Christian burial rites.


Author(s):  
Natal'ya Shishlina

Innovative technologies for new products and consumption, a secondary product revolution, have dramatically changed the course of the Bronze Age economic transformations. Changes included introduction of an innovative technology of wool production and it’s spread among the Northern Eurasia population during 3000–2000 BC. Sophisticated methods of studying the ancient wool textile obtained from the Bronze Age sites of Northern Eurasia, i.e. technological analyses, radiocarbon dating, and the identification of the isotope signature preserved in the wool textile, made it possible not only to discuss the time the wool fiber appeared in the Bronze Age textile production and to determine the cultural context and areas but also to discuss a new hypothesis on the formation of so called Wool Road in early 2nd millennium BC – a route that connected the foothills, forest-steppe, and forest regions of Eastern Europe in the West and South Siberia and China in the East. The discovery of wool textiles and their radiocarbon dating clearly defines the spread of the innovative textile strategies out of the Near East from the South to the North, then from the North Caucasus Piedmont areas from the West to the East. The author suggests that one of the ways the wool textile spread to west was from the southern steppe region of Eastern Europe via the Black Sea steppes.


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