The Golden Pectoral from Tovsta Mohyla is a gold Scythian collar or pectoral discovered in a burial kurgan at a site called Tovsta Mohyla in modern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, in 1971 by the Ukrainian archaeologist Borys Mozolevskyi. The Tovsta Mohyla burial mound, meaning fat barrow, is in present-day southern Ukraine near the city of Pokrov. [2] It is now in the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine in Kyiv.
It probably dates from the 4th century BC, and was made by Greek goldsmiths, probably a workshop based in Scythian lands.
The ancient Scythians were a semi-nomadic Iranian people that lived around the northern area of the Black Sea with territory that stretched up into the Ural and Altai Mountain region. Their culture is thought to have lasted almost 1000 years, during which time they traded regularly with many Mediterranean and Asian cultures including the ancient Greeks, the ancient Persians and the ancient Chinese. [2]
The golden pectoral or breastplate is thought to have been ordered by a Scythian chieftain, made either by the native Scythian artisans, as some modern scholarly opinion maintains, or as usually thought, by ancient Greek metalworkers probably located in Panticapaeum which is in present-day Crimea on the Black Sea. At any rate the style is certainly Greek, although the imagery reflects Scythian interests. The pectoral is made of solid 24 carat gold, with a diameter of 12 inches (30.6 cm) and weighs just over 2.5 pounds (1150 g) [2] It is in the shape of a crescent and can be stylistically broken down into three sections. [3] The top section, which is widely agreed to be the main focus of the piece, reflects Scythian daily life. [2] The middle section is believed to represent Scythian connection to nature. Being that there are so many delicate details in this section the artisan(s) chose to solder all of the individual elements to a solid gold plate which serves as a backing for structural support. [4] The third section is thought to represent Scythian belief in the cosmos and their mythology. [3]
It is believed that the pectoral was created by soldering together dozens of individually cast figures and elements. [4]
The Scythians or Scyths in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia, where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC.
The Sarmatians were a large confederation of ancient Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD.
The Saka, Shaka, or Sacae were a group of nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who historically inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin.
A kurgan is a type of tumulus 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 much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.
A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few have mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove.
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 vaguely defined by ancient Greeks. The identities of the nomadic peoples of the steppes is often uncertain, and the term "Scythian" should often be taken loosely; the art of nomads much further east than the core Scythian territory exhibits close similarities as well as differences, and terms such as the "Scytho-Siberian world" are often used. Other Eurasian nomad peoples recognised by ancient writers, notably Herodotus, include the Massagetae, Sarmatians, and Saka, the last a name from Persian sources, while ancient Chinese sources speak of the Xiongnu or Hsiung-nu. Modern archaeologists recognise, among others, the Pazyryk, Tagar, and Aldy-Bel cultures, with the furthest east of all, the later Ordos culture a little west of Beijing. The art of these peoples is collectively known as steppes art.
Chernoles culture or Black Forest culture is an Iron Age archaeological unit dating ca. 1025–700 BC. It was located in the forest-steppe between the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers, in the Black Forest of Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine. This location corresponds to where Herodotus later placed his Scythian ploughmen. From 200 BC, the culture was overrun by the arrival of Germanic and Celtic settlers to the region.
A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity, especially the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic Europe, and in the Caucasus. Drinking horns remain an important accessory in the culture of ritual toasting in Georgia in particular, where they are known by the local name of kantsi.
Jewellery as an art form originated as an expression of human culture. Body ornamentation, one purpose of jewellery, has been known since at least the Stone Age. The history of jewellery in Ukraine reflects the influence of many cultures and peoples who have occupied the territory in the past and present.
The crowns of Silla were made in the Korean kingdom of Silla approximately in the 5th–7th centuries.
Pokrov, formerly Ordzhonikidze (Орджонікідзе) until 2016, is a small city and mining town in Nikopol Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Pokrov urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately 37,493.
The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Central and Southeastern Europe, centred in modern Bulgaria. They were bordered by the Scythians to the north, the Celts and the Illyrians to the west, the Greeks to the south, and the Black Sea to the east.
Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi. The hoard found there is often known as the Bactrian gold.
Kul-Oba is an ancient archaeological site, a Scythian burial tumulus (kurgan), located near Kerch in eastern Crimea, on the right side of the M25 road to Feodosiya.
The Scythian religion refers to the mythology, ritual practices and beliefs of the Scythian cultures, a collection of closely related ancient Iranic peoples who inhabited Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe throughout Classical Antiquity, spoke the Scythian language, and which included the Scythians proper, the Cimmerians, the Sarmatians, the Alans, the Sindi, the Massagetae and the Saka.
The National Museum of the History of Ukraine (MIST) (Ukrainian: Національний музей історії України) illustrates Ukraine's history from ancient times to the present. It is one of the leading museums in Ukraine. It holds about 800,000 items in its collection, and usually has approximately 22,000 items on permanent display. The museum holds world-famous archaeological, numismatic, ethnographic and weapons collections, examples of decorative and applied arts, manuscripts, prints, paintings and drawings, as well as relics of the Ukrainian national liberation movement of the 20th century.
The Odesa Archaeological Museum is one of the oldest archaeological museums in Ukraine. It was founded in 1825; the current museum building was completed in 1883 according to a design by Polish architect Feliks Gąsiorowski.
The Scythian culture was an Iron Age archaeological culture which flourished on the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Eastern Europe from about 700 BC to 200 AD. It is associated with the Scythians, Cimmerians, and other peoples inhabiting the region of Scythia, and was part of the wider Scytho-Siberian world.
Tovsta Mohyla is an ancient Scythian burial mound or kurgan and treasure discovered in 1971 by the Ukrainian archaeologist Borys Mozolevski. It is located in southern Ukraine near the city of Pokrov in Dnipro region.
The Sauromatian culture was an Iron Age culture of horse nomads in the area of the lower Volga River to the southern Ural Mountain, in southern Russia, dated to the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. Archaeologically, the Sauromatian period itself is sometimes also called the "Blumenfeld period", and is followed by a transitional Late Sauromatian-Early Sarmatian period, also called the "Prokhorov period".