Heritage of Ethnic Cultures in Territory of Ukraine - Scythian Gold and Monuments of Antiquity

The picturesque Ukrainian steppes stretch along an infinite band, criss-crossed every now and then by deep rivers. For a long time there lived related peoples on these vast open areas. Homogeneous ethnic cultures flourished there and the states, frequently not so durable, were created. This land saw the devastating raids of conquerors and great resettlements of peoples. The Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Greeks, Goths, Huns, numerous early Slavic and other tribes, all of them once lived in the vast areas of what is now Ukraine. The Scythians were a people that inhabited this land in the middle of the first BC. The burial mounds of their kings were built of especially big sizes and of complex sepulchral construction. Their contemporaries robbed the majority of the barrows, yet many artifacts, including excellent pieces of antique jewellery, have survived from the Scythian times.

The collection of the Scythian art objects is given a prominent place in the Museum of Historic Jewellery of Ukraine, a branch of the National HistoryMuseum. The Museum, also often referred to as the Treasure House of Ukraine, is situated within the walls of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Monastery. Among the precious jewelry objects collected there the Gold Pectoral - a fine, ritual chest decoration of a Scythian king - stands out as an excellent work of art and a great achievement of the Ukrainian archaeology. The Pectoral has 30,6 centimeters in diameter and weighs 1,150 gram. The whole thing is made of pure gold of 24 karats. It was found in 1971 by the archaeologist and poet Boris Mozolevsky in the Tovsta Mohyla barrow in Dnipropetrovsk region. We do not know the name of the author or whether he was a Greek or Scythian. The scenes depicted by the master of the 4th century BC tell us about the vernal equinox holiday and ritual murder of a sacrificial horse that personified the King. The eternal fight of Good against Evil is reflected in the scenes of fighting animals, which are characteristic of the Scythian art.

Many other gold objects found in other barrows all around Ukraine (Solokha and Haymanov Burials in Zaporizhzhya, Chertomlyk in Dnipropetrovsk region, Kul-Oba in the Crimea, barrows in Kherson region etc.) represent people of those times rather realistically in contrast to the stylized way the ancient Greeks pictured their gods. The Scythians had no written language, yet they are often referred to in historical works, in particular, in the works of Greek historian Herodotus, "the father of history". They traded with Greeks that is proved by numerous artefacts of Hellenic origin found in the Schythian burial places: coins, earthenware and jewellery objects. Then, the Sarmatians from the east, and later the Goths from the north ousted the Scythians of the land. Some of the former owners of steppes founded their state in the Crimean peninsula, with the capital named Naples Scythian. Today the remains of grain holes, ruins of defensive walls and of the mausoleum of Scythian king Skilura can still be seen nearby the city of Simferopol in the Crimea. Archaeological excavations prove that Herodotus wrote his chronicles based on the real facts rather than on rumours. The celebrated historian travelled a lot and made detailed records during his trips. He is known to have visited the northern coast of the Black Sea. According to Herodotus, the Scythians appeared on the historical arena after they had sieged and occupied Nineveh, the capital of Assyria (ancient Mesopotamian kingdom). Later the Scythians attached to their empire lands of the Cimmerians and even tried to conquer Egypt. The Dnipro River was the major river in the Scythians lands. The ancient historian compares the Dnipro with the Egyptian Nile in terms of its deep waters, plenty of fish, fertility of the riverside soils and quality of pastures. No wonder then that the powerful Persian King Darius (558 BC-486 BC) wanted to subdue this rich land. Thus, in 512 BC he, with his innumerable army, intruded into the steppes near the Black Sea, sweeping away everything in his way. He had been warned that the Scythians were strong, severe and freedom-loving people and it would be extremely hard to conquer them. Yet he didn't listen to the warnings. Retreating Scythians applied the scorched-earth tactics together with unexpected attacks. When the enemy finally weakened, the courageous nomads turned towards the Persians and delivered the decisive blow. The Persians were broken, and Darius fled far ahead of the army to disgracefully die later. The Scythians were fine riders and archers. It is not a secret that some of them were engaged in murders, robberies and scalping enemies as most warriors of that time were. But, on the other hand, the Scythians were also wise people, which is testified by the following episode from the war between the Persians and Scythians. The Scythian leaders passed Darius some gifts - a bird, mouse, frog and a bunch of arrows. A messenger refused to explain the meaning of the message. After some time the Persians found out what it meant - they were offered either to become birds and to fly up in the sky; or mice, and to hide under the ground; or frogs, and to jump into lakes, but never try to go against the Scythians again, otherwise they would be met with arrows.

Herodotus described in his book a burial ritual of a king of the Royal Scythians, the most powerful among the Scythian tribes. A body of king was cleaned and embalmed, then put on big bed from leaves, which was fixed by spears at each side and covered with wooden boards. King's favoured horses, his mistress, cook, maids, who were killed with the purpose to serve their master in the life after death, were buried beside him. There were also golden household, jewellery objects as well as weapon put in the grave in case the king might need them. After that a high barrow was raised and the other fifty best horses and horsemen, also killed, were buried around the grave place in order to guard the eternal life of their master.

Nobody knows for sure how many other secrets and treasures wait to be discovered in the barrows of the Black Sea coastal steppes of Ukraine, the silent witnesses of the once mighty ancient Scythian civilization.

New settlers got on the territory of Ukraine not only by steppe, but also by the sea. In the middle of the 7th century BC the Greeks appeared at the northern coast of the Black Sea. They came from the overpopulated Hellas in search of new lands, suitable for agriculture, of sources of raw materials, of new markets for their goods. They founded their outposts - cities-states all along the coastal line. One of them, Olbia (literary from Greek 'happy'), was based by the Greek colonists in the beginning of the 6th century BC and existed for almost a thousand years. Olbia was mentioned in many works of ancient authors, including Herodotus'. The city was part of the Athenian Sea Union. At the height of its importance it has territory of 55 hectares and its necropolis's - 500 hectares, there were about 150 settlements along the coast of the Bug, Dnipro and Berezhansky estuaries. Archaeological excavations of Olbia that started back in 1900 revealed the remains of public and private buildings, numerous works of art that are preserved now in museums of Kiev, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kherson, Poltava and abroad: Berlin, London, Paris and St. Petersburg. The Olbia Historical and Cultural Preserve was open in 1926 with the purpose to preserve the monuments of the ancient city of Olbia. Its territory amounts to 330 hectares and it is situated near the town of Ochakiv, Mykolayiv region. It also includes the island of Berezan' which houses the ruins of Borysfen, the oldest ancient Greek settlement in the northern coast of the Black Sea. (mid of 7th century BC). Prominent archaeologists from Germany, the USA, France, Greece, Russia and other countries are engaged in the studies of Olbia and Borysfen cultures.

The Chersonese Historical-Archaeological Preserve in the city of Sevastopol, Crimea, was established in 1978 to study and preserve the ruins of the ancient Greek colony of Chersonese, founded in the 5th century BC. The collection of the museum, which is part of the Preserve, comprises about 200,000 objects. Some of the exhibits are unique: a marble slab with the text of the oath of Chersonese citizens engraved on it, fragments of frescos and Greek mosaics. Of great interest for tourists are excavation sites of the ancient city - streets, squares and separate constructions: columns of a basilica, mint, theatre of the 3rd - 2nd centuries BC (the only ancient theatre found in the territory of Ukraine). In the southern-eastern part of the city the parts of defensive fortifications, Zenon tower, a gate (4th - 3rd BC) have been preserved well. It was in Chersonese that the Kyiv Great Prince Volodymyr adopted Christianity in 988 AC and later that year he converted into Christianity his country Rus-Ukraine. The first excavations of Chersoneses were undertaken in 1827, four centuries after its destruction by the Mongol-Tartars invaders. For more than century and a half hundreds of the unique archaeological finds were discovered at the site of the ancient city. Now they have become the values of the world culture. The works of antique painting, architecture, household goods have been preserved in good condition. A big collection of the Greek and Latin inscriptions traces the history of this ancient civilization in the Crimea.

There are many centres of ancient settlements in the Crimea. The city of Kerch is the oldest of them, with the estimated age of 26 centuries. Here, on the western shores of the Bospor Cimmerian Strait (now Kerch Strait), the Ionians from the ancient Greek city of Miletus (now in Turky) established their settlement Panticapaeum in the 7th century BC. In the course of time this initially trading outpost became the largest city in the east of the Crimean peninsula. With the foundation of Panticapaeum the Greeks started their colonization of the Crimea. Panticapaeum had united all the Greek colonies in the Kerch peninsula by 480 BC and remained the capital of the powerful Bosporan Kingdom situated on the both banks of the Starait for 900 years. In the beginning of the 2nd century BC the Kingdom started decaying and the King Perisad decided to pass the power to Pontius Mitridat VI Evpator. He paid a high price for that: he was assassinated by the Panticapaeumians in 107 BC and the Scythian king Savmaka was proclaimed the ruler of the kingdom. In anger Mitridat sent his army and fleet headed by the commander Diofantom to punish the rebels. After the defeat the Bosporan Kingdom became part of Pontiysky Kingdom. And after Mitridat's death it fell under the rule of Rome. It ceased to exist as well as other cities after the invasion of the Huns in the 4th century BC.

Today the ruins of the ancient Panticapaeum, towns of Nimfeya, Mirmikeya, Tiritaki and Portifeya, a stone vault of the Greek goddess Demeter, a king's grave mound (4th century BC), famous Kul-Oba, Golden and Melek-Chesmensky barrows are part of the Kerch Historical-Archaeological Museum, one of the oldest museums of its kind in Ukraine.

Other Greek colonies founded in the Crimea in 5th-4th centuries BC also have glorious history: Feodosiya (the God-given), Tira (the town of Sudak), Kerkintida (Evpatoria).

Travel agency Lybid'-Kyiv invites you for a fascinating tour round the south of Ukraine to learn about its invaluable monuments, works of art that came to us from the Scythian and Greek civilizations.
 

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