COULD KING ATEAS HAVE BEEN BURIED IN CHORTOMLYK BARROW?

Abstract

The authors’ new approach to the burial complex of the Chortomlyk barrow as the tomb of King Ateas is presented in the paper. He was the most famous Scythian king who appeared on the pages of history as «long-lived» and as an opponent of King Philip II of Macedonia. Since we know the date of the Macedonian battle with the Scythians and the death of King Ateas, the balanced correlation of narrative sources with archaeological sources allows us to obtain a chronological reference point and opens the way for ordering the barrows of the elite of the 4^th century BC.

Since King Ateas lived for almost 90 years, there was a long pause between the construction of the largest barrows of Scythia. Our key argument, made almost three decades ago, refers to this point. It is based on the fact that there is a significant chronological distance between the second grave (1913) of the Solokha barrow and the older of the two subsequent barrows of the kings, Chortomlyk and Oguz. In other words, King Ateas should be buried in the barrow that was built earlier.

The second argument is related to a silver cup with graffiti scratched on the bottom with the probable name of Ateas. The cup was found in the so-called Northern Tomb of Chortomlyk, discovered in 1985. This is the main entrance pit of the central burial complex. The paper provides several pieces of evidence in favor of the simultaneity of all Chortomlyk’s structures.

On the satellite image, two parallel light stripes can be seen to the east of the barrow. These are likely traces of trenches that formed a type of alley. To the east of the Chortomlyk mound, this alley leaned into a smaller barrow 1.5 km further away. Dovha Mohyla stood 25.5 m southwest of Chortomlyk, it was almost 7.4 m high. In other words, Chortomlyk’s mound was built near a probable sanctuary at the top of the Long Grave, so earlier Scythian barrows were concentrated here. Ilia Zabelin quoted a local farmers’ recollection that in ancient times a path from Chortomlyk was visible, pointing eastward. It was almost a kilometer long and marked with stones laid in several rows. The constructors of Chortomlyk fit it into the space near the sanctuary and reinforced it with a ceremonial path decorated with stones. In this way, the main axis of the building, oriented from west to east, was even more emphasized, and the following were placed there: a horse on the burial path, the graves of 11 horses and two grooms with them, the central entrance pit, and the guard’s burial under the eastern hollow.

The chamber of the Northern Tomb also fit into the general scheme of Chortomlyk. Actually, it was the main entrance pit. Unfortunately, the authors of the latest excavations of Chortomlyk did not give due importance to this observation. Although the diary of V. Murzin and R. Rolle notes that at a depth of 2 m near the southern wall of the Northern Tomb a stone plate was found, behind which part of the wall with traces of excavation tools was preserved. A similar situation was noted in Oguz. Using W. Hertz’s module, which captured the patterns in the proportions of Chortomlyk’s underground structures, we measure the distance between the southern wall and the northern edge of chamber V. This means that the length of the dromos is seven modules. Thus, this figure is not accidental — it is half the distance between the mine of the Central Tomb and the horse tombs. It is hard to believe that the robbers guessed the system of proportions of the kurhan’s constructors. Then we have to agree that the traces of tools on the wall were left by the builders of Chortomlyk. Accordingly, we can confidently speak of the second or main entrance pit, which was arranged behind the outer slope of the original kurhan’s rampart.

If we continue to consider the long dromos as the robbers’ move, the question remains unanswered: how did the robbers so accurately get into the middle of the end wall of the entrance pit and into the middle part of the northern wall and the vault of Chamber V?

Part of the system «entrance pit — chamber V» were two large cauldrons under the northern wall near the exit from the chamber and one cauldron at the beginning of the dromos in the entrance pit. The cauldrons were not only meant to provide the main deceased and his escort with food in the afterlife, but also act as social markers. In addition, they symbolized the blocking of the exit / entrance to the world of the dead. It is therefore no coincidence that the largest cauldron was damaged. In the mythology and folklore of the peoples of North Asia, such deformed large vessels usually close the entrance to the afterlife. A selection of cauldrons located at the entrances to chambers or in the dromos of other barrows confirms this observation. Besides, the cauldrons seem rather archaic, which, together with other artifacts (including the hilt of an Achaemenid sword), suggests that the main deceased of Chortomlyk was an elderly man.

The determination of the chronological positions of Chortomlyk and Oguz is influenced by the composition of jewelry. The early Chortomlyk complex does not yet contain gold micro-sculptures from the workshop of the South Italian craftsmen from Chersonesus, while they are already present in Oguz.

The scale of the funerary structure, the number of dependent dead and sacrificial animals, the nature of the luxurious material accompaniment, including its asynchrony, allow us to consider this monument to be the tomb of the most powerful king of Scythia. We recognize him as Ateas.