DACHI — THE GREAT MIGRATION PERIOD ASSEMBLAGE FROM KHERSON REGION

Abstract

In 2006—2007 during the digging of the ditch at the barrow near cottage zone Dachi the burial was destroyed. The artifacts were transferred to the Kherson Museum of Local Lore. The Dachi assemblage included amber and jet beads, three silver belt and shoe buckles, and a hand-made biconical spindle whorl. The bones of the skeleton were not transferred to the museum. In 2022 the museum was robbed by Russian troops. The Dachi assemblage along with the documentation was also stolen. Only the descriptions of the items made by Maryna Abikulova in 2012—2013 survived. Large and small beads made of amber pebbles and similar items have been found in the Greek and Roman cities of the North Pontic Region of the 1st—4th centuries AD. Beads of these types were also typical for barbarian sites of this period. Similar beads were found in the Late Scythian necropolises of Chervony Mayak, Opushki, and Velyka Dmytriyevka. Elongated amber beads were found in burials of the 1st century BC —4th century AD. A similar bead was found in the burial 30 of the eastern necropolis of Phanagoria, dated to the first quarter of the 5th century. Prismatic amber beads were found in the burial of Crimean necropolis Sovkhoz 10 where they were dated to the second half of the 1st — beginning of the 2nd century AD. In Kosanovo the bead of this type was found in the burial of phases 3—4 according to Yevgen Gorokhovsky. In Central Europe, similar beads are attributed to the phase D of Late Roman Age. Disc-shaped amber beads have a wide range, in the North Pontic Region they date to the 2nd—4th centuries AD, in Central Europe they date to the period B1—D, analogies are also known in Alan sites of the North Caucasus. Similar beads were found in catacomb 10 of burial ground 2 near Lermontovskaya Skala, and dated to the late 4th — early 5th century. Large disc-shaped amber beads are common in European Great Migration Period sites of the 5th and first half of the 6th centuries but they are occasionally found and existed until the beginning of the 7th century. The analogies to beads number 10, 11, 13—18, 20, 25, 26, 31 were found together with a heraldic-style buckle with hollow ring and a shield in the shape of a fish tail in the burial cache 5.1949 of Pashkovsky burial ground 1. The assemblage was dated to 530—600. The buckles were typical of the Untersiebenbrunn horizon graves. They were popular in the large area from the Volga to the Iberian Peninsula. Buckles similar in design and decoration were found in burials of the Hun period of Bilyaus, Ust-Alma necropolises and crypt 88 of necropolis Luchiste. Buckles of these types were dated by Oleksiy Komar to phase C 2 (420—445 AD), and by Yaroslav Teyral to period D2 (380/400—440/450 AD). The spindle whorl from Dachi could be attributed to type B 211 according to the typology of Borys Magomedov, this type was also described as «asymmetric biconical spindle whorls», their origin can be associated with the Sarmatians. The Dachi burial most likely belonged to a woman. According to similar finds, it can be dated between 425 and 445 or to the second quarter of the 5th century. Although this was the period of Hun domination on these territories, the presence of a spindle whorl in the burial may indicate a different ethnic origin of the buried woman. Silver belt and footwear buckles as well as a rich necklace of semiprecious stones indicate the wealthy status of the woman.