EARLY SARMATIAN BURIALS FROM THE BARROW NEAR NOVE MAZHAROVE VILLAGE AT THE ORIL RIVER BASIN

Abstract

Two closed archaeological assemblages of the Early Sarmatian inserted graves are published in the paper. The results of the excavation of the Forest-Steppe Preventive Archaeological Expedition of Kharkiv State University headed by Serhiy Berestnev, which carried out the research in the area of construction of irrigation systems near the village of Nove Mazharove in the Kharkiv region, are presented. The barrow group is located on the first floodplain terrace of the right bank of the Oril River and, at the time of the research, consisted of 8 mounds. Barrow 1 was erected during the Bronze Age. The primary grave of the Yamna cultural-historical community, inserted graves of the Zrubna cultural-historical community and also two Early Sarmatian burials were discovered under the barrow mound. To date, only 10 assemblages are known in the basins of the Oril and Samara rivers that can be reliably attributed to the Early Sarmatian period. Thus, the publication of two more burials complements and expands our knowledge about the initial stage of the Sarmatian penetration of the Northern Pontic region. Both graves from the Nove Mazharove barrow group were made in narrow pits with a meridian orientation; the skeletons laid supine, with their heads directed to the northern sector. In the first burial, the fibula of the Zarubintsy-type with traces of repair was discovered, the fragment of a bronze mirror, and small fragments of hand-made pottery were found near the head. From the second grave the hand-made jug, decorated with a frieze of carved ornaments on the shoulders, the clay spindle whorl, bronze earrings, a glass pendant and beads that were found in the area of the chest and legs of the skeleton. The excavated burials were female and can be dated within the chronological frames of the second half of the 2nd—1st centuries BC. They are part of the massif of Early Sarmatian sites, localized on the border of the steppe and forest-steppe natural zones in a large territory from the Dnieper to the Volga.