A treasure of two thousand years ago and a burial of the 6th century BC were found near the village of Nikolskoye.
In the Astrakhan region, near the village of Nikolskoye, archaeologists discovered a royal burial mound, and in it several burials of the 6th century BC, presumably belonging to representatives of the Sarmatian nobility. Among the unique finds are Sarmatian gold jewelry with turquoise inserts.
Astrakhan. Excavations. Unique finds - belt tip. Gold, turquoise.
These are the unique gold items found in the burial mound. Photo of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve. These are the unique gold items found in the burial mound. Photo of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve.
These excavations began with the accidental find of a local farmer. A man, digging a hole near the house for household needs, found a small green object.
The bronze pot was accidentally discovered by a local farmer during construction work. Photo of the administration of the Astrakhan region.
- He got caught in a bulldozer bucket. We stopped work. They cleared the earth and realized that it was a bronze cauldron. We decided to transfer it to the museum, - says the villager Rustam Mudaev.
The archaeologists went to the site, and already from the first excavations they realized that they had stumbled upon the royal mound. Topographic maps indicate this mound as "Praying Sands", and was originally dated to the Early Iron Age (IV century BC - IV century AD). But then a sensational burial was opened.
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The burial probably belongs to a representative of the Sarmatian nobility, since they found decayed cloth with gold stripes in the grave. Photo of the administration of the Astrakhan region.
- It is interesting with funeral implements, - explained Georgy Stukalov, an employee of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve. - The body was in a closed wooden coffin, on its lid lay the head of a horse in a horse harness made of silver stripes and bronze phales. These items indicate that this nomad was a rather significant person, since ordinary people were buried much easier.
The nomad was clearly from the Sarmatian nobility, this is evidenced by a rich burial. Photo of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve.
Further excavations revealed several more surprising discoveries. So, archaeologists stumbled upon a small pot that belonged to the Bronze Age. We dug deeper and it turned out that the mound has a double embankment.
“The mound itself was created in the Bronze Age, and then in the Early Iron Age a burial was made in it and an additional embankment was made on top,” archaeologists say.
For 12 days of work, an area of 750 square meters has already been excavated and already 9 burials have been found, with a general dating from the Bronze Age (3 thousand BC) to the era of the early Middle Ages (6th century AD). Among the finds are household items, weapons and gold jewelry with turquoise inserts.
Unique jewelry will be donated to the Astrakhan Museum. Photo of the administration of the Astrakhan region.
Archaeologists will work on the mound for another week. Presumably, the royal mound in Nikolskoye was created in the third millennium BC, so, perhaps, new discoveries are still ahead.
The head of the region, Sergey Morozov, has already instructed to check that the values remain in the region and replenish the collection of the Astrakhan State Museum-Reserve. In addition, the issue of including the research results in the federal target program "Culture of Russia" is being addressed now: security and rescue operations and scientific study of objects.
For 12 days of work, archaeologists have found three graves with grave goods. Photo of the Astrakhan Museum-Reserve.
By the way, this is not the first such find in the Astrakhan region. Similar burials were found here 30 years ago near the village of Kosika (not far from the village of Nikolskoye). It was there that they found the grave of the Sarmatian king, whose things made up a unique collection of the Astrakhan State Museum-Reserve "Gold of the Sarmatians". Now, thanks to a new discovery, this collection can be replenished.
REFERENCE
The Sarmatians are nomadic tribes who inhabited the steppes of present-day Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the 5-3 century BC. Then there was no written language, so all knowledge about them is drawn precisely from archaeological finds. Therefore, each such discovery is of great importance for the study of our history.
NATALIA GLAZUNOVA