Today we will talk about the most high-profile archaeological finds of 2019 in Russia.
Scythian warriors
The archaeological sensation of the year, according to a press release published on the website of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is a mysterious burial of 4 Amazons found near Voronezh in a burial mound.
In the mound were buried: a 50-year-old woman, 2 young women and one teenage girl. 50 years is quite an impressive age for the Scythian time, because the average life expectancy of a woman, according to official science, was 35 years. The burial dates back to the second half of the 6th century BC.
Why warriors? A large number of weapons were found in the mound, which belonged to these women. It is believed that all women were from different generations, but from the same family. This find conclusively proves that women fought on a par with men.
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The oldest settlement in the Kremlin
In the large Kremlin park there is a stone foundation of the building of new orders of the 17th century, built under Fyodor Alekseevich. This building revealed to archaeologists the unique details of the life of Russia at that time. Archaeologists have found traces of wooden paving, red tiles with battle scenes, fantastic animals and a heraldic eagle.
The amazing thing is that on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin, even before the arrival of the Slavs, there was a Dyakov settlement. This people, up to the 5th century AD, belonged to the most ancient finds in the large Kremlin square.
Golden solidus of Justinin I
The coin itself dates from the time of Justinian's reign. That is, 527 - 565 AD. The find allowed scientists to pinpoint the age of the winery found in Phanagoria.
The winery itself perished in a fire in the 6th century, but the special significance of the find is that scientists found fragments of a marble countertop and a font from the 5th-6th centuries on its territory. That is, the baptismal font remained from the most ancient Christian church in Russia.
Sarcophagi
Russian scientists in Novgorod were also lucky. According to the already familiar birch bark letters, for the first time they found 6 stone pre-Mongol sarcophagi of the late 12th century. There is a whole series of tombs belonging to the elite of Novgorod near the St. George Cathedral of the Yuryev Monastery, which is definitely a rarity.
The slab above the sarcophagus weighs about one and a half tons. The structure itself was affordable only for the most noble families; their covers were made in the form of steps, along which they climbed to the entrance to the temple.
Magic wand
Archaeologists have made amazing discoveries near Bryansk. Scientists have been working at this 23,000-year-old Paleolithic sanctuary since 2005. At first, they came across mysterious artifacts, which were sometimes sprinkled on top with the bones of a mammoth, and only during the excavations in 2019 the picture finally became clear.
Scientists have found that the pits are located in a circle, and in the center are the bones of a mammoth with a fireplace. The most mysterious find in this sanctuary is an unusual item.
This has not been found before in any Stone Age site. This kind of magic wand of the Paleolithic was used for ritual or magical purposes.