In 1997, on the banks of the Mzymta River, not far from Krasnaya Polyana, a resident of the village of Kazachiy Brod, "black archaeologist" Andrei Chamkin, made a sensational find. He discovered the burial place of a Greek warrior, later dated to the 5th century BC.
Naturally, Andrei could not even approximately imagine the true value of the find. He began to sell small parts of ammunition on the market, and soon operatives came to him. The treasure hunter with 22 items that remained with him was detained, and during the investigation four more items were seized from the residents of the village and the city of Sochi.
The story received a resounding response in the press, Chamkin became the "hero of the day", but soon he shot himself with a hunting rifle in his barn. After a while, under similar circumstances, his sister died (she was also found with a bullet wound incompatible with life), and a year later her mother "burned out" - the woman could not survive the death of her children and simply drank herself.
Mzymta river
The journalists picked up the story of the "curse of the Mzymta treasure" - it was, of course, more interesting than the unsightly truth of life. Andrei's sister, according to acquaintances, made friends with local bandits, so it is quite possible that the death of her and her brother is the result of such "friendship."
Probably, the local "brothers", having learned the approximate value of the treasure (it was said that it was worth more than a million dollars, although it is impossible to financially assess the things made 500 years before the birth of Christ), tried to find out whether Andrei had given all the relics to the state. But this is just speculation.
Before his suicide, A. Chamkin managed to bring V. Semyonov, a specialist from the Department of Foreign Art of the Institute of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, to the place of the find. Here is an excerpt from his report:
The monument is located on a small ledge twenty meters below the top of the mountain. On the earthen foundation, there was a platform of boulders, the gaps between which were filled with a binder mortar. The platform was destroyed by "black" treasure hunters. They dug the soil down to the rocky base. The monument was totally destroyed.
Promotional video:
Sarmatian weapons were found in the Mzymta complex. The most interesting and valuable part of this treasure is silver items: phials, falars, cast handles from the bowls, a piece of decoration - a round plate. All items were badly damaged and deformed.
In 2004, the Hermitage's Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Applied Art under the direction of A. I. Bantikov restored part of the treasure, which was determined by the Geniochian time and dated to the 1st century BC. The restoration of 26 items took 16 thousand dollars, a quarter of this amount was allocated by the Greek side.
Decorated with luxurious relief decoration, the phials are distinguished by a high artistic level of execution and a pronounced individuality. A bowl with acanthus leaves and water lilies in its decor obeys a strict author's intention: in the center of the bottom of the bowl is a lotus flower, from which alternating jagged and smooth leaves grow. The stems of flowering plants twine between them, intertwining in flexible patterns.
Silver phial, chasing
Clear symmetry is broken by images of birds, lizards and insects fluttering or singing among flowers. Among them, you can see a butterfly - a symbol of awakening nature, traditionally associated with the goddess Persephone, and a cicada, which was dedicated to Apollo and the muses among the Greeks.
A more laconic floral ornament adorns the second bowl. Its design consists of a vine encircling the top of the vessel and leaves hanging from it. There was no tray for this bowl. Apparently, the bowl had a handle, possibly one of those found in the same Mzymta complex.
Silver bowl. Embossing, silver-on-silver applique
The most elegant of the three Mzymtim bowls-phials is a bowl with female figures and erotics. The rather high relief of the decor creates a rich play of light on the surface of the vessel. One gets the impression that the unknown master strove as far as possible to get away from dry ornamentation and create a picturesque, maximally free rhythmically complicated image.
The protruding female figures on the vessel do not repeat each other. Among the fancifully wriggling plants on opposite sides of the bowl, small Cupids are hiding: one has a dog near his feet, the other has a horn or rhyton in his hand.
Silver two-handed bowl. Embossing, silver-on-silver applique
Of great interest are silver falars - round plaques that decorated a horse's harness. In the era of the Roman Empire, falars were signs of military distinction, they were awarded not only to individual soldiers, but also to entire military units.
Falar with the image of Scylla
Falar with the image of Scylla corresponds to the style of late Hellenism. In the center of the plot - Scylla, killing sailors, was once transformed by Circe from a beautiful nymph into a monster with dog heads instead of legs. The relief fills almost the entire field of the falar, highlighted by the beautiful female torso in the center. Rounded plastic forms ideally fit into the format of the product.
The swords, hidden together with silver on Mzymta, are made according to the Sarmatian model: round tops of the handles, the blade length is more than 70 centimeters, in contrast to the short Scythian akinaks. In addition to items of military equipment, including a helmet with hinged cheek pads, as worn by Roman legionnaires, a rounded cauldron for cooking was found during excavations.
Currently, the Sochi Art Museum has a permanent exhibition of the type of open storage "Mzymtinsky treasure". Armors under special security conditions are shown to visitors only upon request. No one, even the curator of the museum, has the right to enter the hall where the treasure is displayed alone.