Scythian Barrows 2 and 3 from the «Garden» Group in the Lower Dniester Region

Abstract. The article deals with publishing and analyzing the materials obtained during the excavation of the barrows 2 and 3 from the “Garden” group near Glinoe village Slobodzeya district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. Annular recesses used to extract soil during the construction of mounds were recorded in the barrows 3”A” and 3”B”. They are rarely recorded not only in the Dniester region, but also in the Northern Black Sea region. Two handmade cups from the burial 2/2 show the Thracian influence on the Scythian ceramic complex. The clamshell of the Cypraea genus from the same complex is an extremely rare find in the Scythian burials of the North-Western Black Sea region. Two bracelets made of beads from the burial 3/4 indicate the chronological proximity of the barrows from the “Garden” group and the earliest complexes of the Scythian cemetery of the 3rd – 2nd cc. BC near Glinoe village. Based on bronze three-bladed arrowheads and a fragment of the Sinope amphora, the date of the presented barrows is determined by the last third of the 4th c. BC. These mounds, as well as neighboring ones in this and other cemeteries, demonstrate that the Scythian steppe culture in the Dniester region has been developed continuously throughout the 4th – 2nd cc. BC.

Keywords: Scythians, barrows, burials, left bank of the Lower Dniester region, the last third of the 4th century BC.