Members of the Don expedition of the Russian Archaeological Institute have found a unique plaque with a depiction of winged Scythian gods around griffins during their examinations of the Devitsa V tomb site in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh region. This is the first case of this type of finding in the Scythian burial mounds of the Middle Don, since objects with representations of gods from the Scythian pantheon had never been found.
The find has made an important contribution to our concepts of Scythian beliefs. First of all, a certain number of gods are represented at the same time in an object. Second, never before has an object with gods depicted been found so far northeast of the main Scythian centers said the head of the Don expedition, doctor of historical sciences Valeriy Gulyaev.
The Devitsa V burial mound site, named after the neighboring village, was found in 2000 by the Don archaeological expedition of the Russian Archaeological Institute. The site is situated on the hill on the right bank of the Devitsa River and is a group of 19 burial mounds that are situated in two parallel chains running from west to east. However, the significant part of the ancient burial mounds has already disappeared:the necropolis area belongs to an agricultural sector and is actively being plowed.
Since 2010 the site has been systematically studied by the specialists of the Don expedition. During the excavations some great discoveries have already been made. Thus, in 2019, in mound 9, the burial was found that contained the remains of a woman-warrior and an old woman with a feminine ceremonial dress.
In the 2021 field season, the Don's archaeological expedition continued to examine the necropolis. Archaeologists started excavation work on mound 7 in the central part of the Devitsa V site. Mound 7 was probably one of the largest in this necropolis and was 1.3 meters high and 40 meters in diameter. The main tomb referred to the Scythian era and dated to the 4th century AD. it was located almost under the center of the tumulus and was a wooden tomb of 7.5×5 meters. In ancient times it was covered with half oak beams that were supported by the seventeen great oak pillars of the tombs. Today it is the largest tomb of all those found in the Devitsa V necropolis.
Fragments of three horse harness items were found in the southeast corner of the tomb:horse bits, cheek pieces, waist buckles, iron headbands, Scythian iron, bronze and bone pendants. Archaeologists have also found six bronze wolf-shaped plates with jaws, two on each harness. Next to the horse harness there was a severed jaw of a young bear which testifies, according to scientists, to the bear cult in the Scythians of the Middle Don. In addition, a molded cup and a large black-glazed pitcher have been found in different parts of the tomb.
In the northeast part of the tomb, separated from other objects and a few meters from the skeleton, was a square silver plate nailed by many small silver nails to an almost missing wooden base. The length of the plate was 34.7 centimeters, and the width in the central part was 7.5 centimeters.
In the central part of the plate a winged figure is represented in front of a goddess of animal and human fertility, the goddess known as Argimpasa Cibeles, the Great Goddess. Her upper body is bare and there is probably a horned crown on her head. The goddess is surrounded on both sides with figures of winged eagle-headed griffins. Representations of this type, in which the traditions of Asia Minor and ancient Greece are mixed, have been found by archaeologists many times during the excavations of Scythian burial mounds in the North Sea region, the forest-steppe region of the Dnieper and the North Caucasus.
The left side of the plate is formed by two square plates decorated with representations of syncretic creatures standing in the so-called heraldic posture (facing each other, approaching each other with their paws). From the right side, two round buckles are fixed to the plate, each of which depicts an anthropomorphic character with a crown on his head standing surrounded by two griffins. However, who these characters are and what object was decorated by this plate remains an open question.
The burial mound was already looted in ancient times. The looters made a wide test pit and cleared the entire central part of the cemetery, including the skeleton of the main buried. However, at the time of looting the ceiling of the vault had already fallen and for this reason some grave goods have been preserved in the mixture of earth and remains of trees from the tombs. The found articles fully coincide with the main elements of the Scythian triad. In the tomb of a warrior were found elements of his equipment, such as harnesses.
In the grave was a skeleton of a man between 40 and 49 years old. Next to his head, the archaeologists found many small gold plates in the shape of a hemisphere that were embroidered on the clothes. Along with the skeleton were found an iron knife and a horse's rib (probably the remains of the ceremonial meal), a spearhead and three arrowheads. The scientists have been able to reconstruct the length of the weapon with great precision, counting on the fact that the counterweights of the lower part of the arm of the pole have remained intact. Thus, the spear was about 3.2 meters long, and the length of the points was about 2.2 meters.
A great deal of work remains to be done in the study and interpretation of such an unusual divine figure. However, the find is important not only as a unique element that broadens our knowledge about Scythian culture and its existence in the Middle Don region, but also shows how important a persistent and systematic search is, a precise work plan and orderly, a reliable method of excavations and a scrupulous routine work of a large number of people of different professions in the work of an archaeologist. All this very often leads to significant discoveries that are capable of making an important contribution to a long-established view of the past «, noted Valeriy Gulyaev.