About 2,500 years old scythian burial with warrior discovered on Khortytsia – archeologists
Archaeologists have found an ancient burial of a Scythian military leader buried more than 2,500 years ago on Khortytsia Island in Zaporizhia region, archaeologists have said.
Director General of the Khortytsia National Reserve Maksym Ostapenko told Interfax-Ukraine that the burial place of the eminent Scythian warrior found by local archaeologists on Khortytsia is located next to a busy highway.
He said burial is dated to 4 BC. Due to the peculiarities of the Khortytsia soil, the remains of the ancient warrior are well preserved. Thanks to this, Ukrainian scientists have a unique opportunity to create a reconstruction of the appearance of the Scythian, as well as to conduct a genetic examination, which will allow them to learn more about the origin of the Scythian tribes and establish their family ties with modern Ukrainians and other peoples.
Ostapenko noted that the Scythian tribes lived on the territory of Ukraine for about half a thousand years - from the 7th to the 2nd century BC. One of the settlements was located on Khortytsia, where it controlled the strategic crossing of the Dnipro rapids.
"They lived in settlements and controlled these crossings, which were needed by the ancient Scythian nomads who moved across the steppes from Altai to the territory of modern Hungary, as well as other tribes. The south of modern Ukraine - from the Don to the Danube was the territory of the so-called Great Scythia," Ostapenko said.
As the archaeologist of the Khortytsia National Reserve Dmytro Nykonenko said, who discovered this burial site, told the agency that the Scythian warrior was a hero. He was more than 180 cm tall, and his age is about 40 years. The warrior's hand rests on a quiver filled with bronze arrows.
The things found next to his remains, as well as the huge stones with which the burial was laid, suggest that his relatives buried him with military honors.
"Judging by the cost of this burial, the depth of the catacomb, then a stone - it had to be carried here from the banks of the Dnipro river. And stones weigh up to 200 kilograms. To build such a burial, people tried very hard. This suggests that the warrior was not an ordinary one," noted Nykonenko.
The excavation of the ancient burial continues at Khortytsia.