Stones from Ritual Vessels Found in Scythian Graves on the Left Bank of the Lower Dniester River

Abstract

The paper deals with 221 burnt stones from the Scythian graves found on the left bank of the Lower Dniester dated to the 5th—2nd centuries BC. All of them, if it was fixed, come from wooden or handmade ritual vessels. Stones of approximately the same size and without traces of processing were used as heating elements. In all cases, traces of burning were recorded — soot spots and characteristic fracturing. Petrological thin sections showed the mineral composition of the rocks and their structural and textural features. These are, as a rule, sandstones and, much less often, other rocks (carbonate, igneous and metamorphic). The vast majority of stones are of local origin, and only a few are imported. At present, it is obvious that the tradition of fumigating graves among the Scythians of the North-West Black Sea region appeared no later than the 5th century BC. Initially, wooden vessels served as containers for red-hot pebbles and organic balms. Starting from the 3rd century BC as vessels for the same pebbles, handmade incense cups began to be used, widely known not only in the cemeteries of the 3rd—2nd centuries BC near the Glinoe Village and in other sites of the Dniester region, but also in a number of other Scythian sites, situated westwards (Dobruja, Lower Danube region) and eastwards (Bug, Dnieper, Crimea, Azov and Don regions). Keywords: Scythians, graves, 5th—2nd centuries BC, left bank of the Lower Dniester, wooden and handmade ritual vessels, petrography, rocks