The metal vessel was likely used as a funerary urn. It was found together with another vessel, shaped like a shell and used as a lid for the urn, in a landslide along the road within the Yahorlyk Nature Reserve, Dubăsari District. The village of Yahorlyk is located at the mouth of the stream of the same name, a left tributary of the Dniester River. The vessel belongs to the Hemmoo type (or Eggers 63) and is a rare find in the late ancient sites of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Researchers consider this type of vessel to be of Italic, Gallo-Italic, or Mediterranean origin, frequently used as a funerary urn or burial inventory by the Bastarnae. Upon discovery, the vessel was reportedly filled with "earth and burnt bones."
The vessel was found together with a brass sheet vessel that had undulated or fluted walls. It has a height of 14.9 cm (without the base ring). The diameter of the vessel's body is 19.5 cm, and the total height is 16.2 cm. The rim of the vessel flares outward with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The vessel is made from thin brass sheet, only 0.1 cm thick. The upper part of the vessel is modestly ornamented. The middle of the rim, on the exterior, has a shallow horizontal line incised. The transition from the rim to the body is marked by a wide groove, 0.3 cm in width. From this groove, the rim thickens to 0.25 cm. On the upper part of the rim, on two symmetrically placed sides, semicircular handles with stepped bases were cut out. The handles are 2.2 cm in height and 5.1 cm in width. Including the "steps" at the base, the handles are 6.1 cm wide. In the middle of each handle, a circular elongated hole was made for the attachment of a handle, measuring 1.2 x 1.5 cm.
The ornamentation on the upper part of the vessel's body consists of two bands, each formed by two parallel incised lines, spaced 0.2 to 0.4 cm apart. The interval between the two bands is 0.9 cm. The vessel's handle is semicircular, mobile, fairly thick, rectangular in cross-section (0.8 x 0.9 cm), and made from a rounded brass bar. The ends of the handle are thinned to 0.6 cm and widened to 0.9 cm over a length of 2.6 cm, resembling bird heads. On the median part of the bar, incised marks resembling Roman numerals IX and XI are present. The bottom of the vessel was made from a separate brass sheet, worked by pressing on a lathe. Evidence of this process is the indentation from the lathe's fixing rod, preserved in the central part of the vessel's bottom. Surrounding this indentation is an ornament consisting of two bands of concentric lines, with diameters of 1.8 cm and 5.9 cm, respectively. The lower part of the vessel is raised and rests on a ringed base, formed by shaping the vessel's walls and bending the piece that formed the actual bottom. This base has a diameter of 8.7 cm.
For the North-West Pontic and East-Carpathian regions, several scattered sites or points where fragments of metal vessels were discovered, used as funerary inventory or urns, should be mentioned. These include discoveries from the funerary complexes of flat necropolises dated to the first centuries AD, at Hansca-Lutăria II and Dănceni-Ialoveni. Here, excavations identified noble graves with fragments of bronze vessels with metal handles, similar to the vessel from Yahorlyk.
Сергей Разумов, Сергей Лысенко, Виталий Синика, Николай Тельнов
Early Bronze Age ritual complex from the left bank of the Lower Dniester
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. X [XXV], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Keywords: Early Bronze Age, Late Neolithic, funerary practice, Usatovo culture, Lower Dniester, dogs' burials.
Abstract: In 2015 the employees of the Pridnestrovian State University conducted rescue excavations of three barows from the group «Sad» near Glinoe Village, Slobodzeiya district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. In the barrow 4, in addition to the seven secondary Early Iron Age graves, the burial of a small child and related constructions were found: 11 round ritual pits with animal bones and a fireplace located on the ancient horizon in a certain order, surrounded by a ring ditch with two gaps. Two pits contained dogs' burials, and the one pit - a young specimen of small cattle. Funeral practice and inventory of the main burial and features of the under barrow constructions allow to attribute this monument to the earliest stage of Usatovo culture - to the time, when its carriers had active contacts with the population of the Yamna cultural-historical community. Barrow 4 of the group «Sad» near Glinoe village is preliminary dated to the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC. The interpretation of this barrow as a sanctuary of Early Bronze Age, probably associated with the ritual sacrifice of animals and humans, is the most reasonable.
List of illustrations: Fig. 1. Geographical and topographical location of the barrow cemetery "Sad" near Glinoe village. Fig. 2. Plan of the barrow 4 of the cemetery "Sad". Fig. 3. Profiles of baulks of the barrow 4 of the cemetery "Sad". Fig. 4. Objects of the Early Bronze Age from the barrow 4 of the cemetery "Sad": 1, 2 - plan and section of the object 15; 3 - flint flake from the object 15; 4 - fragment of the vessel from the object 15; 5 - object 4; 6 - object 5. Fig. 5. Objects of the Early Bronze Age from the barrow 4 of the cemetery "Sad": 1 - object 1; 2 - object 2. Fig. 6. Objects of the Early Bronze Age from the barrow 4 of the cemetery "Sad": 1 - object 7; 2 - object 8; 3 - object 10; 4 - object 19; 5 - object 9; 6 - object 12; 7 - object 14. Fig. 7. Plan of the barrow 6 near Nikol'skoe village, Slobodzeja district on the left bank of the Lower Dniester (after Агульников, Сава 2004, рис. 22).
Виталий Синика, Николай Тельнов
Lamps in the funeral practice of the Scythians of the North Black Sea littoral
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică Chișinău, 2015
The metal vessel was likely used as a funerary urn. It was found together with another vessel, shaped like a shell and used as a lid for the urn, in a landslide along the road within the Yahorlyk Nature Reserve, Dubăsari District. The village of Yahorlyk is located at the mouth of the stream of the same name, a left tributary of the Dniester River...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The vessel was found together with a brass sheet vessel that had undulated or fluted walls. It has a height of 14.9 cm (without the base ring). The diameter of the vessel's body is 19.5 cm, and the total height is 16.2 cm. The rim of the vessel flares outward with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The vessel is made from thin brass sheet, only 0.1 cm thick. The upper part of the vessel is modestly ornamented. The middle of the rim, on the exterior, has a shallow horizontal line incised. The transition from the rim to the body is marked by a wide groove, 0.3 cm in width. From this groove, the rim thickens to 0.25 cm. On the upper part of the rim, on two symmetrically placed sides, semicircular handles with stepped bases were cut out. The handles are 2.2 cm in height and 5.1 cm in width. Including the "steps" at the base, the handles are 6.1 cm wide. In the middle of each handle, a circular elongated hole was made for the attachment of a handle, measuring 1.2 x 1.5 cm.
31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
