Almost a century and a half ago Ivan Egorovich Zabelin, a Moscow
historian and archaeologist, the founder of the Historical Museum on the
Red Square, excavated a Scythian burial on the territory of General
Zeifart's estate, which lies on the right bank of the Dnepr, 30-35 km to
the north-west from Nikopol. At first the burial was called Tolstaya
Chertomlykskaya Mogila, then a shortened name -Chertomlyk - entered
into practice and the name "Tolstaya Mogila" was given to another burial,
excavated much later. In 1983 - 1986 a joint Soviet-German expedition
held further excavation of Chertomlyk. Many products of toreutics,
golden and silver among them, were found in Chertomlyk as in many
other Scythian burials of Prichernomorje. Some finds, belonging
according to the contract to the General's heiress, were lost, the other sent
by I.E.Zabelin to the Imperial Hermitage are in the famous Scythian
collection now.
Here one of the most famous and brilliant finds from the Chertomlyk
burial - a silver amphora - is shown. Specialists think that together with a
scoop and a silver basin it made a cult set of plates and dishes. The
amphora is undoubtedly Greek, dated to the middle of the IVth c. BC.
The main friezeconsists of depictions, placed in a circle and made in the
technique of high relief, is most convincingly interpret as a scene of a
horse sacrifice by Scythians, described by Herodotus. So, suppose the
work is Greek, then the amphora is made by the Scythian "order".
