Archaeologists found the burial of Scythian Amazon with a head dress on Don
NEWS RELEASE 25-DEC-2019
AKSON RUSSIAN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION
CAPTION
The burial of the Amazon with a head dress made of precious metal dated back to the second half of the 4th c BC was found by the staff of the Don expedition of IA RAS during the examination of the cemetery Devitsa V of Voronezh Oblast. This is the first found in Middle Don river and well preserved ceremonial headdress of a rich Scythian women, earlier archaeologists found only fragments of such head dresses.
Valerii Guliaev, the head of Don expedition, announced the first results of the examination on the 6th of December at the session of Academic Council of IA RAS.
"Such head dresses have been found a bit more than two dozen and they all were in 'tzar' or not very rich barrows of the steppe zone of Scythia. We first found such head dress in the barrows of the forest steppe zone and what is more interesting the head dress was first found in the burial of an Amazon", says Valerii Guliaev.
Cemetery Devitsa V which was called so after the name of the local village has been known since 2000s. It consists of 19 mounds part of which is almost hidden as this region is an agricultural zone which is currently plowed. Since 2010 the site has been studied by the specialists of the Don expedition of IA RAS.
By the time of the excavation works the barrow ¹ 9 of the cemetery Devitsa V was a small hill of 1 m height and 40 m in diameter. Under the center of the mound the archaeologists found the remains of the tomb where the narrow entrance-dromos from the eastern side led to. In ancient times the tomb was covered by oak blocks which were laid crisscross and rested on 11 strong oak piles. The grave pit was surrounded by the clay earthwork taken from the ground during the construction of the grave.
More:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/arsc-aft122519.php