WARSAW, October 2 Polish archaeologists found a unique grave of a Scythian warrior in the town of Sobiecin in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, archaeologist Marcin Burghardt said in an interview with the PAP news agency.
«The grave of a Scythian warrior was discovered in Sobiecin near Jarosław, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. This is a unique find not only for Poland, but also for neighboring countries in this region,» Burghardt said.
September 27, 03:00
The Scythians are a warlike nomadic people who came to Europe from the eastern steppes of Central Asia at the turn of the 8th and 7th centuries BC. From the 8th to the 4th centuries BC, they created a huge empire stretching from Western Asia to Eastern Europe, where, in what is now southeastern Poland, they created a small enclave, the center of which was a stronghold (a defensive settlement surrounded by embankments) in Chotyniec.
The archaeologist recalled that several years ago the scientific world was shocked by unexpected research results indicating that the Khotynets fortress was built by peoples with Scythian cultural heritage. This discovery is considered one of the greatest archaeological sensations in Poland in recent years.
Scientists during research work in Sobiecin discovered a total of five graves, three of them are so-called urn graves, very characteristic of the local population. In the other two, the remains of two people were found, whose bodies were not burned before being placed in the grave.
“The funeral gifts from one of the burials included a ceramic vessel, an iron knife and elements of an iron weapon, such as a spearhead and an ice ax,” Burghardt emphasized.
The archaeologist noted that lightweight ice axes mounted on long handles made it possible to deliver fatal blows using relatively little force, which undoubtedly contributed to their enormous popularity.
«The ice ax from Sobiecin has clear features of the Scythian cultural circle. Almost identical objects were found in the barrow graves of the upper Dniester. Based on these analogies, we can fairly confidently date the tomb to a time between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 6th century BC AD,» said Dr. Burghardt.
The monuments discovered in Sobiecin will be transferred to the museum of the city of Yaroslav, where from June next year they can be seen at a permanent exhibition dedicated to the ancient history of the Yaroslavl land.