SCYTHIAN BARROW 12 OF THE «SLUICEWAY» GROUP IN THE LOWER DNIESTER

The article publishes and analyzes the materials obtained in the study of the barrow 12 of the «Sluiceway» («Vodovod») group near the Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. The grave in a catacomb of the type I (undercut) was the main under the mound, and three other in the pits were secondary. A similar situation is extremely rarely recorded in the North-West Black Sea region. The construction of round cult pits accompanying the main burial is also noteworthy. The handmade pot with a beak from the children’s burial indicates the manufacture of special dishes designed for dispensing food during feeding. The finding of the miniature bracelet with a plate receiver in the burial of a child, apparently, indicates the Thracian influence on the material culture of the Scythians of the North-West Black Sea Region, at least from the second half of the 4th century BC. It was at this time that the published mound was built and graves were made under its mound. Materials from the barrow Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 12 and other, later, Scythian burials on the left bank of the Lower Dniester demonstrate that the Scythian culture of the North-West Black Sea region continues to maintain its originality not only in the second half of the 4th century BC, but also in the next two centuries.

rows of the Volovarskata Mogila cemetery 2 , two burials of the Katlabukh cemetery 3 on the left bank of the Lower Danube; two graves in the barrow near the Purkary village 4 on the right bank of the Lower Dniester; seven Scythian burials in four mounds near the Crihana-Veche 5 village on the left bank of the Lower Prut.
More than 250 Scythian burials were investigated on the left bank of the Dniester during the same period 6 . Despite this, the introduction into the scientific circulation of new materials from the Dniester region seems relevant, since it is important for studying the history of the Scythian culture of the entire North Black Sea region.
This paper for the first time publishes and analyzes materials obtained in 2018 during the study of the Scythian barrow 12 of the «Sluiceway» («Vodovod») group. The site was located 3 km to the north-north-east from the northern extremity of the Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester, on a high plateau, located on the right bank of the river Krasnaya. The description of this mound, of the Scythian graves investigated in it, as well as the accompanying equipment is below.
Barrow 12 was excavated in parallel trenches using earthmoving machine. Two baulks were made along the north -south line, 0.6 m wide and 20 m long ( Fig. 1, 1).
The mound was almost completely destroyed by plowing. Its height from the present surface was about 0.15 m, diameter about 12 m at the time of the study. Four Scythian graves and four ritual pits were found in the mound.
A rectangular-shaped pit 1.1×0.6 m in size and 1.2 m deep from R0 was oriented along the west-south-west -east-north-east line. The skull, fragments of the femur, left ulna and left radius of a child aged 18 months 7 were found at the bottom of the pit. Obviously, the buried was lying stretched on his back with his head on the west-south-west.
2. The necklace consisted of 18 glass beads: -transversely compressed «ocular» bead of blue translucent glass. «Eyes» are white with blue «pupils». Bead height is11 mm, diameter is up to 7 mm. The diameter of the hole is 5 mm (Fig. 1, 5); -17 transversely compressed beads of yellowish-white opaque glass. The height of the beads is 2-4.5 mm, the diameter is 5-6 mm. The diameter of the holes is 2.5-3.5 mm (Fig. 1, 6).
The pit of a rectangular shape with dimensions of 1.05×0.6 m and the depth of 1.2 m from R0 was oriented along the line west -east. Animal and human bones, grave goods, traces of mat were not found. The burial was a children's cenotaph.
Composition and location of the inventory. The handmade pot (1) and the cup (2) stood at the bottom in the north-western part of the pit. A fragment of the rim of another handmade pot was also found in the filling (3).
Description of the finds. 1. The handmade pot with a projected neck, a body with a maximum enlargement in the middle part and a distinguished tabular bottom. The rim is smoothly bent, with a rounded edge. A small beak is drawn from one edge of the rim. The bottom is flat, with margins highlighted by tucks; from the inside it is concave. Clay is with chamotte. The colour is grayish yellow, yellowish gray, gray, black. Black snuff is on the rim and shoulders. The surfaces are rough-smoothed, bumpy. The bottom is rough, with imprints of organic materials. The vessel is ornamented along the neck with a belt of vertical nail impressions; the body is decorated with vertical and slightly inclined grooves, occupying the entire space from the neck to the bottom (Fig. 2, 5). The height of the pot is 118-121 mm, the height of the lower part is 60-65 mm, the height of the rim is 16-20 mm. Height to the tip of the beak is 113 mm. Dimensions of the rim on the nose is 85 mm. Beak width is about 20 mm; it stands up to 3 mm. The diameter of the rim is 77×82 mm, the diameter of the neck is 68×72 mm, the diameter of the body is 97×98 mm, and the diameter of the bottom is 68.5×71.5 mm. Rim thickness is 6-7 mm; wall thickness is 5-6 mm, in the bottom part up to 10-11 mm. The bottom thickness in the center is 12 mm, at the wall up to 17 mm (Fig. 2, 6).
2. The handmade cup of truncated conical shape. The edge of the rim is thinned, flattened in places at an angle of about 30°. The bottom is flat, with a slightly narrowed paт; convex inside. Clay is with chamotte. The colour of the outer surface is grayish yellow, yellowish gray; inside it is yellowish-gray, orange; in rupture is black. The surfaces are smoothed, rough-smoothed, bumpy. The height of the vessel is 35-37 mm. Diameter of the rim is 84-88 mm, diameter of the bottom is 60 mm. The thickness of the rim is 7-9 mm, the thickness of the edge of the rim is 3-4 mm. The wall thickness is 6-7 mm. The thickness of the bottom in the center is 11 mm; at the walls is 9-10 mm (Fig. 2, 4).
3. The fragment of the rim of the handmade pot. Clay is with chamotte. Colour is gray, yellowish gray; in rupture is black. The surfaces are rough-smoothed, bumpy. The fragment dimensions are 19×25 mm. The reconstructed diameter of the rim is about 90 mm. The inner diameter of the neck is about 65 mm. The thickness of the rim is about 8.5 mm. The wall thickness is about 7 mm (Fig. 2, 3). Grave 3 (Scythian, secondary) was found 6 m to the north-east from R0. It was done in the pit (Fig. 2, 7, 8).
The rectangular pit 0.45×0.4 m in size and 1.06 m deep from R0 was oriented along the north-east -south-west line. Animal and human bones, grave goods, traces of mat were not found. The burial was a children's cenotaph.
The rectangular entrance pit with dimensions at the fixation level (-0.77 m from R0) of 1.9×0.8 m with a long axis was oriented along the north-west -south-east line. Two steps were traced along the south-western wall. The first step, 1.4 m long and 0.2 m wide, was located at a depth of 1.45 m from R0, and the second step (1.9 m long and up to 0.4 m wide) was at a depth of 1.92 m from R0. The entrance to the chamber was arranged in the north wall of the entrance pit.
The funeral chamber in the form of an irregular trapezoid with rounded corners of 2.2×1.15 m in size was located parallel to the entrance pit. The bottom of the chamber is fixed at a depth of 2.15 m from R0.
The burial was robbed in antiquity. The bones of a woman 20-30 years old 8 were met in the filling. The femur and tibia were found in the eastern part of the chamber, and a skull was lying in the southeast corner of the chamber. Probably, the buried woman laid in an elongated position on her back with her head in the northwest.
Composition and location of the grave goods. The bones of small cattle from sacrificial food and a glass bead (2) laid in the north-western corner of the chamber. Shale pebble was found in the eastern part of the chamber (3). The handmade pot (1) was lying on its side in the southeast corner of the chamber.
Description of the finds. 1. The handmade pot with a projected neck, a body with a maximum enlarging in the middle part and a distinguished tabular bottom. The rim is gently bent, with a rounded slightly thickened edge. The bottom is concave, with a narrowed pan; inside is convex. Clay is with chamotte. Colour is yellow, grayish-yellow, gray; in rupture is black. The surfaces are rough-smoothed, bumpy. The height of the pot is 81-82 mm. Rim height is 19 mm. The height of the lower part is 35-38 mm. Rim diameter is 50 mm. The neck diameter is 45 mm. The diameter of the body is 71 mm, the diameter of the bottom is 46.5x49 mm. The thickness of the rim is 4.5-5.2 mm. The wall thickness is 3.5-4.5 mm, in the bottom part up to 10-11 mm. The bottom thickness in the center is up to 9 mm, at the wall is 8 mm; it is concave to 1 mm (Fig. 3, 3).
2. Glass flattened-spherical bead of white opaque glass. The diameter of the bead is 10 mm, the height is 7.2 mm. The diameter of the hole is 4 mm (Fig. 3, 4).
3. Pebble of grayish-yellow dense shale measuring 63×90×31 mm (Fig. 3, 5). Pit No. 1 was found 5 m south of R0. It was round in the plan. The pit diameter was 1.2 m at the fixation level. Its diameter at the bottom (-1.03 m from R0) was 1.6 m due to the expansion of the walls. Finds weren't found in the pit (Fig. 4, 1, 2). Pit No. 2 was found 3.5 m east of R0. It was round in the plan. The pit diameter was 1.2 m at the fixation level. Its diameter at the bottom (-0.92 m from R0) was 1.5 m due to the expansion of the walls. Finds weren't found in the pit (Fig. 4, 3, 4). Pit No. 3 was found 6.5 m east-southeast of R0. It was round in the plan. The pit diameter was 1.1 m at the fixation level. Its diameter at the bottom (-1.31 m from R0) was 1.56 m due to the expansion of the walls. Finds weren't found in the pit (Fig. 4, 5, 6).
Pit No. 4 was found 4 m east-southeast of R0. It was round in the plan. The pit diameter was 1.4 m at the fixation level. The bottom is cup-shaped in a section. Its diameter at the bottom (-1.17 m from R0) was 1.2 m due to the expansion of the walls. Finds weren't found in the pit (Fig. 4, 6, 7). * * * Materials from the barrow 12 of the «Sluiceway» group near the Glinoe village testify that it was built for the internment of ordinary community members. Funeral constructions are represented by the most common structures; grave goods from the complexes did not stand out from the masses studied earlier in the «Sluiceway» group as well as in neighbouring barrows. At the same time, the data obtained are of considerable importance for the study of the Scythian archaeological culture of the North-West Black Sea region.
In particular, we note that the main burial in the mound was made in the grave in a catacomb (undercut) of type I, and three pits were secondary. A child was buried in one of them, and two another pits (one with inventory) were children's cenotaphs. Until recently, this situation wasn't recorded in the Scythian barrows of the North-West Black Sea region. Catacombs of the type I were sunk many times in the barrows, where the main grave was made in a pit (e.g. Butory I 10/3 9 ) or, less commonly, in the catacomb of another type (e.g. Dubossary 20/2 10 ). There are also known cases where undercuts were only in the barrows (e.g., Semenovka 15/1 11 ) or were constructed simultaneously with the accompanying burials in pits (e.g. Kochkovatoe 48/4 12 ).
The exceptions are only four barrows, where under the mound were both catacombs of the type I and pits. Two of them were investigated in 2017: barrow Glinoe / «Sad» 7 (last quarter of the 4 th century BC) with the main asynchronous burial (of adults) in the undercut and with four secondary graves -one of them made in the catacomb of the type I (children's burial), and three another made in the pits (two children's burials and one children's cenotaph) 13 ; barrow Glinoe / «Garden» 8 (the last quarter of the 4 th century BC) with the main burial of the adult in the catacomb of the type I, and with four secondary graves -three of them made in the undercuts (three children's burials), and one another made in the pit (children's burial) 14 . Two more mounds with the main burials in the undercuts and secondary graves in the pits were studied in 2018 in the «Sluiceway» group, in the immediate vicinity of the published complex. Three pits (graves of the young woman and two children) were sunk into the mound of the third quarter of the 4 th century BC Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 10 (with the main undercut-cenotaph for an adult) 15 . Two pits were sunk into the barrow Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 11 (middle of the 4 th century BC) with the main catacomb of type I, while all three structures contained graves of adults. Currently, since the «Garden» barrow group adjoins the «Sluiceway» group from the south, it must be noted that burials in pits (mainly for children) were sunk into mounds of the Scythian barrows with main burials in catacombs of the type I on the left bank of the Dniester, in the microzone of the Glinoe village, Slobodzeya district. In addition, the combination of the main catacombs of the type I with secondary pits in the Glinoe / «Garden» and Glinoe / «Sluiceway» groups indicates a relatively late (within the 4 th century BC) data of the barrows, which was already noted 16 .
The fact that during the study of the barrow 12 of the Glinoe / «Sluiceway» four round cult pits were discovered also is interesting. Such structures are occasionally found in Scythian mounds of the North Black Sea region. Two round pits, in particular, were found in the barrow of the second half of the 4 th century BC Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 13, where, as noted above, a single children's burial was discovered (13/2), as well as a grave with an adult and a child (13/1). The skeleton of the dog laid in one of the pits 18 . Two empty round pits were find in the barrow of the second quarter of the 4 th century BC Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 14 containing the secondary grave of the child 14/1. However, the most interesting in this regard is the mound 18 of the «Sluiceway» group (the second quarter -the middle of the 5 th century BC). Here the main and only grave was made for child. It was accompanied by three round pits, one of them being empty, the second one containing fragments of a pottery bowl, and the third one containing Chios amphora and a dog's skeleton lying on a green clay 19 . Ritual pits of various forms are known in Scythian barrows with children's graves of a later time, of the 3 rd -2 nd centuries BC, in the barrows 46 and 94 of the cemetery near the Glinoe village on the left bank of the Lower Dniester. However, these complexes do not allow us to state that cult pits were located in Scythian barrows only in connection with children's graves. Their other use has already been noted (for example, for installing cauldrons, for commemorative feast), including in those barrows where were only burials of adults 20 .
Only vessels and adornments were found in the graves of the barrow 12 of the «Sluiceway» group. The vessels are represented by handmade cup (grave 12/2) and pots (graves 12/2 and 12/4), and adornments are represented by the bronze bracelet and a necklace of beads (grave 12/1), as well as a separate bead (grave 12/4).
The handmade cup from the grave 12/1 and the handmade pot from the catacomb 12/4 are the most characteristic forms of Scythian tableware and kitchenware, respectively. The handmade pot from the children's grave 12/2 is unusual not only for its body ornamentation (drawn vertical and slightly sloping lines), which does not find analogies in the Scythian burials of the North-West Black Sea region, but also for the presence of a beak on the rim. Such a beak is known only on a jug from a children's grave Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 10/2 21 . Finds of such vessels in children's graves are not surprising. Apparently, they were used for food dispensing.
Of the adornments, we especially pay attention to a bronze bracelet from the Clay / «Sluiceway» 12/1 children's grave. This item is so tiny (outer diameter is 36 mm, inner diameter is 30 mm) that, if found in a disturbed burial, it could be defined as an earring or pendant without any doubt. However, in our case, this is just a bracelet, since it was found in situ, on the left wrist, and fragments of the radius and ulna were preserved inside it. In addition, the presence of a plate receiver on one of the ends of the bracelet for fixing the other end in it distinguishes this adornment from all similar finds of this kind found ever before in the North Black Sea region. And this bracelet could be considered unique if its only direct analogy were not found in 2018 in the children's grave Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 16/3. In this burial, a bracelet was worn on the child's right wrist. The method of closing the bracelet on the wrist (using a plate receiver at one of the ends of the item, where the second end is placed), copies the method of fastening the fibula needle in its needle receiver. Six such fibulae (of the Thracian type with single spring) were found only in the immediate vicinity of the published barrow: in the burials Glinoe / «Sluiceway» 2/12 22 , 10/2 (2 fibulae) and 10/3 23 , Glinoe / «Garden» 7/5 24 , 8/1 25 . In addition, a Thracian-type fibula was found in burial 8/1 near Krasnoe village, Grigoriopol district, on the left bank of the Lower Dniester 26 . The total date of these burials is determined by the second half of the 4 th -the beginning of the 3 rd century BC.
However, it is absolutely certain in this case, that for the manufacture of bracelets from the Glinoe / «Sluiceway» graves 12/1 and 16/3, «recyclables» (needles and needle receivers of fibulae) were not used. A careful study of both bracelets showed that these were independent items from the beginning. There are no traces of bending the wire, and the diameter of its section exceeds the diameter of the section of the fibulae needles.
At the same time, it is important to underline that the presence of a plate receiver on these bracelets, similar to that located on Thracian fibulae, testifies to their synchronous existence in the second half of the 4 th century BC. This circumstance makes it possible to determine the time of building of the Glinoe / «Sluiceway» barrow 12 and to date all its funerary structures to the second half of the 4 th century BC.
The totality of data obtained in the study of the published barrow not only clarifies the picture of the Scythian presence in the North-West Black Sea region, but also allows to pay attention to a number of elements of the funerary rite and material culture, which were previously recorded extremely rare or not at all in the region. This is a combination of the main undercuts and secondary pits under one mound, the practice of constructing symbolic funerary structures (cenotaphs), the construction of round cult pits under the barrow.
The handmade pot with a beak indicates the manufacture of special dishes intended for dispensing food when feeding children. The find of a miniature bracelet with a plate receiver, apparently, indicates that the material culture of the Scythians of the North-West Black Sea Region, at least from the second half of the 4 th century BC was influenced by the Thracians.