Catalogue - Metropolitan Museum of Art

168
This bowl is decorated by a relief plaque
showing a griffin felling a horse near a tree
trunk. Although the shape of the bowl
is thoroughly Greek, the decoration caters
to local taste, and the animal group is in
keeping with the Scythian repertory.
Large bowl on a ring base. Bronze, height
12.5 cm. (47/s in.), diameter 44.5 cm.
(171 in.), capacity 12.5 liters.
4th century B.C. Cherkassy district,
Peschanoye village. Kiev Historical Museum,
B 41-439.
Ganina, Antichni bronzi z Pishanogo,
figs. 3, 26, 27, p. 91.
169
Bridle ornaments: chanfron decorated with
the figure of a lion, 2 pendelocks, 6
hemispherical plaques, and 2 cheekpieces.
Gold.
4th century B.C. Dnepropetrovsk district,
Tolstaya Mogila kurgan. Kiev Historical
Museum, AZ 2520-29.
170 (Color plate 30)
This scabbard, like the one from
Chertomlyk (no. 68), combines a Scythian
shape and decoration devised by a Greek.
The part near the hilt is decorated with
two confronted cocks, the "flap" with a
splendid horned lion-griffin. The sheath
portrays animal combat: an eagle-griffin
has brought down a stag; a lion and griffin
attack a wild horse; a panther pursues a
stag; and a panther confronts a lion.
Scabbard decorated with fighting animals
and mythological creatures. Gold, length
64.5 cm. (25%/ in.), width 18.6 cm. (75%6
in.), weight 73.25 gr.
4th century B.C. Dnepropetrovsk district,
near the town of Ordzhonikidze, Tolstaya
Mogila kurgan. Kiev Historical Museum,
AZS 2493.
168
171 (Cover, color plates 31-33)
Of all the superb works in gold that have
been found in South Russia, this great
pectoral is easily the most splendid. The
artist has contrasted scenes from the home
life of the Scythians with the wildness
outside the encampments. In the upper
register, calves and foals are suckling; two
Scythians sew a shirt cut out of an animal
skin; a third milks a ewe; and a fourth,
shown in daring three-quarter frontal
view, closes an amphora. This scene is
framed by a kid, a goat, and a bird on
each side, and also includes a pig. The
center of the lower band is given over to
three pairs of griffins attacking horses.
These groups are flanked by lions and
panthers attacking a deer on the left and a
boar on the right. In the tapering ends of
this zone, hounds course hares and
grasshoppers confront each other. The
middle zone is richly decorated with floral
ornaments, on which four birds perch.
The 48 figures were individually cast and
soldered onto the frame.
Pectoral with scenes of Scythians tending
their livestock, animals struggling with
mythological creatures, and floral ornament.
Gold, diameter 30.6 cm. (12 in.), weight
1150 gr.
Greek workmanship, executed for the
Scythians, 4th century B.C. Dnepropetrovsk
district, near the town of Ordzhonikidze,
Tolstaya Mogila kurgan. Kiev Historical
Museum, AZS 2494.
B. N. Mozolevskii, "Kurgan Tolstaya Mogila
bliz g. Ordzhonikidze na Ukraine," SA
(1972), no. 3, pp. 268-308; Renate Rolle,
"Die Ausgrabung des skythischen
Fiirstengrabes 'Tolstaja mogila' bei
Ordzonikidze," Antike Welt 4 (1973), pp.
48-52.
I