Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

the rise of the pontic steppe scythians
were provided with access ramps leading down to the grave chamber. In the latter,
horses and the funerary vehicle they had drawn were laid out on the ramp. In
Zhurovka it was only the horses.
In the fourth century bc a new style of construction was adopted for royal burials.
This involved digging a vertical shaft with a short corridor opening from the bottom
that led to one or more cave-like chambers. This catacomb-style of burial seems
to have been introduced with the influx of a new elite from the Sauromatian region
beginning in the fifth century (pp. 299–300). It quickly became the preferred mode of
burial adopted by about 65 per cent of all Scythian burials of the period, including all
the aristocratic and royal tombs.
The great kurgan of Chertomlÿk covered an elaborate burial of this kind. The
entrance shaft, 11 m deep and widening towards its base, gave access to four chambers
leading directly from it. The north-western chamber led to a larger sub-rectangular
chamber with three niches opening out of its walls. This chamber had later been
accessed by a tunnel dug by grave robbers, but a roof collapse put an end to their
activities before they could reach the other chambers. It may well have been in this
rectangular chamber that the royal burial had been placed. The king was accompanied
by his entourage dispersed in the other chambers: a richly adorned woman, his
queen or concubine; his cup-bearer laid close to the amphorae of wine lined up and
arranged along the chamber wall together with a magnificent silver gilt vessel for
mixing wine; two warriors of high rank; and one of lower status with a spear. To the
west of the main burial complex were three separate grave pits roofed with logs, two
containing four horses and one containing three. Two grooms were buried in separate
graves nearby.
The kurgan of Tolstaya mogila at Ordžonikidze, excavated in 1971, shows variations
on the catacomb type. Here there were two graves beneath the mound, a central
grave and a side grave: each was reached by a deep, vertical entrance shaft. The
central grave consisted of the access shaft out of which opened three tunnels, each
leading to a catacomb. The burials had been robbed in antiquity by a gang digging
a tunnel from the side of the mound to the main burial. The accuracy of the operation
suggests that the perpetrators had a detailed knowledge of the position and
depth of the burial. They may, indeed, have been present at the time of the interment
and returned as soon as it was safe to do so. The side grave was undisturbed. From
the bottom of the central shaft a series of catacombs opened out. Five burials were
found, the principal internee being a richly equipped young woman with a two-yearold
infant. Nearby was a young man provided with his bow and arrows, interpreted
by the excavators as a protector or guard. At their feet was a young woman, probably
a servant, while towards the entrance of the chamber was the spoke-wheeled wagon
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