Barry Cunlife - The Scythians

10 The Chertomlÿk amphora
gallery of objects
(State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg)
Found in the north-west chamber of the burial beneath the kurgan of Chertomlÿk,
north-west of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovs’ka Oblast. Excavated in 1862–3 by I. E. Zabelin.
Fourth century bc.
A silver wine amphora, 700 mm high, with a maximum diameter of 390 mm.
The mouth is fitted with a strainer to catch detritus as the wine is poured in. There
are three openings at the bottom, also fitted with strainers, through which the wine
could be allowed to flow into drinking vessels. One is shaped like a horse’s head, the
other two as a lion’s. Each was stopped by a bung attached by a chain.
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