The Scythian Cup is a world-famous gold piece found in the Kul-Oba mound (near Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine) with images of the Scythians (Northern Black Sea region, second half of the fourth century BC).
It was discovered in a woman's grave and is rightfully considered an exceptional find of ancient jewelery art. The relief frieze depicts three paired scenes and the figure of a Scythian warrior pulling a bow. This find was a real discovery: the paintings on the vessel gave us for the first time an idea of what the Scythians looked like.
The goldsmith, probably a Greek, conveyed with impressive ethnographic accuracy the features of the appearance, clothing and armor of the Scythians. Such a realistic reproduction of details leaves no doubt that the artist knew well the life of the local "barbarian" population. The master managed to recreate the original image of the brave lords of the steppes. According to one of the versions, the scenes presented in the cup can serve as an example of Herodotus's story about the origin of the Scythians.
📸 The Hermitage Museum
It was discovered in a woman's grave and is rightfully considered an exceptional find of ancient jewelery art. The relief frieze depicts three paired scenes and the figure of a Scythian warrior pulling a bow. This find was a real discovery: the paintings on the vessel gave us for the first time an idea of what the Scythians looked like.
The goldsmith, probably a Greek, conveyed with impressive ethnographic accuracy the features of the appearance, clothing and armor of the Scythians. Such a realistic reproduction of details leaves no doubt that the artist knew well the life of the local "barbarian" population. The master managed to recreate the original image of the brave lords of the steppes. According to one of the versions, the scenes presented in the cup can serve as an example of Herodotus's story about the origin of the Scythians.
📸 The Hermitage Museum
Roman egg found in Aylesbury still has contents after 1,700 years
The find was made by Oxford Archaeology which has been working on the Berryfields housing and community development site near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire for nine years. Here they found “a middle Iron Age settlement and the agricultural hinterland of the putative nucleated Roman settlement of Fleet Marston”
Among the organic items found were four eggs, thought to be chicken eggs. They were all found intact but as they were being moved, three of them broke, as they were so fragile. The broken eggs emitted a very powerful and unpleasant smell, this was not a surprise as they were centuries old, after all.
One of the eggs was extracted intact from the muddy ground, after some painstaking work. This was astonishing as only fragments of eggshells had been found, previously in Britain, mainly from Roman-era graves.
The find was made by Oxford Archaeology which has been working on the Berryfields housing and community development site near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire for nine years. Here they found “a middle Iron Age settlement and the agricultural hinterland of the putative nucleated Roman settlement of Fleet Marston”
Among the organic items found were four eggs, thought to be chicken eggs. They were all found intact but as they were being moved, three of them broke, as they were so fragile. The broken eggs emitted a very powerful and unpleasant smell, this was not a surprise as they were centuries old, after all.
One of the eggs was extracted intact from the muddy ground, after some painstaking work. This was astonishing as only fragments of eggshells had been found, previously in Britain, mainly from Roman-era graves.
18th century wooden church surrounded by pine trees.
📸 Kućani village, Serbia
📸 Kućani village, Serbia
“Minerva Bearing the Knowledge of Humanity” by Elihu Vedder.
📸 Washington Library of Congress
📸 Washington Library of Congress