Abstract
This study introduces into scholarly circulation materials from an undisturbed elite Early Sarmatian burial in kurgan 3 of the Chebotarevo IV kurgan cemetery on the right bank of the Ural River. The accompanying inventory includes an iron sword with a gold-embellished hilt and cross guard, two iron akinakes daggers, a standing vessel, two quivers, bronze arrowheads, a mirror, a gold chain, an iron belt hook, and a gold-plated quiver clasp. Some of the accompanying inventory and its placement in the burial’s ritual arrangement show certain correspondences with the iconography of Baite-type stone steles and the metal figurines from the Sapogovsky hoard. Unique features include the crescent-shaped construction of the sword pommel, the distinctive zoomorphic design of the belt hook and quiver clasp, and the filigree decoration on the crossguard, interpreted as a “keraunos” (thunderbolt). The burial materials point to southern and Central Asian connections for the core complex of status-related items from kurgan 3. The gold chain and plaques are of ancient Greek origin. The set of items characteristic of sites with ceremonial gold weapons, studied in the Orenburg region and Bashkiria, is dated to the last quarter of the 2nd century BCE to the beginning of the 1st century BCE. This dating could be extended, considering the traditionally broader chronological range of crescent-pommel swords, as well as swords and scabbards with gold plating and decorations. The gold chain is dated to the last third of the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE and has a long history of use before its inclusion in the burial inventory. The early Sarmatian burial in kurgan 3 of the Chebotarevo IV kurgan cemetery expands the area of ceremonial weapon burials to the Kazakh right bank of the Ural River, making it the westernmost example of its kind. It may have belonged to a member of a chiefdom that exercised political control over this region from the last quarter of the 2nd century BCE to the beginning of the 1st century BCE.