A burial of a participant in the “Cimmerian” campaigns was found in Adygea

Traces of a healed fracture were preserved on his skull; the man was buried with a “status” axe-scepter and a horse.

While exploring the Azishsky-98 mound in the foothills of Adygea, archaeologists discovered a burial in which an elderly man was buried with traces of a healed fracture on the skull, a “status” weapon and a horse. It dates back to the end of the 8th century BC. – the time of the Cimmerians’ campaigns in Transcaucasia and Western Asia. The discovery is reported in an article by a group of researchers, which is published in the new issue of the collection “Antiquities of Kuban”.

The burial was discovered under a later mound of Scythian times – it covered a small stone mound of Pre-Scythian (“Cimmerian”) times. The deceased was laid on his back in a shallow hole, his arms were bent at the elbows and pressed to his chest. In general, the bones were poorly preserved, but from them it was possible to establish gender and age – the buried person was a man over 55 years old. By the standards of anthropology (and even of that time), he can be called elderly. On the left parietal bone there was a trace of a depressed fracture (diameter about 2.5 cm). The fracture has healed, there are no traces of the inflammatory process; this suggests that the man was injured long before his death.

Also found in the grave was a bronze axe-scepter, an iron spearhead, a bridle set, a bronze fibula, a whetstone, a flint plate, and two molded pots. At the eastern edge of the grave lay the remains of a horse; its carcass was divided into two parts during burial. Judging by the marks on the teeth, the horse was a riding or draft horse.

Among the finds, perhaps the most interesting is the axe-scepter – it has a mushroom-shaped head and a blade rounded at the bottom, like the beak of a bird of prey. The hole is decorated with compositions of spiral signs. All analogies to this “bird-headed” ax come from the territory of the North Caucasus; it is believed that in the communities of that time it was not only a melee weapon, but also a status item, perhaps an attribute of a military leader.

Elements of horse harness from the “Azish” burial have analogies among finds from the monuments of the “classical” Novocherkassk period. Monuments of this type, as many authors believe, can be correlated with participants in the “Cimmerian campaigns”, known from written sources. One of the pots (with mastoid moldings) finds pre-Scythian and early Scythian parallels.

The fibula is very curious – it has a “Colchisian” appearance, that is, it came to a buried warrior from Transcaucasia. This clasp could be “trophy” – the dating of the burial is close to 715-714 BC, when, according to written sources, the Cimmerians first invaded Transcaucasia – they defeated the Urartian king and invaded the territory of this state. It is noteworthy that the burial itself is located on the Azish-tau ridge, which is located on the way to the passes leading to Transcaucasia.

In the 7th century BC The Cimmerians made many campaigns in Western Asia, fought with Assyria, Phrygia, Lydia, and attacked the Greek cities of the Aegean coast. Only at the end of the century were they defeated in Asia Minor – first by the Scythians, and then by the Lydians, after which the campaigns stopped. The Cimmerians appear in Akkadian written sources (contemporary with the raids), in ancient ones (in particular, in Herodotus and later), and are mentioned twice in the Bible.

It is quite difficult to correlate the Cimmerians with archaeological evidence – both because of the complexity of ethnocultural processes and because of the difficulties of interpreting the material traces that the nomads leave (they are preserved mainly in burials, there are not very many of them). According to one version, the “Cimmerians” of written sources should be correlated with the bearers of the Early Scythian culture, according to another – with earlier monuments of the Novocherkassk type. However, the latter are characterized by certain innovations in weapons and horse equipment, which nomads could borrow during campaigns in Transcaucasia or Western Asia (bronze scaled armor and helmets of the “Assyrian type”, some bridle sets and parts of chariot harnesses).