Barbarian archaeology

R.M. Reida, A.V. Heiko, S.V. Sapiehin
BURIAL WITH
«
CHARON’S OBOL» FROM SHYSHAKY CEMETERY OF CHERNYAKHIVSKA CULTUREPublished is the burial 39 from Shyshaky burial ground of Chernyakhivska culture (Poltava Oblast). Buried was a 25—30-year-old woman put in a grave along the east-west line, extended and with her head to the west. Western part of the grave is destroyed by a trench for the pipe leading to sewage treatment structures.The buried was accompanied by a glass transparent cup with profiled bottom and grinded ovals on the body (two rows of  big ovals placed vertically on the cup and two rows of small ovals placed horizontally). The direct analogy for the cup is an example from Setvedt burial ground on the territory of Norway. This example is dated by E. Straume back to the stage D 2 according to Scandinavian chronology. I.O. Gavritukhin refers their usage to the 5
th
c. On the authors’ opinion, the date of the cup from the burial 39 can be narrowed to the first half of the 5
th
c. A coin was situated under the bottom of the cup. It was a denarius of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius to which a small cloth  was adhered preserved owing to oxidizing process on the coin. The coin and the cup were put into the right hand of the buried. The authors consider such location to be not occasional and apparently corresponding to the notions about the journey to the world of the dead. A coin put into the hand can be preliminary interpreted as a Charon’s obol and the glass cup as a sign marking the participation of the dead in the feast in the other world.Both coins, and glass cups are found in the Late Roman burials at both Barbarian and Ancient Greek sites, though direct analogies of the recorded element of the burial rite in the grave 39 of Shyshaky burial ground is not known yet. Such combination in one burial is unique for Chernyakhivska culture to which Shyshaky burial ground belonged, and this fact complicates interpretation.Uniqueness of the burial 39, as well as the late as for Chernyakhivska culture date of the 5
th
c. Setvedt series (Luhy type) glass cup usage enlarges the number of Chernyakhivska culture sites on the territory of the Dnipro River left bank forest-steppe area which belong to the period after the Huns arrival. Discovering the new sites can indicate that invasion of the Huns could have no catastrophic consequences for forest-steppe population on the left bank of the Dnipro River represented by Chernyakhivska culture, which existed after this event for a certain time.

Der Tiipferofen aus der iernjachov-Siedlung Starye SanZary
Im Jahre 1999 wurden aufder Cernjachov-Siedlung Starye SanZary Rajon
NovosanZarsk, Gebiet Poltava, ein Tdpferofen und die dazugehdrige Arbeitsgrube
freigelegt. Der Ofen hatte die Form eines Kegelstumpfes und bestand aus zwei
Kammern - der oberen flir das Brennen des Geschirrs und der unteren fiir den
Brennstoff.
Wiihrend der Ausgrabungen kamen Fragmente scheibengedrehter und handgeformter
Keramik zuTage.Im Brennofen selbst lagen nur einige Schiisselfragmente,
die zuftillig dorthin gelangl sind. Das deutet darauf hin, dass der Ofen nicht
infolge einer Zerstdrung aufgegeben, sondern mit Wirtschaftsabfall zugeschiittet
wurde.
Es wurden keine genauen chronologischen Indikatoren gefunden, deswegen
wird der Ofen allgemein in das 4. Jh. datiert.

The article contains information about materials of archaeological excavation on the burial ground of Chernyakhiv culture. The materials can be dated to the 2nd half of the 4th - first half of the 5th centuries AD. Discovering the new materials can indicate that invasion of the Huns could have no catastrophic consequences for ForestSteppe population on the Left Bank of the Dnipro river represented by Chernyakhiv culture, which existed after this event for a certain time.