Mamai-Hora or Mount Mamai is the largest multicomplex burial mound of national importance in the Northern Black Sea region. It is located on the left bank of the Kakhovka Reservoir near the village of Velyka Znamianka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The plan of the burial ground was first drawn by B. N. Grakovs’s expedition in 1946–1947. The first burials go back to the Neolithic period. There are burials of Bronze Age, Pit-Grave, Catacomb, and other Cultures.
The earliest Scythian burials date to the end of the VII-VI centuries BC. The rest of the complexes come from the period of the 5th–4th centuries BC. The total number of burials from this period is 370 Scythian burials. According to the study of O. Fialko, Scythian Amazons were buried in many of them.
In 2019, an early grave of a Scythian warrior buried with a golden sword was unearthed in the Mount Mamai complex. Exploring a small tumulus, archaeologists discovered a trench with animal bones and fragments of clay amphorae which are characteristic Scythian funerary offerings. They then unearthed two graves within the mound: a large central one and a smaller one on the periphery. The central burial had been looted in antiquity and only one arrowhead and some bone fragments were recovered in it. The skeleton remains suggested that the occupant of the central grave was an elderly male.
The accompanying grave contained a rare large grey clay amphorae, fittings from a horse’s bridle, an iron battle axe, bronze and bone arrows and the star of the funerary show: an akinakes (a Scythian dagger or short sword) with a gold plated scabbard, a grip with a leaf motif and a cross-guard with granulation details. The skeletal remains were of a young man about 18-20 years old. The scholars believe that it is quite possible that this 18-20-year-old warrior could have been escorting a prominent leader into the afterlife.
The Sword found with this young warrior is very similar to the Sword from the Vetterfelde Treasure >
Scythian Amazons burials in Ukraine >
‘Gardariki, Ukraine‘ ebook takes a closer look at curious burial rituals of Kyiv Rus
