A large Scythian Royal Kurgan of the 4th century BC situated near Pokrova in the Dnipro oblast of Ukraine was excavated in 1971 by a group of archaeologists headed by Borys Mozolevsky. Although the central burial turned out to have been looted in ancient times, the looters did not reach the side burials. In the side tomb, the researchers found an untouched burial of a Scythian woman lying in a ritual dress embroidered with gold; next to her was a child in a sarcophagus. June 21, 1971, became the date when one of the most spectacular objects of Scythian art was discovered. Borys Mozolevsky described it in his diary: “At the end of the dromos (…) we found a large round gold object, which turned out to be a pectoral. It happened at 2.30 P.M.… Everyone immediately whooped with joy and started kissing.” The round gold object was the now world-famous Scythian Gold Pectoral. It is 30.6 cm in diameter and weighs more than one kilogram of pure gold. Although at first sight, the Pectoral appears to represent scenes of Scythian daily life and animal motifs, some scholars see Scythian World Tree in it. More on the interpretations of the scenes can be found in the “Royal Scythia, Greece, Kyiv Rus” book.
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