Some Remarks on the Scythian and Sarmatian Religion, Symbols etc. (Sergei V. Rjabchikov Krasnodar, Russia)
Some Remarks on the Scythian and Sarmatian Religion
Sergei V. Rjabchikov
Krasnodar, Russia
<srjabchikov@hotmail.com>
Copyright � Sergei V. Rjabchikov, 2002. All rights reserved.
Published 18 April 2002 Last posted 02 January, 2005
Here I investigate several Scythian/Sarmatian artifacts and religious inscriptions. Besides, parallels from the Slavonic world are offered.
- A Scythian wooden sarcophagus was discovered in a stone sepulchre of a barrow called �Three Brothers� near ancient Panticapeum, the capital of the Kingdom of the Bosporus (Kerch, the Crimea, Ukraine) (Bessonova 1971). It was dated to the second half of the 4th century B.C. A Scythian skilled workman used Greek letters as marks on the sarcophagus (Bessonova 1971: 218, figure 5). But three marks are not the Greek letters, see figure 1.
FIGURE 1
The first sign corresponds to the early Slavonic letter zh (Rjabchikov 1998a: 23, table 1; 1998b: 5-6, table 1). The same sign is presented in a Scythian/Sarmatian record on a Greek vessel of the 4th century B.C that was discovered at the village Starotitarovskaya, the Taman� peninsula (the Krasnodar region, Russia) (Rjabchikov 2000a). The second sign represents four lines and denotes �four�. A kindred sign � three lines � denotes �three� in the Starotitarovskaya inscription. The third sign corresponds to Scythian/Sarmatian signs 09 se inscribed in particular on two weights of spinning-wheels from the Kingdom of the Bosporus that are exhibited in the Taman� Archaeological Museum (the village Taman�, the Krasnodar region, Russia) (1). So one can suppose that the Scythians and Sarmatians used not only the syllabic script based on Linear A (B) (Rjabchikov 2000b), but also the letters of the Greek alphabet as well as some syllables and determinatives. Two marks of the Scythian coffin are combinations of letters TA and TM. It is possible that they are the Scythian/Sarmatian words ta, tama meaning �the sun; fire� and �darkness� respectively (Rjabchikov 2001a). In my opinion, these words are related to the Scythian religious beliefs.
- A bronze artifact was discovered on the Taman� peninsula and is exhibited in the Taman� Archaeological Museum, see figure 2.
