Thousands of monuments of Scythian era could be in Russian-occupied territories – archaeologist
The Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories has endangered the existence of thousands of Scythian era monuments.
Source: Oksana Lifantii, archaeologist, museologist and specialist in Scythian culture, in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda
Quote: "The largest number of Scythian mounds (especially from late V-IV centuries BC) are concentrated in the Dnipro region. These are the territories of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts. These are thousands of monuments.
It is clear that not every burial contains gold, but every burial is a story of a certain person. And when such burials are investigated, we can recreate what profession this person was, what they did, even their appearance, DNA.
If this burial is, say, blown up, or a bomb is dropped on it, then we will lose this information."
Background:
- In April 2022, the Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration reported receiving information that the Russian military seized the Melitopol City Local History Museum, and "collaborators showed the Russians the place of storage of the Scythian gold discovered by archaeologists in the 50s of the last century".
- In October 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy stated that they do not know where the Scythian gold from the local history museum of Melitopol, which is currently occupied by Russian troops, may currently be.
- In April 2022, the Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration reported that the Russian military was mining the territory near the Kamiana Mohyla ("Stone Tomb") – a unique geological and archaeological monument of world importance, located near Melitopol, Zaporizhia Oblast.
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