Guardian of the Steppe

Materials: Wood

Dimensions: 10 cm

The statue reproduces the image of a Scythian warrior. It is made of a slab of limestone. In the upper part, there is a massive rounded head with round eyes, a straight nose and a neat mustache and beard in relief. The arms are bent, and the warrior holds a drinking horn in his right hand. The neck is decorated with a massive hryvnia. A short akinak sword is suspended from a wide combat belt in front, an axe is on the right, and a torch with a bowl in the shape of a cut cone is on the left. Between his legs is a massive phallus.

The statue comes from a Scythian mound excavated in 1975 by the Ingul expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (headed by Olympiada Shaposhnikova) near the village of Novovasylivka, Bashtanka district, Mykolaiv region. A Scythian warrior was buried under an almost 2-meter-high mound. He was laid on a spread out shell made of iron and bronze plates, with his weapons - a sword, a torch, spears, and parting food - nearby.