Solokha Kurgan

The 1912 excavation of Solokha Kurgan in Ukraine yielded spectacular Scythian gold objects, most famously a gold comb depicting three warriors in combat that is now in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The comb, measuring roughly 12 centimeters tall, is considered one of the masterpieces of Scythian metalwork. The burial also contained a gold-covered iron sword scabbard and other elite grave goods.

Solokha Kurgan is located in southern Ukraine, in the steppe region along the Dnieper River that formed the heartland of ancient Scythian territory. The area contains numerous burial mounds of Scythian nobility. The mound itself rose from the flat steppe landscape as a prominent monument to the individual buried within.

The burial dates to approximately the late 5th or early 4th century BC, during the height of Scythian power on the Pontic steppe. It is classified as a royal burial, indicating that the individual interred was of the highest social rank. The richness of the grave goods supports this interpretation.

The mound was excavated in 1912, during the final decades of the Russian Empire's large-scale archaeological campaigns in the Ukrainian steppe. Remarkably, the burial was found largely intact, unlike many Scythian kurgans that had been looted in antiquity. The discoveries from Solokha helped establish the modern understanding of Scythian art and royal burial practices.